In this episode of the Denison Forum Podcast, Dr. Mark Turman engages in a clarifying conversation with Chris Sadler, acting CEO of My Faith Votes. They discuss the importance of Christian participation in the democratic process, the origins of My Faith Votes, and the barriers that prevent many Christians from voting. Chris shares his personal faith journey and emphasizes the need for Christians to be informed and engaged in political matters.
The conversation also touches on the spiritual implications of voting and the responsibility of Christians to protect their freedoms. Chris outlines the fivefold approach of My Faith Votes and encourages listeners to pray and act in their communities.
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Topics
- (02:58): Understanding Democratic Participation
- (06:10): Chris Sadler’s Faith Journey
- (08:51): The Origins of My Faith Votes
- (11:53): Barriers to Christian Voting
- (14:53): The Importance of Engagement
- (18:05): Voting Dilemmas and Spiritual Perspectives
- (20:52): The Role of Citizens in Democracy
- (23:55): My Faith Votes’ Fivefold Approach
- (27:00): Equipping Christians to Pray
Resources
- Episode Transcript (PDF)
- MyFaithVotes.org
- Think Biblically Series
- How to vote for imperfect political parties: A conversation with Jason Yates
- What does the Bible say about politics?
- Discern politics differently: Election 2024 content
- Respectfully, I Disagree Audiobook
About Chris Sadler
Chris Sadler is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 40 years of experience in building and expanding companies in the US service and manufacturing sectors worldwide. His expertise spans education, real estate, oil and gas, technology innovation, healthcare, and private equity mergers and acquisitions. Chris is a sought-after speaker for college students and a mentor to emerging Christian entrepreneurs.
His dedication to integrating faith and business led to his invitation to join the Board of Directors for My Faith Votes in 2017. After years of serving in this capacity, Chris now also serves as Acting CEO of My Faith Votes. He also is a drummer and an ordained deacon at his home church. In addition to his role at My Faith Votes, he serves on the Board for the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD). Chris is the proud father of two children and three grandchildren. He lives in Waco, Texas, with his wife, Susan.
About My Faith Votes
My Faith Votes is a non-partisan movement that motivates, equips and activates Christians in America to vote in every election, transforming our communities and influencing our nation with biblical truth. We desire to see an America where God is honored in the public square and biblical truth is advanced in our culture. We exist because a battle is raging for the heart of this nation. It’s a battle over truth—and how you and I will live out our faith in the public square.
My Faith Votes calls Christians to “Pray, Think and Vote” in order to protect four core pillars of faith which are religious freedom, the sanctity of life, strong families and marriages, and compassion and support for those in need. We reach Christians to stand boldly for these values in every election and in every community and city across our nation.
About Dr. Mark Turman
Dr. Mark Turman is the Executive Director of Denison Forum and Vice President of Denison Ministries. Among his many duties, Turman is most notably the host of The Denison Forum Podcast. He is also the chief strategist for DF Pastors, which equips pastors and church leaders to understand and transform today’s culture.
About Denison Forum
Denison Forum exists to thoughtfully engage the issues of the day from a biblical perspective through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, The Denison Forum Podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.
Episode Transcript
NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been fully edited.
Mark Turman (00:02.252)
This is the Denison forum podcast. I’m Mark Turman, your host for today’s conversation and also the executive director of Denison forum. We’re here to have another conversation, what we call a clarifying conversation built around biblical truth that will help you to think about the concerns of today and hopefully clear away some of the confusion so that you can be the salt and light that God wants you to be in all the places and conversations where you may get to go and engage.
We’re going to talk today a little bit about what it means to participate in our democratic system. We’re fortunate as Americans to be a free people, constitutional republic, and we have enormous opportunities that many Christians around the world today and throughout history have not enjoyed. And those are freedoms and opportunities that we do not need to take for granted. so
We’re going to get into that today with my guest, is Chris Sadler. Chris is the acting CEO of a ministry called My Faith Votes. Let me tell you a little bit about Chris. he is an entrepreneur with more than 40 years of experience in building and expanding companies in the service and manufacturing sectors in the U S but also around the world. His expertise has touched education, real estate, oil and gas technology, healthcare and private equity mergers and acquisitions, which is a mouthful to say, the way, Chris, Chris is a sought after speaker, with college students and also a mentor for emerging Christian entrepreneurs. His dedication to integrating both faith and business together led to his invitation to join the board of directors for my faith votes back in 2017. After serving as a board member for a number of years with this ministry, he was asked to become acting CEO, just recently. He’s also, you, you would want everybody to know, Chris, he is a drummer, in the ministry at his church, in Waco where he lives. He’s also an ordained Deacon in his church. he and his wife are the proud parents of two adult children. And I know the apple of his eye, three great grandchildren, not great grandchildren, but three wonderful grandchildren. make their home in Waco.
