When deciding how to cast your vote, what do you consider? What typically plays a part in your decision-making process? Many voters make selections based on party affiliation, the candidate’s platform, or even how well they perform in debates. Today we want to encourage you to consider these six core values and weigh them against your candidates of choice – see how well they pass this “stress test,” and if they truly deserve your vote.

What are [candidate’s] views on:

• Religious Freedom – Do they support our right to worship and publicly express our religious beliefs without fear of persecution? Do they support convictions for religious conscience exemptions?
• Life – Would they protect the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception? Would they ensure that people of faith are not forced to fund abortions with their tax dollars?
• Marriage – Would they strengthen the natural family by passing laws that incentivize marriage and reduce divorce?
• Parental Rights – Do they believe children’s best decision-makers are their parents, and parents should be empowered by the government, not restricted?
• Gender Issues – Do they believe there are only two genders, and our children should be shielded from radical gender and sexual ideology?
• Free Speech – Do they believe that the right to speak freely is foundational to our other liberties and should not be restricted or censored?

We believe the answers to these crucial questions should surpass in importance how a candidate may perform on stage or even what party they are affiliated with. We recognize we rarely have a candidate who perfectly answers those questions or supports everything we’d like. However, we still encourage you to vote in these less-than-ideal elections for candidates who most closely support your beliefs and who will lessen evil in our nation. The candidates’ views on these six topics will shape their policies, and policies are what impact our families and communities.

“Policy – the type of policy that has real-world implications on others – may be a more accurate barometer of one’s deepest convictions that have a formative or deformative effect on character than even the words that come out of one’s mouth,” Ethics & Public Theology Professor at Southern Seminary Andrew T. Walker wrote. “Policy is character, too.”

Perhaps the two most important of the issues listed above are life and transgenderism, as Dr. Albert Mohler shared in a recent seminar with Wisconsin Family Council. We encourage you to dig deeper into why those issues are so important for our society by watching the recording here.

A convenient way to research candidates further is by using iVoterGuide, which analyzes candidates on your ballot based on many of the same values noted earlier. You can also use MyVoteWisconsin to determine who will be on your ballot and conduct independent research based on the questions above.

Remember that you have until October 16 to register online or by mail to vote, and you can request and submit absentee ballots now. We highly encourage you to submit an absentee ballot if there’s even a small doubt in your mind that you may not be able to vote on November 5th. Your vote matters – don’t risk missing out on this election!

P.S. Please join us in praying for our country and community every morning at 9:29 a.m. until the election, in recognition of Mark 9:29. In the passage, Jesus speaks about a demon-possessed boy, saying “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” Similarly, we believe our nation and culture are entranced in the spirit of this age, and it can only be driven out by prayer. You can view our prayer calendar here. We hope you’ll take part!