I had the chance to spend an afternoon with Bangon Pilipinas Presidential candidate Brother Eddie Villanueva last weekend. I’ll write an exhaustive piece on the topics we covered such as the RH Bill, Separation of Church and State, etc. on a separate entry in Blog Watch. This post will be a little more personal and will center around the question that I’ve been wanting to ask him for the longest time. Was it God’s will that Bro. Eddie lost in 2004 and what is God’s will for the 2010 elections? Pretty tough question right?
This was his answer. I might have missed a few words here and there since I don’t have a video copy of the event (was just transcribing) but I’ll try to double check after Noemi uploads it on Youtube.
God is not a dictator. The perfect will of god cannot happen without the partnership and obedience of god’s own people. God does not wish a single soul to be perish in hell but all should come to repentance or else they will go to hell. He respects free will. Blessings through obedience, curses through disobedience.
This made me really think about voting and my personal spirituality. I decided to go to the Bible to look for answers and this is the verse that comes closest to talking about what God wants in a leader:
14 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” 15 be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite. 16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” 17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. 18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20 and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:14-20)
It’s not just a voting for who YOU want, it’s voting WHO God wants
Based on the bible, the elections is not just a simple casting of votes. It’s a deep spiritual obligation not just to our country, but also to our God. You know what’s funny? If you check at the past two presidents and you try to match them up to the standards set in the bible then you know we’ve failed miserably in electing our leaders.
I am not saying, on any account, that Brother Eddie Villanueva is God’s chosen candidate or that it was God’s will that Bro. Eddie should have won in 2004. What I am saying is that we should really pray, research, and carefully choose who we will vote for in the upcoming 2010 elections. It is our obligation not just to the country, but to our conscience and to our God that we pick the right candidate based on his standards.
At the end of the day, don’t look to surveys, campaign materials, advice from the taxi driver, or “randomness”, to pick your candidate. All of these things are worldly and they can easily be manipulated and rigged. You cannot trust these kinds of things when you are deciding on who to vote. The mentality of “Iboboto ko na lang si X kasi yung gusto ko naman na si Y walang pag-asa eh.” is just crap. If the candidate doesn’t measure up to God’s standards, don’t vote for him or her.
What will happen if we don’t vote for the right person? It’s also in the bible!
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. (Proverbs 29:2)
A challenge for you, dear reader
And that, my friends, is my challenge for you. Don’t treat your vote lightly. It’s not something that you just write down on a piece of paper and regret later on. Remember to pray for who you will vote for and don’t just rely on the campaign materials that you see on media and even from what your friends say. What’s important is that you pick a candidate who is righteous, otherwise we will all mourn for the next 6 years.
Again, let me say that this is not an endorsement whatsoever of Bro. Eddie, it’s just a reminder that we should all hold our candidates to a higher standard and that we should really vote according to our conscience and God’s will.
PS: Watch out for my post on Blog Watch
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