Chris Sadler (02:24.632)
Ha
Mark Turman (02:26.451)
And, we are privileged to have him with us. Chris, would you like to say hello today?
Chris Sadler (02:30.882)
Hello, yes, thank you so much, Mark, for having me and did not know you were gonna read it off that whole bio on me, but thank you for that. Like you said, it’s a mouthful. God has been amazing and has blessed me and my family in so many different ways and allowed me to be entrepreneurial. And not only have I been able to use that for business purposes, but for ministry purposes as well. So thank you for having me on board.
Mark Turman (02:58.136)
Well, Chris, one of the things we like to do is just to kind of help people connect to our guests. So tell us a little bit of your faith story. you were telling me before we started recording that you grew up in the Dallas area, but give us a little bit of the story about, your journey of faith and, what brought you into ministries like my faith votes.
Chris Sadler (03:18.988)
Absolutely. Grew up in Dallas, as you said. Grew up in a Christian home, both my mother and my father, both from Oklahoma, actually. I moved down to Dallas after they were early married. And so I grew up in a family of Christian values and principles and character and integrity, very involved in our church. And we weren’t just Sunday Christians. We were there when the doors were open.
More importantly than that, have had a father who’s passed, my mother’s still living, but both of them just really instilled in myself and in my other sibling, brother, Christianity and the importance of that in our lives and the difference that that makes. And so at a young age, I think about 11 years old, I actually became a believer. And as everyone, you know what you know at the age you are and
And as I’ve grown and become older, I’ve also grown as a Christian as well. And I hope that I’m not still drinking the milk. I hope I’m eating the meat and doing the best I can. So I grew up there in Dallas and then moved to Waco to go to Bell University and did all, didn’t got my degree there, excuse me. I met my wife from there who also came from a Christian family. And so we’ve been fortunate to have our children become believers and now as you mentioned have grandkids and they’re heavily involved in church as well. So I’ve been a fortunate I was very very fortunate to have that type of family experience and those values. Now to your point why I began to get involved in ministries and have been like this for years is because early on I learned the importance of what Christ means to us and what Christ is not only in our lives today, but eternally. And really have a hunger in my heart that that is shared with others. And, you know, specifically, I could tell you a lot of different things, but specifically to my faith votes, the reason I was really drawn to that is that I’ve learned that a lot of Christians aren’t voting. I think they think their voice doesn’t matter. And so I’m very passionate about Christians being informed and realizing, yes, their voice does matter and that we just need to stand up and get involved and vote. that’s a quick overview of kind of my background from a standpoint of my Christian walk. you know, the other thing I would add, you mentioned about me being able to do business globally. I think one of the most amazing things, and I’m sure some of you have experienced this,
Anywhere in the world when you actually run into a Christian brother or sister, it is amazing how you all of a sudden feel like family. And it’s just an experience you can’t explain in words. And so when I know that that sentiment is out there and that connectedness, that family is there, it’s all the more the reason why I believe My Faith Votes is a critical component to speaking to the family of God, the family of Christ and getting us to get engaged.
Mark Turman (06:41.164)
Yeah, no, think I’d echo that. Absolutely. You know, I got to spend some time even last night with some, some folks that are from Cuba and just that shared faith and being able to connect and also kind of really kind of sets a stage for our conversation because, talking to these folks, you know, a couple of people, one of the folks down in Cuba that we know and work with has dedicated his life to trying to share the gospel with the entire, island of Cuba. And,
They don’t know anything of the kind of opportunity to participate in their government. The way we do, they live under oppression. we were visiting last night, how they were sharing that, only, the most wealthy small percentage of people in Cuba have any sense of security right now. Almost everybody else in the country is living with food insecurity, to the point where every day they just don’t know if they will have enough food to make it through the day or through the next couple of days.
