As my husband and I drove through the sleepy towns of Stanly County, North Carolina, today on our way to visit a vineyard for a tour and wine tasting, I kept noticing these blue and white signs, seemingly everywhere, in front of homes and churches.
I knew it had to have a religious slant because of the Christian cross being substituted for the second "t" in "Truth".
See the image below (or if you can't see it, the sign reads: Vote for Truth NC.com):
When we returned home, I jumped on the computer to learn more about this relatively simple yard sign. More below the squiggly.
Well, my, oh, my. Is that website a doozy!
At the VoteForTruthNC website, you are first greeted with a very slick video encouraging one to vote in this year's elections, joining the other 60 million US Christians. (BTW, the video states there are only 60 million "committed Christians" in the US. Really? When I went to "ask.com" and posed the question, "how many christians in america", I got numbers that ranged from 159 million to 217 million. Maybe those aren't "committed" Christians, whatever the heck that means. Sorry for the tangent. I digress.)
(Note that at the time of publishing this diary, the video at YouTube only had 137 views.)
Then, there are links to register to vote and get informed.
It's the "get informed" section that got me laughing.
Right off the bat, the link gives you a side by side comparison of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. So, since this is a Christian website, I know it will be well balanced and strictly non-partisan. Oh, sorry. That was a dream I once had.
No, since this is reality, it sadly is exactly what one would expect.
The first section shows the two candidates' endorsements. Among Mitt's endorsements? National Right to Life Committee.
Among Obama's endorsements? Communist Party USA
Further down, the comparison for Religious Liberty:
Mitt Romney:
“But from the beginning, this nation trusted in God, not man. Religious liberty is the first freedom in our Constitution… there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action.”
Barack Obama:
Read “America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U.S. President” by David Barton
That's the best the website could come up with?
Here's an image I took of the website:
You can also get a "side by side" comparison of candidates running for US Congress, NC Governor, NC Senate, NC House and NC Supreme Court. Funny, there is also an election for NC Lt. Governor, but nothing on the website for those candidates. Regardless, it's the typical dreck of nice photos of the guys running as Republicans versus rather stern images of the Democrats.
According to a Christian Action League article about this campaign:
Vote For Truth NC is a:
grassroots initiative led by Stanly County residents Jason and Amy Phibbs, who launched the www.votefortruthnc.com web site in mid-August to help Christians apply biblical values to November’s election. As pleased as they are to see the number of hits on the site growing — more than 200 visits from 10 states within the first two weeks — Jason Phibbs said there is much more work to be done.
“Pastors and churches across North Carolina will determine the impact of biblical values on this election,” he said. “If churches don’t get their congregations registered, informed, and to the polls, this site will have very little, if any impact. Everyone must get involved.”
While the Vote For Truth NC web site has garnered hits from 22 different cities and towns in North Carolina, the majority of visits are coming from Albemarle and surrounding areas, where Vote For Truth NC yard signs are starting to pop up.
Phibbs is hopeful that those who see the signs on their way to work or in a neighbor’s lawn will check out the site where they can quickly access more than a half-dozen candidate questionnaires or scorecards, print the forms they need to register to vote and help others at their church do the same. They can also watch videos of sermons about the role of biblical authority in politics, read a summary of the Manhattan Declaration and much more.
Note: Is anyone familiar with the Manhattan Declaration? My first inkling of its existence was reading about it in the article above. It really makes me wonder, when gay marriage is finally legal in all 50 states, what will the Christians have as an issue to circle their wagons around? Sorry. I digress again.
Again from the article (emphasis mine):
In 2008, there were approximately 281,000 unregistered Christians in NC, while only 14,000 votes separated the two major candidates for President,” the site shows, reminding believers that “your vote matters.”
Beyond the questionnaires and other tools that help individual voters assess candidates, the site offers clear legal guidelines for pastors and churches so that they can effect change in November without overstepping their bounds.
Hal Bilbo, lead missionary for the Stanly Baptist Association who helped Phibbs get his message to local pastors in a July 31 meeting, said he hopes the effort will help “link churches and Christians together with a single voice to herald truth, freedom and personal responsibility.”
Dr. Creech said Christians who haven’t logged into VotefortruthNC.com are missing a valuable resource, not only in making their own biblically based choices for November but in challenging others around them to do the same.
“In addition to getting people personally informed, this effort is about empowering believers, who may not be receiving leadership and instruction from the pulpit as to how to apply their deeply held beliefs to the political process, to go to their pastor and advocate for it,” he said. “Start the conversation and let your church leaders know that you will help with a voter drive or whatever it takes so that the body of Christ can be salt and light during this election season. Vote for Truth NC has the links, the resources and, most importantly the emphasis on God’s truth that churches need to make it happen.”
Now, I know Christian churches and their parishioners are really trying to push the line of separation of church and state, as well as their not-for-profit status with the IRS, by trying to undo the law passed in 1954. Just last weekend was
Pulpit Freedom Sunday on October 7, 2012. This was the second annual event, with over 1,500 churches in the US participating. (see the list of churches in this .pdf
here).
Okay, now I am just ranting. I am so tired of this, this Christian morality play being shoved down everyone's throats. If your religion and faith are so great, then convince me, but stop trying to legislate my life. If you want to witness until you are blue in the face, please, do so. But, when you keep spending your hard earned money to influence elections based on your religious beliefs so that everyone has to abide by your faith, despite a large percentage of the US population not being a member of your faith, I get angry and frustrated. Knock it off. Please.