Guide to electing our representatives to authority

Published by Morung Express, August 26, 2017
http://morungexpress.com/guide-electing-representatives-authority/

Confused on how to exercise your franchise as a Christian? Go through this article!!! :)

Text: Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-17

God has given one great responsibility to each of us and that is the freedom and right to select and appoint our leaders! This is a divine responsibility! In the Bible, often times we see that God directly appointed leaders. However we also find that God also appointed leaders through the choices of his people like Moses appointing leaders to work with him in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 1:9-18) or Paul and Barnabas appointing elders in the church (Acts 14:23) based on certain spiritual and leadership qualifications.

Similarly, God has also shared His divine role with us to appoint leaders in the affairs of the world. Therefore, appointment of leaders whether through selection or election needs to be done prayerfully if we long to see God’s justice and righteousness, and goodness and mercies overflowing in our world.

Apostles Paul (Romans 13: 1-7) and Peter (1 Peter 2: 13-17) clearly give the model of God’s kingdom politics as they underline the reasons on who establishes governing authorities and why they were established. The apostles also clearly teach why and how citizens need to relate with the authorities. These same rationales can be used as the guiding principles to form political party and chart political manifesto. However our concern here is to help citizens to make realistic and well informed choices as they prayerfully consider in electing their representatives.

    i.        The first principle is based on righteousness and justice. Who and which political party esteem and would execute truth and fairness in all areas of life like history, culture, economy, environment, healthy, education, religion, society, politics and governance?

     ii.      The second principle is about responsible freedom. Who and which political party esteem and would be able to protect and promote responsible freedom?

    iii.    The third principle is mutual respect. Who and which political party esteem and would be able to protect and promote mutual respect in the midst of diversities?

    iv.    The fourth principle is the fraternity of believers. Who and which political party esteems and would be able to protect and promote the freedom of propagation of faith?

    v.      The fifth principle is the ‘fear of God’. Who and which political party esteems and would be able to protect and promote the notion and action of being accountable to God?

    vi.    The sixth principle is about ‘honouring the king’. Who and which political party would be able to self respect their given authority and execute their responsibility with integrity?

The opportunity to elect leaders to a position which has been instituted by God is a great responsibility! Therefore all our value formations, decisions and actions need to be “for the Lord’s sake”. So there is the urgency for every citizen to prayerfully elect their representatives based on the above principles and not for any other self-centered motives. This is our mission! This is the key to usher in God’s kingdom politics here on earth in our own nation and constituencies! If not, people who cast their votes based on narrow self centered interests are the agents of wickedness and they are responsible for our broken and corrupted world! The authority is in our hands! If each one of us can be the change for the world we yearn to see, then our future is worth venturing into!