And it’s a real picture of the difference, just, 90 miles off of our coast, how different life can be, from one form of government in one form of life to that, which we experience here in our country and something that we need to, to realize and take with a great deal of gratitude that we get to participate the way we do. Chris, talk about the origins a little bit of, My Faith Votes. Where did this come from? What was, what was the need that, that was seen and, that triggered the creation of my faith hope or my faith votes. Where did this come from?
Chris Sadler (08:21.998)
So back in 2015, a gentleman by the name of Sealy Yates, and he’s the chairman of our board. Sealy, just so you’ll know, he’s a literature and publishing agent and attorney for a lot of the Christian authors that we all know. And he became aware, was doing a book with Ben Carson, and became aware of how many Christians don’t vote. And God just put it on his heart
We got to do something about this. mean, 25 million Christians sitting on the sidelines, one out of three Christians not voting. And so he felt strongly that we, organization needed to begin my faith votes and literally with Ben Carson launched that program or launched that organization. And we’ve been building on that ever since with the mission of, and yes, it’s to get people out to vote.
And people, a of times like we are right now, we’re thinking about it being the federal election, the presidential, the vice president, know, Senate, House. But we’re really talking about Christian involvement all the way down into the communities because we need to have this change happen everywhere. And so it was started and we began to build, you know, a lot of different messaging and began to, to, and I can talk about how much it’s grown, but that’s where it began.
And we begin to reach out to Christians across the country to try to inform them so that they can think through the principles and values and the candidates that are running, whether you like a candidate or not. know, God has a plan for a candidate to be in office. And so we try to inform so that they can think, okay, what platform most lines up with the Christian values and principles. And then our next thing is pray about that as a Christian, seek God’s guidance, and then act on it. Go vote. And so that has been our message and our flag that we have been carrying since 2015 and have just continued to grow and push that initiative.
Mark Turman (10:33.582)
Yeah, just really is astounding. When you think about it, I was doing some research through your website and other places that 25 million Christians not voting represents something collectively like the voting rep, the voting population of like 22 states combined. And when you, when you think about that, it’s just an astounding number of, adult Christians who are sitting on the sideline when it comes to so many of these opportunities and these issues. Okay. Chris, let’s kind of tease that out a little bit more about, you mentioned one a few minutes ago in your opening comments, but what do you think? And what have y ‘all found are maybe two, three, four of the major reasons why Christians are choosing not to vote. Why are two thirds of them sitting on the sidelines? Have you all been able to identify some reasons and some trends?
Chris Sadler (11:26.53)
Well, some, I have my theories. I think, and I mentioned one of them, I truly believe that Christians, when it comes to voting, that their one voice isn’t going to matter. You know, that their one vote is not going to make a difference. And as we start talking about large numbers like this coming together, yes, your one vote matters because if you think about it, some of the swing states in the last election were lost within thousands not millions, but thousands, or they weren’t lost. They were decided, is a better word. They were decided by several thousand or thousands of votes. And so one is, you know, really want to strongly emphasize that the voice does matter. Secondly, I think that what we’ve seen for whatever reason, Christians, I don’t think truly believe we’re going to lose the culture that we have. And I think maybe because it’s slowly slipping. God’s in control is an often answer that I hear, which he is, but he also calls us to act. And I believe that a lot of people just think this is going to be okay. I don’t like politics. It’s dirty. I don’t want to get involved with that. I’m going to just influence my family and my local friends and really don’t see the level of importance of what’s happening to us. I would say that’s probably the two biggest. I would say the third one, and I know this gets tricky for churches, but we really are trying to engage churches to stand up and speak more about this in the church, in the congregation. You have to be very careful. It’s never about, nor are we ever about a particular candidate. That’s not what this is about. This is about us standing up for our values and our principles. And as you were mentioning earlier, the difference between Cuba and the United States, our country was built on a Christian basis. I mean, we were the pillars of our country were built on the Christian principles and values under God. And as this time has gone by, we’re seeing that slowly erode and churches need to be talking about those issues, what’s happening and what we can do to get involved and help not only stop that, but move the needle in the other direction.
