Madeira: Express your faith–vote

The best way most Christians can express our faith when it comes to the political realm is to get out and vote, talk show host David Madeira says.

Yes, he adds, living a virtuous life is more important than being involved in politics, but the latter still ranks high.

Our culture shapes and is shaped by politics, David says. To tell Christians not to be involved in politics is like telling them not to buy groceries.

“Everything you do has a political component to it,” he says. “God has given us a wonderful blessing that almost nobody in the history of humanity has had, and that is to choose our own leaders. We certainly have to express our faith in that realm.”

He also tries to encourage those discouraged by the negatives of politics.

“I think if you’re discouraged, it’s because you’re consuming far too much CNN or MSNBC or your local newspaper,” David says. “If you disconnect from that and you only talk to real people, not media, then you see that people love liberty. People want freedom. They recognize it’s being eroded.”

He admits that many nonbelievers “aren’t entirely comfortable with our Christian agenda.” That’s because “they’re afraid of us.”

“Our media people haven’t done a great job,” he says. “A lot of people have brought great shame to the Gospel. It’s not a surprise that people would be skeptical and resistant to our message.”

Overall, though, many Americans “do have a deep faith in God and a deep faith in our history and they’re active now.”

“They’re realizing they have to fight back,” he says.

When serving as a political consultant, David Madeira always tells the candidates who he works for that “elections are usually decided by things that have nothing to do with you.”

“You need to do your very best,” he says he tells them. “You need to raise as much money as you can, sleep as little as you can, do as much media as you can, put out as much information as you can, recruit as many people as you can.”

But, David says, elections typically go a certain way because of circumstances out of a candidate’s control.

“They’re about a broader story, a bigger narrative,” he says. “For better or for worse, most voters make their decisions based on that bigger narrative. What are they feeling at that time? It’s a sad thing, but it’s true.”