Prior to the United States’ Election Day for federal offices that took place on November 2, Chinese-American pastors and ministries sent out a message, urging Chinese-American Christians to fulfill their duty of a citizen as well as a Christian to vote, elect God-fearing leaders, and to pray for America to return to God.
Great Commission Center International Founder and President Emeritus Rev. Thomas Wang and Traditional Family Coalition Executive Director Dr. Bill Tam released video messages urging Christians to vote.
According to the latest research statistics, only half of the Christians register to vote each year, and only 25 percent of them will actually vote on the voting day, said Tam. Wang, 85, and Tam expressed concern over this phenomenon and explained the importance of why Christians should actively vote.
Tam said that we “fail in a certain way to be the salt and light of this world” if we lose our voting power, because it is losing an opportunity to influence the world.
While every law carries a moral message, some obvious and some not, Tam asked, “Do you want your children or future generation to recognize marriage as one woman and one man for life just like the Bible says or do you want the government or some interest groups to tell our children that any combination is fine? Do you want a teenage to have the right to get an abortion without informing you as parent?”
“If you forsake your voting right, then you are allowing all of these moral values to govern the whole country and also your future generation. It is a privilege and our responsibility as a Christian to vote every November.”
In 2006, Rev. Thomas Wang launched the movement of “America Return to God”. In this video message, he once again explained the spiritual crisis that America is in today and urged Christians to fervently pray that America can return to God and to take action through voting, giving all that one can do to save this nation that God has founded.
“America is a unique nation in the world. The early Pilgrims, the Mayflower, and her early leaders, like Washington, Lincoln, and others, are all devout Christians. Ever since 1776, she has become an independent nation, and in the past little over 200 years, America has become the strongest and richest nation in the world. God has been her founder and creator, but we can see from history that many individuals and nations, after they become strong and rich, begin to forget God,” said Wang.
To clarify, he gave some examples. In 1962, the Supreme Court of America declared prayer in the public schools is unconstitutional; the same court declared in the next year, 1963, that Bible-reading in public schools is unconstitutional. Then, one by one, the schools and courts are not allowed to hang up the Ten Commandments. Recently, someone even suggested the removal of “In God We Trust” on the U.S. dollar bill. For a Christian nation, he described these situations as “unimaginable.”
“The founding fathers of this nation believed in God and trusted in God, but people now are trying to get away from God. This nation is gradually deteriorating. We are having our internal troubles and also external troubles,” lamented Wang. However, he encouraged the viewers by quoting 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Wang urged Christians to pray that America can be humbled, seek for God, and turn away from evil; then, God will show his mercy to America.
Other than prayers, the senior reverend calls upon every Christian to take actual steps to help America. “We need to participate in voting. This country values votes, respects the will of the people; the government allows us to vote, in order to know our will, then the government will then follow the steps. Thus, we greatly encourage every Christian to vote this year.”
“We must vote for a person with a sense of justice, believes in God, and is willing to walk a path of righteousness to be the public servants and the nation’s leaders,” he added.
After issuing this forceful message, Wang and Tam received many responses from various Chinese Christian organizations, including Ambassador for Christ who has emailed this important message to the fellow believers across the states. Touting the motto of “Reaching Chinese Intellectuals for Christ in this Generation”, AFC stated, “All of the Chinese Christians with U.S. Citizenship should uphold their citizen’s right to vote in order to assist the country’s government organization to maintain the proper values system.” In addition, the ministry called for Christians to pray for this election.
Moreover, the Greater Los Angeles Area Chinese Church network published a brief message on their news site, “The battle between Satan and God’s sons and daughters will never end! As a Christian, we must give off God’s righteous roar and protect the land that God gave us and our descendants to live upon. Do not easily let our children to be lost in the legalization of same-sex marriages and marijuana. Please be sure to vote!”
According to reports, there are approximately 1.3 million Asian voters, which represents 7-8% of the total number of voters, so the votes of Asian voters is sufficient to influence the election results.
To view Wang’s message on Youtube, click here.
