Welcome all to the Peachtree Baptist Church post for Friday, June 5, 2020, my name is Paul Capps, pastor. Yesterday, Shauw Chin and I voted. Unless you used an absentee ballot, today, Friday, is the last day for early voting in person. The final date to vote in the upcoming presidential preference primary, general primary election, nonpartisan general election and special election is in person on June 9. I share all this because I’m still fairly new to Georgia. I have had to a lot of searching online to educate myself about not only how and when to vote but also the ballot itself and the various races. As Baptist people of faith, we are all over the spectrum when it comes to the role of the church, the role of the state, and where they might intersect. Though Baptists have a reputation of believing in freedom from religion and freedom for religion, Ironically, Baptists might be considered to be some of America’s first politicians. Baptist evangelists in Virginia during the late 1700s lobbied this country’s founders to the point of being an influence in the establishment of the First Amendment in 1791. The reason they did this is because of what history had taught them when human power in the form of government and religious power come together as one. And we know it too: Roman Christendom in the 3rd century led to the Holy Roman Empire as one example. Recently, I read a post about how we need to remember the Protest part of the Protestant Reformation. Much of that protest was about corruption of power too. But soon states, like England, married the new movement with the state. When Puritans came from England to America, they were escaping that corruption, but then they also denied others who didn’t think like them, such as Roger Williams, an earlier Baptist who had to escape to Rhode Island to avoid Puritan persecution.

So where does that leave us today? As Baptist people of faith, it is our faith that should drive us to the ballot box but it is also our faith that doesn’t seek to impose our faith on others through the ballot box. Our faith informs the way we engage in the realm of living within the confines of human statehood, but it also informs our divine understanding that all people everywhere, regardless of religion or government are images of God. As Baptists, when we see injustice from the state, we vote for those that represent justice. We do this not so that they become Baptists or even Christians, or even come to our particular interpretation of what justice looks like, but so that we are being obedient to living out our understanding that through faith in Christ, God desires goodwill for this entire world. Living as a human waiting for Christ’s return to restore all things, people of faith choose to practice well-being for all people: in politics, in governance, at home, at work, at school and everywhere we have been placed to be a witness to the good news of Jesus. We’re not going to get it right most of the time, but we try to be faithful. So go and make decisions informed by your faith, and vote!