Time to vote

Thursday is of course polling day.

What are your plans? I trust it includes voting.

There may many reasons you may not want to vote including…

• You live in a “safe seat”
• You are disenchanted with politics
• None of the parties seem to represent Christian values
• It might be raining

However, as Christians, we are to honour those in authority and part of that respect is that we vote to elect members of the parliament that governs us.

We become the deciders of our representatives and government. If no-one votes – there is no parliament. Even safe seats rely on tens of thousands of people actually voting. You cannot leave it to everyone else. It’s part of doing to others as we would have them do to us. Your vote is part of the way you signal participation in the democratic process.

There are real differences between the main parties and also differences in the views and character of the local candidates. We must prayerfully use our best judgement on which would be best for the locality and for the country and with the utmost respect for those who think differently, we make our decision.

And then we vote.

And we leave the outcome with God

Then perhaps we can start to really participate in the democratic process by having meetings with our newly elected MP’s. Let’s start making plans!