Mark Turman (13:56.824)
Yeah. Cause what I hear you saying is, that, know, as Christians, we believe right. That the will of God is always the best for everybody. It’s the, it’s the best pathway to, human beings flourishing and thriving, in the best ways. That’s what Jesus was talking about in the gospel of John, when he said that we would have life and have it to the full, we would have it abundantly. But Chris, I also wonder if it’s been your experience, both as a business leader, as well as a faith and ministry leader that we have to be aware that, you know, that, that famous question, you know, how does a business or an organization or even a nation fail? Well, it, fails very slowly over time and then real fast. And that can happen. Like, like you said, on a different, a lot of different settings, because erosion can happen very gradually and people don’t notice it. They don’t think it’s a big deal. They think that the way things are is the way things will always be. And then, and then things kind of move very quickly and all of a sudden things are very different. and the thing that I’m thinking about most of all is just how fast we went from the majority of Americans being opposed to same sex marriage. And then within less than a decade, it had become law. and, and that, kind of change is the kind of change that can happen on an even broader level within our culture. That’s, what you’re concerned about, right?
Chris Sadler (15:27.554)
Yes, absolutely. mean, it’s a dilution that’s happening, you know, it’s a watering down. And for whatever reason, I think the Christian body as a whole, it’s eroding slowly. what you said, what I’m concerned about is that quick erosions is just around the corner. And I think there’s a sense of urgency here that I’m not sensing from the Christian body overall.
You you’ll be with groups of friends going to have coffee, being at church, whatever. And you’re talking about these issues and how concerned we are, but then it kind of stops there. you know, I mean, I like recently I’ve been referencing this scripture several times. It’s Ephesians 6, 10 through 20, where it talks about putting on the armor of God. And this is one of those moments where I think we as Christians have got to start thinking like that. We’re in a battle.
And this is beyond, it’s a spiritual warfare battle that’s going on. And if we’re not careful, we’re going to lose what a lot of people take for granted. This freedoms that we have and the freedom of religion, the freedom that you and I are being able to even have this podcast right now and talk freely about what our beliefs are, what’s important to us. You know, and I think what even becomes more of a concern to me is what about my children?
What is this country going to be for my grandchildren? And, you know, this is, we need to be in the battle today so that they have what we have been able to experience from the standpoint of a country that’s had the freedoms that we’ve been able to have.
Mark Turman (17:08.962)
Yeah. And it’s just a responsibility for us and for every generation to, to do all that we can to protect the opportunities of freedom that we have. Chris, I was going to ask you, and this seems to be a repetitive conversation in our, in our culture right now, which is this, this idea of, of not voting because you don’t like either candidate, at least on a national scale that we.
We do have this system. It’s a two party system. And we ultimately work our way through a series of primaries down to kind of a binary choice between one or the other. And you’ll hear, you hear a lot of this under the banner of, well, you know, it’s the lesser of two evils. I don’t like either of those choices. So I just won’t participate. I heard a commentator, a few weeks ago say, you know, well, I did vote. I voted in the primary and the person that I wanted to become the nominee didn’t win the primaries. And so I’m not going to participate in the national election because well, I’m just waiting for better candidates. And there’s probably some legitimacy to that thinking. And I appreciated the fact that he at least voted on the primary level. I, if I brought this around to you, I think I know your answer, but how would you talk about to the person who says, well, you know what?
I’m just not going to vote because I don’t like either candidate or either party platform. Do you feel like there’s ever a time when it’s legitimate not to vote?
Chris Sadler (18:45.374)
No, I don’t. I think that, you know, I’ll come at this from two ways. From a spiritual perspective, let’s be reminded that God used non -believers throughout the Bible to get his work done. There are scripture after scripture after scripture where God did his work through non -believers. So I think we have to have faith as Christians that God can use and work through individuals that are in an office that maybe, whether they’re Christian or not, maybe don’t come across that way, or are individuals that we don’t like their personalities or how they deliver things, but God has a plan. And God’s gonna use that individual that needs to be in that office. I truly believe that. From a logical perspective, not the spiritual side, but for just
Logically, we’ve got to remember that it’s not the one person that’s getting into office. It is an administration that’s going into office. There are thousands of people that are working under a given individual and God can do work. There are going to be believers that are part of one administration over the other. That’s just the reality of it. And so I think it really begins to move to what platform? what platform most aligns with what the Christian Visor principles are and then vote based on that. And then we’ve got to have faith that God’s going to take that and use that in a way that He will make happen.
Mark Turman (20:25.634)
Yeah. And it’s, it is complex and we, you know, we, we sometimes oversimplify things. and we do ultimately the way our system set up, it’s not a perfect system, but it is the system that we’ve created thus far. And we have to remember that again, much of the world, lives under a more autocratic, totalitarian type approach where you don’t even get to have.
