Straight Talk

How Christians plan to win

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Letter to the Editor

In case you missed it, the Faith and Freedom Coalition passed through Macon County in early February to host what it called the “biggest” campaign event in Western North Carolina before the state’s March 5 primary.

The coalition’s purpose was two-fold – energize Christian voters and define the keys to victory in November. Thus, with a mix of praise and politics, that’s exactly what the audience got.

To the rousing approval of approximately 300 attendees, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, Alveda King, Clarence Henderson, and Nikita Kolof all spent their time talking faith and national hot-button issues, primarily President Biden’s current polling weaknesses: his age and mental acuity, his border crisis, the culture wars and America’s economic struggles.  

For local flavor, State Sen. Kevin Corbin and State Rep. Karl Gillespie delighted the crowd by recapping their successes in lowering taxes, strengthening pro-life laws, and protecting girls’ sports.

In the end, Robinson aptly framed this part of the agenda, “We are seeing the wicked prosper, but don’t allow it to draw you into hatred. Don’t fight against what we hate and despise, fight for what we love. What we love is this nation. What we love is righteousness, our God and our freedom. That’s what we should be fighting for.”

When the time came to talk strategy, it was Ralph Reed, the longtime political operative and Coalition organizer, who took the stage. 

Appropriately, he opened with an important warning, “The Lord will give you leaders you yearn for, but he’s not going to do it in the timing that you, or we, may want.” In other words, despite Biden’s negatives, beating an incumbent president is never easy.

Besides election integrity and a host of necessary campaign tactics, a critical focus for Reed was that “every born-again, Bible-believing, evangelical Christian” must register to vote, learn about the issues and candidates, and then go to the polls. 

Out of 44.1 million evangelical Christian voters, Reed believes 15.5 million “low-propensity” voters are the key. In plain English that means he needs to motivate those who rarely participate in elections. His plan is to reach out to 10 million faith-based families, while launching voter registration drives at 500 to 1,000 churches in battleground states.

In the campaign industry, this is called GOTV, or Get Out the Vote. It’s the key to winning elections, regardless of the party. And while Reed’s plan is a tall order, it’s also Political Campaigning 101. 

For Republicans, rousing speeches are important, but if Christians stay home on election day, they lose.

For the Faith and Freedom Coalition, there’s little doubt the Macon County event delivered on its promise to energize local voters. The question is whether it can turn that excitement into action on a broader scale. At this point, only God knows.

Morgan Stewart, Franklin