Missouri Baptists to join in Nov. 5 prayer effort
JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Baptists are being asked to join other Christians on Nov. 5, the Sunday before the Nov. 7 election, in praying for God’s will to be done on that day pertaining to Amendment 2, the constitutional amendment promoting the spread of embryonic stem cell research.
“We simply want to pray that so many people who do go to vote would understand fully what the stem cell issue’s about,” said Ron Barker, Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) personal evangelism and spiritual awakening specialist. “Our fear is that the average voter does not understand that fully and will be motivated by the amount of money that has been thrown into these commercials and such that give us a look that’s not really true about it.
“Our prayer is that they would come to see the truth and that God would do something special in those who vote to just open our eyes to the fact that life is very important and valuable.”
Barker lamented the fact that the spiritual condition of Missouri has fallen to a point where the sanctity of life within the human embryo is even being voted on in an election. The promise of cures through scientific research is being elevated above the need to defend tiny human beings.
“It’s because of our pluralism, our relativism, and the relative attitude that we have in America even amongst Christians, where we have moved away from anything that people tell us would be offensive to people, simply because we believe in an absolute,” he said. “We value life in any form—whether it’s abortion, euthanasia or stem cell. We don’t want to see life destroyed, and we believe God has a purpose for life.”
Nov. 7 will be a watershed day in that Christians around the nation will be looking to the heartland to check on whether the church in Missouri managed to close ranks and vote in such a manner as to stand for life and defeat Amendment 2.
“We hope that day that the Lord will intervene and do something special in this election,” Barker said.
Voting one’s values is the fundamental approach that Missouri Southern Baptists must take when approaching this and all elections. Consistency in the Christian worldview is what God is looking for, Barker said.
“We tend to compartmentalize our life,” Barker said. “We vote values that we think will benefit us, and then we don’t vote values that might push us a little bit. We don’t like that, or we can’t understand it. That’s relativism. That’s not a Christian worldview.
“In a Christian worldview, people vote out of conviction, not compromising their values. I know that doesn’t make us popular, but that stand has never made us popular. That doesn’t mean we don’t like anybody. That just means that we value certain things.”