The biggest forfeit

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-17)

It is shocking for me to discover how many Christian votes will be going down the gutter.

Here is the thing. When Christians don't vote in the upcoming elections, we are forfeiting more than our right as a citizen of Malaysia. We are forfeiting our right as a child of God to pray for Malaysia for the next 5 years.

We say, "I wish you well, Malaysia. Be a better place to live in." We are liars if we say that we care, and yet we don't vote. The Bible says such faith is dead. It will be better if we said "I don't care at all." At least, we won't be lying.

We should not have "Light Up Our Nation" campaigns anymore. We should cease having all-night prayer meetings to ask God for revival in our country. Our prayers for the Malaysia will not be heard for the next 5 years. Because God knows we are lying.

Picture this. Many young adults either have not registered, or are not going to vote. That leaves the "old voters" to do the voting, while the young ones remain silent.

"Old voters" are already set in their political inclinations. They probably won't change their vote.

So if young voters stay away, and "old voters" continue to vote... Mathematically speaking, should we expect any change in the result? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result.

Some say "It doesn't matter whether or not I vote. The voting system is flawed. We only have a perceived democracy. But actually, it isn't".

If it is true that there are phantom voters, the only way to beat phantom voters is by sheer volume. How are you an answer to that?

If it is true that we don't have real democracy, then we have to change perceived democracy into real democracy. How are you an answer to that?

Some say, "I will vote when the government is not anti-Chinese."

If that is true, show me the logic of how your silence going to make the government less racial. How are you an answer to that?

Some say, "The government is corrupt. I will not vote."

If that is true, how much less injustice must there be before it is the right time to vote? (I feel really weird trying to reason this way, for this argument and also the previous one) Spare me the logic of how the government can get less corrupt when we don't cast our vote. How are you an answer to that?

Some even have the audacity to give a holy answer. "I don't intend to vote. But I will pray. Because I believe God's plan will be revealed."

Ok. Something is fundamentally wrong here. God is sovereign, right? There is nothing we can do to change God's will on the election results, right? God is in control of what will happen to Malaysia for the next 5 years, right? So, why vote.

Along the same line of reasoning... If God is all powerful, and He already knows all things, even of our needs before we ask Him... Then, why pray at all.

We say we believe that God is sovereign over all things. Including our lives. But we do not submit to Him in prayer. We believe He is God, yet we don't treat Him as God. That is the irony.

James says, such faith is dead. We may as well have no faith at all. It will be no different.

Ask anyone of any religion. Anyone who believes in any god will tell you that the one thing you must do for that god is to pray to it.

But Christians know better. Christians say we don't have to pray.

Ask anyone who does not believe in any god. Especially the ones who think that they are gods. They will tell you that the future is in their hands. They can make things happen if they want them to happen. They hold their destiny in their own hands.

But Christians know better. Christians say we don't have to do anything, and yet things will happen.

If this is the popular view of Christians, I am ashamed to be identified as one of them.

Every single thing we do, or don't do, has an eternal impact on eternity. When we face Christ one day, He will ask us what we think of the country He put us in.

We will go on and on about how bad it is, if that is how we really feel. Time will not be a problem. We have all eternity.

The next question He will ask is, "What did you do about Malaysia."

No need to explain why evading taxes was better than giving money to the wrong hands. No need to justify about why it was ok to accumulate as much wealth as we could from the soil which we believe should also belong to us. No need to explain about how our righteous anger was justifiable when we countered racial injustice blow for blow. Those are the questionable things that He had not asked us to do.

The least we could have done is vote.

Even if we are not that long-sighted to think eternity-wise, let's be a little short-sighted for now. Let's just think about the next 5 years.

Remember God's continual call to remember the fatherless, to defend the widows, and to help the alien, the poor and the weak? Remember what God said about impartiality, be it to Jews or Greeks, slaves or free? Remember justice and equality?

Our inaction to vote makes us guilty of not heeding those calls. We can't pray about those things too, because God knows we are not sincere. At least for the next 5 years.

Note that I did not say "vote for who." All I'm saying is, vote. It is our responsibility. To ourselves, to our nation, to God.

By not voting, we are already doing the wrong thing by default. "To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." (James 4:17)

May God have mercy on our nation.