Chris Sadler (20:28.716)
Thank you.
Mark Turman (20:52.586)
anything remotely like the conversation that we’re having today about democracy. yes, Christianity is still alive in those places. And sometimes in those places thrives more because, Christians are so committed in an environment where they don’t have freedom and opportunity to participate. So Christianity goes beyond any political system. need to remind ourselves of that, but we should not fail to steward the opportunities that are in front of us.
I wanted to get you to react to something. Our founder, Jim Dennison has been writing and teaching on this for years. And we have some, some resources that are available for this season that people can find on our website. But he recently shared a quote that I’d like you to respond to. It came from Aristotle who said if Liberty and equality as some suppose are chiefly to be found in a democracy.
They will be attained when all persons alike share in the government to the uttermost. Dr. Dennison then went on to explain that the way he saw it as if doc, if democracy is going to work, it requires at least three things. It requires citizens to participate. They need to vote. Citizens then need to support those that get elected. And thirdly citizens must work together in civil ways after the elections as we live out the day to day kind of in the trenches, reality of what majority rule and minority rights looks like. that, does that seem to make sense to you? Chris is good rationale for everybody voting.
Chris Sadler (22:28.11)
It does. Yes, it does. And I’ll take it a step further. One, the vote. And then as you said, you know, we’ve got so much turmoil and arguing and taking sides. it’s crazy to me the same things I see in here today that separate us as a country as opposed to bringing us together as one. And if there’s any group that ought to be trying to bring us all together, it ought to be the body of Christ. And we can truly be an example down into the community of saying, hey, we have these freedoms in this country. We need to be working together and not take these for granted. And I think Christians, if anything, because of the principles we know and understand of Christ’s love, we are to be Christ -like. We should be bridge builders, not part of the division.
Mark Turman (23:25.74)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that, you know, that’s what’s so great about, what the work that my faith votes is trying to do. It’s, it’s trying to be proactive and it’s trying to be positive to get people to engage and to say that this opportunity is really what it is. It’s an opportunity, not just a responsibility for us, but an opportunity, especially not only for our own sake, but for the generations coming behind us. So when people go and check out your work, they can find it at my faith votes.org and Chris, y ‘all kind of lay out what you call a fivefold or a five part approach to engagement. Can you kind of walk through some of these things about, using broadcast and social media, engaging the next generation, talk about these five ways that y ‘all are trying to get people to move forward and to be a part of what’s going on in our country.
Chris Sadler (24:19.534)
Sure, and there’s a couple of them that I really wanna kinda bring to the forefront because they’re happening right now and the results of getting involved can be right now. So one of the campaigns we have going on is called Right Now. It’s W -R -I -T -E Now and it’s the website for that, the sub page for that is RightNow2024 .org and listen to this, we’ve got 15 ,000 Action Partners volunteer group that are writing letters for us. We have a list of a million low propensity Christians, low propensity voters that are Christians in the swing states alone. We have a list of a million and our Action Partners are taking these letters. They’re template letters. It’s easy to sign up and do this. They’re writing a personal note at the bottom of it. They are then handwriting the address on the front of the envelope and we’re dropping and we are already just over 400 ,000 letters that we have written and mailed to individuals, Christians in those swing states that normally have been sitting on the sidelines. So that is something right now that we need immediately. I would really, this is a good one where you may not be the kind of person that can get out and be very vocal or get on the front line and push these things.
This is something you can do from your home, literally. You can sign up, go to the website I was talking about right now, 2024 .org, and you can sign up. We send you the lists and you begin writing the letters and mailing them out. And this is happening, I literally every day we are seeing the number grow. So that’s one big thing we’re doing right now is with the Action Partners in right now.
Mark Turman (26:10.52)
So tell us, tell us a little bit about what would be the content of the letter. What are, what are these letters encouraging people to do?
Chris Sadler (26:17.538)
They’re encouraging them. It’s letting them know of some of the issues that they’re dealing with. And that it’s a call. It’s a call like we’ve been talking about. It’s a call for them to vote and why it’s important for them to vote. then, know, lays out some of the things we’re talking about. And then, like I said, I just think it’s neat that you can have a Christian write a personal note. So it’s a letter from a Christian to another Christian, a believer to another believer. And I think that’s kind of the special piece there.
