I did not vote for the first three decades of my life. My citizenship in the Soviet Union made my vote meaningless. Eventually I moved to the United States as the wife of a U.S. citizen. After a couple of years as a green card holder, I was eligible to apply for a citizenship; I didn’t. The green card gave me every privilege of a citizen except the right to vote, and I still did not believe in the political process. I gave my taxes to the “Caesar” but my allegiance I pledged to God alone.I became a US citizen a few months prior to the George W. Bush’s second term. By this time I realized that, though no political candidate is perfect and every political or economic system carries a seed of Babylon , the system where my voice matters deserves more than just my taxes. I have the responsibility to protect it.

In 2020 the number, complexity, and extremity of issues that divides us is greater than it has ever been. But the desire to live in a country where your voice matters is within every heart. We may argue over which lives matter more, but nobody wants to live in a country where no lives matter.

John Piper, whom I greatly respect, wrote that he will not vote for Joe Biden because his candidacy legalizes abortion and other practices that he as a Christian cannot endorse, but he will also not vote for Donald Trump because his boastful, arrogant, unrepentant personality destroys our culture.I would like to point out that on a voter’s decision making scale the weight of laws that alter the future of our nation and a personality of a leader cannot balance each other out.

G. K. Chesterton in observation of the Communist Revolution in Russian in 1917 wrote: “Once abolish the God, and the Government becomes the God. ” From my past experience I can tell you that Government God doesn’t love or care about you and its gifts come attached with strings that turn you into a voiceless puppet.

Chesterton defines democracy as “the crowd ruling itself, like a king.” He argues that democracy is only possible among a people who believe in God. This statement echoes John Adams who said that our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. 

What we do after November 3rd is actually even more important than how we vote or don’t vote. It is not the candidate in office who determines the future of our country but us. How we love God and how we love our neighbor will outweigh the negative consequences of an election, even if the candidate of your choice doesn’t win.

What truly matters when we decide what to do on November 3 is that our vote protects the system where our vote matters and government is not our God. Then we should be alright.