Hello (name) –

Please forgive my delay in responding. There have been too many deaths and celebration of life events in my circle of friends and families recently.

I have one request of you. If you are looking for my contribution to a story you are going to write, I ask that you read the following carefully and use the material I’m providing accurately and with proper context. Don’t simply look for written “soundbites”. To be perfectly honest and transparent, I do not know you, therefore I do not know that I can trust you or your employer. This is your one shot to prove you are not just using me and our ministry to further your paper’s typically leftist agenda. I expect from you truthful and honest reporting of what I am sharing. Period.

You ask what I, as a pastor, see as the most important issue at play in this election and why. I do not think there is merely one. But, if I were to categorize by looking at the platforms of the two major parties,

I would say this election is about Freedom vs. Tyranny, Good vs. Evil, God vs. Satan.

And, for the record, in this particular election, the party for Freedom, Good and God is the Republican party, even with all of its flaws.

The heart of the Democrat Party has moved to Socialism. Socialism flows from Marxism and into Communism. The father of socialism, Karl Marx, said he had two main objectives: 1. To dethrone God, and 2. To destroy capitalism. To accomplish those things is to promote openly the tearing up of our Declaration and Constitution. It is to re-make America from a free society into a society of slaves dependent on an immoral governmental oligarchy. People need to understand these things. I’m concerned they do not. Restore Minnesota will shout it from the rooftops in hopes than many more will get it.

How do I see this presidential election play out in Minnesota’s faith

community compared to 2020? That’s the $64 million question, isn’t it? Researcher George Barna wrote a book about the 2016 election entitled, “The Day Christians Changed America”. How did Christians change America? First, they actually showed up and voted. Those who call themselves “Christian” in America have a horrific record when it comes to fulfilling their duties and responsibilities as Biblical citizens to simply show up and vote.

At some point, Christians MUST get it through their heads that voting vs. not voting is not an option.

Secondly, all of us, Christian or not, MUST  understand we are NOT voting for a person or personality.

This election is NOT about so-called “Mean-Tweeting” Dictator Donald Trump versus so-called Cackling Kamala and Coach Walz.

Approaching politics from the pulpit is not rocket science. Nor is it

something that pastors should fear. America was founded from its pulpits. Of my many tools for ministry, one is a 2-volume set of nearly 2000 pages called “Political Sermons of the American Founding Era, 1730-1805”.

What we need to understand is that it is not primarily a matter of being political. It is primarily a matter of being Biblical.

The Bible addresses real life issues. It is God’s written Word to mankind so that we would know how to deal with the issues of our day. The job of the preacher/teacher is to tell us what the Bible says and give us guidance as to how to apply it.

Allow me to summarize my formal education for ministry in this way: We need to ask three questions of the Biblical text. 1. What does it say? 2. What does it mean? and 3. So what? If we don’t get to the “so what,” what is the purpose of reading it at all? The Bible was given to us in order for us to conform our lives and cultures to it. In our arrogance, we have reversed it. We try to make the Bible conform to whatever we want it to conform to. In doing so, we make ourselves to be greater than God. Good luck with that.

Good governments run based on principles from God.

That is one reason why John Adams said our government was made only for a moral and religious people. It is also why Joseph Stalin said that for America to be destroyed, it must be destroyed from within. It must be destroyed by tearing apart our ideas of patriotism, religion and morality. Look around. Now you have a deeper understanding as to why America is in the mess it is in.

In Hope –

Dale