SBC gearing up to get out the vote

By Tony W. Cartledge

BR Editor

NASHVILLE - Southern Baptists should get involved in the political process, and the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) will assist them through a new web site called ivotevalues.com, Richard Land told the SBC Executive Committee Feb. 16.

Land, president of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said the SBC will work in tandem with other groups to encourage evangelicals to register and vote.

An estimated four to five million evangelical Christians sat out the last presidential campaign, Land said.

"It is essential to get people to vote their values," Land said. "We should never tell people how to vote, but we should tell them they have a responsibility to be informed and involved in the process."

Voters should be taught to look for and support candidates who endorse their values, beliefs, and convictions, he said.

"We learned in the last election that every vote counts, and then it counts, and then it counts, and then it counts," he said, referring to vote-counting difficulties in the state of Florida, where a disputed margin of a few hundred votes gave George W. Bush the victory.

Land said he believes the upcoming presidential election is the most critical election in his lifetime, the most important election since 1860.

"We must never tell people how to vote, but we can tell them the Lord wants to talk to them about how they should vote, and that one day the Lord will talk to them," he said.