But the ultimate is that we’re calling them to vote and we’re calling them to speak up in their communities, their groups of friends. And this is something that we’ve got to talk, not only talk about, but act on.
Mark Turman (27:00.76)
So a lot of what you focus on three big ideas that my faith, vote focuses on, which is helping people to think about the issues, to pray about what’s going on in our country and the opportunities of voting and that type of thing. And then, like you said, that last action item, which is to actually go and vote. And then, I would, I would think other ways, you know, being involved in, in politics from the ground level up. but I want to talk a minute about how your ministry, both encourages and equips people to pray. so I pastor churches for 35 years. We tried to be aware. We tried to be prayerful when there were elections going on, both locally, regionally and nationally. but
We oftentimes we hear those, that familiar verse out of, first Timothy chapter two, that we ought to be praying for the King and for all those in authority. but Chris, I got kind of convicted about this a number of years ago and I was like, well, can I even name the, the, elected officials that, are at various levels? And I start, I kind of put myself to the test like,
How many city council members or how many school board members can I actually name? And, and then it got even harder when I was like, well, what about my state representatives or my state senators and that type of thing? What do y ‘all do to kind of give people some tools that can help them pray and not only pray just once or randomly, or, know, a 10 second prayer before they walk into the voting booth. How do y ‘all expand and strategize around that to equip believers?
Chris Sadler (28:24.558)
Yes. So there is another campaign that we have that we’re really engaging with is called Think Biblically. And it is actually a, it’s a series of six different topics that get into kind of what’s around the election right now. And it’s literally, I mean, you listen to the video, there’s a stop at the video, and this is done by different individuals that we’ve invited to do this. There are some questions there. that you can think about, that you can read, and then we call it to pray. And so we feel like these are, know, it’s one, like you said, to pray and that we’re praying for our leaders, but then to be more specific with our prayers, that Think Biblically program campaign and that course walks them through specific issues we’re dealing with now, like sexuality, you know, the religious freedom that we’re talking about, parental rights, I mean, things like this and it gives specific points and issues to pray about, not only, and to talk about with others. So you can do this in a small group of church, you can do this on your own, but it’s called Think Biblically. And you can find that on our website as well. Yeah, I was just gonna say the other thing is we have, if you’ll go to myfaithpost .org, you’ll find numerous resources there as well. There’s videos.
Mark Turman (30:03.694)
Okay, go ahead.
Chris Sadler (30:16.728)
And there’s just so much information. We have not enough time today to talk about it. So I’m driving them to the website because I think that would be most helpful. But all of it drives us back to praying. And I think that the important, here’s my opinion on this, the important thing about, know, God gave us the freedom of choice. And he did, just the freedom of choice on how we live our lives, the decisions we make, and we’re broken.
And, we’re saved by his grace, but we are people, we are human beings that have the freedom of choice. And so I think when we go to make a choice, when it comes specifically to politics, we come to make a choice about voting, one, that we’re going to vote and then two, who we’re going to vote for. We need to go to the Lord and pray and ask him for guidance. And sometimes it’s the Holy Spirit just speaking to you about this is how I’m feeling led, you know, and
What we do is equip them with specific topics and issues that are of importance, and then the individual needs to take the time to go to the Lord in prayer.
Mark Turman (31:25.39)
Yeah. And there are ministries like myfaithvotes.org and others. would hopefully be included in that same conversation that will help people to think well and to think biblically about the issues that are involved. They do matter and they are big, you know, there’s a big country, 335 million people. It’s a, it’s a really big country and there are lots of people, and lots of people who are not Christian that we need to be concerned about and that we need to learn to live with, you know, in a, safe and healthy way, even if they don’t share our faith and share our convictions, which kind of leads me Chris to a question that maybe we could, could talk about and might even be the place for us to land, which is we’re going to come to November 5th. We’re going to have this election. it feels like to me that, politics, at least for some of us in our country has kind of become a three 65, hobby, almost like, our, if, if for those people that like MMA, battles, it almost feels like, we do that in politics. what would you say to the person who wakes up on November the six and the person that they, they did what you and what I would want them to do. They, they prayed and they, they thought Biblically they went and they researched and they read good biblically based information about these issues and they prayed about it and they prayed for the candidates and they went and they made a choice and they wake up the next day after election day and their Candidate didn’t win What would you say that person what should be a good? Approach for that person in that moment
Chris Sadler (33:13.41)
double down, we need to fight even more. I think, you know, if I look back on my life and I think through, I think all of us as Christians have been through this where you pray for things and you lift up things you pray for and they don’t, God doesn’t always answer those prayers in the way that we hoped. And sometimes it’s not even revealed to us till later what God was really doing. He’s just called us to be faithful and to pray and act. And if we wake up the next morning and the individual that you voted for is not in office, to me, that just means we’ve all the more got to get more involved. And again, remember, these are elections. They’re important, but they’re elections. We’re really talking about the day -to -day lives of our communities and the impact that we can have.
