Volume 12 | Issue 12

4 Big Ideas from the Election

Steve Whitaker, headmaster at First Academy in Orlando, did an awesome job summarizing the four big issues resulting from this year’s election.

Gay Marriage Wins
Wall Street Journal said, “Americans approved gay marriage for the first time at the ballot box.” Maine and Maryland led the way and it looks like, with votes still being counted, the state of Washington will follow. Voters under age thirty are carrying the day for this issue. The next generation will redefine marriage, resoundingly support abortion and fundamentally reject the Biblical mandate of family. We must be more vigilant than ever in teaching our children the Truth – “Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 11:19

Biblical Values Unimportant
There has been a slow erosion of voters who identify themselves as making decision based on Biblical values during the last twenty years. In the exit polling from Tuesday, I believe we will learn that one’s faith had less to do with how they voted than at any point in American history. Those who elect future presidents and legislators will increasingly view life from a post-Christian European perspective. Several years ago, I read the book Souls in Transition in which the author researched the religious and spiritual lives of emerging adults. The findings defined the prevailing mainstream belief system of this generation to be “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” – a faith in a distant moralistic deity who expects his human creatures to behave, to feel good about themselves, and live their lives without much divine interference. The 2012 Election underscores these findings. Hundreds of thousands of “Christians” cast ballots in favor of same-sex marriage and abortion, thereby defining Biblical values as unimportant to them.

Economics Redefined
One of the principles that fueled prosperity in America across that last two centuries is that of “the greater good.” It was what caused our grandfathers to give their lives to advance democracy around the globe. It was what prompted JFK to assert, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” It has been one of the corner stones upon which our economic superiority has rested. The electorate of 2012 appears to believe that a strong economy is one in which social programs and redistribution of wealth serves our nation best. However, as one person wisely stated, “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

Heaven Looks Sweeter
Philippians 3:21 says, “But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re awaiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.” Someone once said, “To be in love with heaven we must be weaned from earth; it is then that we long with intense eagerness to find refuge in our eternal home.”

copyright, Steve D. Whitaker, Ph.D.
Head of School, The First Academy, Orlando,