National Voter Registration Day?

Yes, this Tuesday, September 22 is "National Voter Registration Day" in the USA. It's not a school holiday, and the banks and post offices aren't closed. It doesn't appear on my phone calendar like some holidays automatically do. But it's been a U.S. holiday since 2012, when the National Association of Secretaries of State established it. They have designated the fourth Tuesday in September to urge Americans to register to vote. On that date in its first year more than 300,000 U.S. citizens signed up to vote, and nearly 3 million new voters have registered on the ensuing fourth Tuesdays in September since then.

It's a non-partisan, non-political, non-sectarian holiday. The only agenda of the day is to get American citizens to do their very basic civic duty: register to vote. Leaders of our Southern Baptist Convention have encouraged Baptists to observe the day by registering to vote and helping others do the same. Google "National Voter Registration Day" to get the information you need, including how to register to vote.

I registered and voted the year I turned 18; that was the voting age in my home state of Georgia--even though it was not lowered from 21 to 18 nationally until several years later. So...I've been a registered American voter for sixty-four years; that means I've had the privilege of voting in 16 U.S. Presidential elections--plus many other state and local ones. Of all sixteen, I'm convinced this year is the most significant--and the most challenging! There's never been a year like 2020 in my lifetime, and there's never been more at stake in an election than the one coming up in November, just 45 days from today! The outcome of this election is not the current personalities and identities, it's the long-term principles and issues we're voting on--that will effect our children's children, and theirs.

In my memory our nation has not been as splintered as it is right now. Even the 60's, with multiplied clashes about Vietnam and civil rights and sexuality, were nothing compared to today's great divide. Politics, race, gender issues, generational and cultural differences are pitting American against American like no other time in recent history. If we ever needed to exercise our responsibilities as citizens of this great republic, it is today!

Yet I sense more apathy and unconcern and lack of enthusiasm about a national election than the others I've seen in my lifetime! There seems to be an unprecedented lack of energy and interest in spiritual matters, too! We can blame it all on Covid-19...or a general unrest...or the President (we seem to be blaming everything on those three these days); but the truth is, one little word is to blame for our society's divisions and ills: sin. We're going our way and not God's way. We are seeking first our own 'kingdoms' and not His. We are living our lives apart from God's standards of living. America needs to repent of SIN. Such repentance will unite us as "one nation, under God, indivisible." And such repentance will ignite us in a holy flame of the Spirit!

What am I saying? First, in the words of the old spiritual, "If we ever needed THE LORD before, we sure do need Him now!"

And second, "If we ever needed TO VOTE before, we sure do need to now!"

Register. Urge everyone you know to get registered. Look at the platforms of the candidates. PRAY fervently! Then vote your convictions. It's the right thing to do. But don't just take my word for it; read Romans chapter 13, beginning in verse 1. It's the 'Bible' thing to do, too!