Even though not every person in the United States is a Christian, I think, and I truly believe this, that they enjoy the values and the principles that Christianity is based upon. Fairness, integrity, justice, love, care, compassion. These are things that go on every day that we’re living. so long answer to your question. I think you wake up the next day and go, okay, God, I don’t understand.
I prayed about this. voted and your ways are higher than my ways. And I’m going to trust that you’re going to reveal this as time goes on. I don’t think it’s a stop. It shouldn’t stop anything.
Mark Turman (34:53.518)
Yeah. And, and God’s not going to be panicked over it. That’s all such a thing to remember. He’s not going to be panicked over. as, as, again, our friend and founder, Dr. Dennison said, God redeems all that he allows and sends, and we’re not usually capable of figuring out whether he allowed it or sent it, but either way God can redeem it and work with it. And I love what you said earlier that there were people in the Bible that had no real regard or relationship to God and God utilize them in various ways.
Chris Sadler (34:57.016)
Yeah
Mark Turman (35:23.722)
In ways that they, and many times weren’t even aware of that God was, God was using them to accomplish his ultimate purposes, even if they were choosing not to personally participate, through faith as they could and should have. And so we ought to be encouraged by that. We ought to know that, he’s always watching over us and always closer than we ever imagined that he is and involved in all of the matters of our lives, including these. Chris, let me give you a last word. What?
Chris Sadler (35:26.775)
Exactly.
Mark Turman (35:52.15)
What have we not talked about or covered, in the work that you’re doing with my faith votes that you would want people to know about, or, some other kind of encouraging words you’d like to leave us with.
Chris Sadler (36:03.554)
think the last thing that I would say, and again, truly, if you’ll go to myfaithvotes .org, so many things there that are helpful resources, even bigger picture than that, we know we’ve won. The battle’s already been won. The big battle’s already been won. We’re going to be with our Lord and Savior in eternity. We know that. But I truly believe that while we are here in this short window of time compared to eternity,
Why not protect what God has given us in this country for ourselves and for our children and our grandchildren to experience until the second coming? And that statement, there’s so many ways that we can do that, that we can protect. Voting, getting involved in politics is one way, but look, we’ve already won the battle. We just need to protect what’s here, what we have and not take it for granted.
Mark Turman (37:02.304)
Absolutely. Well, that’s a good word. And folks, we just want to encourage you that, you would do what my faith votes and what dennison forum is all about. We want you to think biblically. We want you to then live holy, beautiful lives because that’s what Jesus calls us to. But we also want you to serve redemptively. We want you to get out and participate. my pastor used to tell me that, you know what, if you live in a great community, you live in a country, a great country.
You need to be thankful because that means that good people came ahead of you and they worked hard so that you could have a good place to live in a good community, country church to live in. So be grateful for what’s been handed to you and try to carry it forward and to make it better. that that’s the responsibility and the privilege that every one of us has. You can find out more at myfaithvotes .org and would encourage you to go and spend some time on that website.
And if you’ve not ever voted or you haven’t voted in a long time, we need you to participate. We need you to take the opportunity to go and vote, participate in early voting and carve out the time for this wonderful privilege that we have both as Christians and as Americans. And we would encourage you to use your influence to help others, to participate, encourage them to vote as well, because that’s what democracy is all about. And we have the freedom to do that.
And we’d also want to just say thank you for participating our conversation today. We’re grateful Chris for you. And, if you’re looking for other resources in this political season, you can find those at denison forum.org/election. Have a whole host of resources that we continue to add to that you can connect to podcasts and articles as other resources, such as the my faith votes website. You can find other partners and resources to connect to there as well. And we just want to thank you for participating in this conversation. Thank you for your support and prayers of Denison forum. And we look forward to seeing you next time on the Denison forum podcast. God bless you.
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