Political Redemption?

Social conservatives in my home state of New Jersey are especially pleased with the outcome of the governor’s race. Republican Chris Christie, announced pro-lifer and supporter of conventional marriage, beat liberal Democrat Jon Corzine. Christie has a normal family—that is, a wife and kids—while Corzine is divorced. Christie’s election may give him the opportunity to nominate four New Jersey State Supreme Court justices. His belief in traditional marriage would hopefully mean that these nominations would dampen the chances of activist legislation from the bench. Christie is also tough on crime having formerly served as a U.S. Attorney for the State of New Jersey who tried 100 criminal cases successfully without a single reversal.

There is indeed, political redemption in New Jersey, and, if here, perhaps it can happen in any state. That a state previously so left-leaning as to sweep Obama into the White House with a stunning plurality only a year ago could upend Corzine, who is pro-choice and would sign a same-sex marriage bill, is a comfort in politically left-moving times. And in Virginia, which went Democrat in the 2008 presidential election for the first time in decades, Republican candidate Bob McDonnell, a social and religious conservative, also trounced his opponent in the governor’s race.

Perhaps a significant block of New Jersey voters has commendable second thoughts about government spending excesses that will potentially bankrupt generations to come. Perhaps a good number are reconsidering the faulty wisdom of government funding of abortions in an unwieldy health care bill. Perhaps a majority is enraged over government corruption, immoral legislation, sleazy politics in general and negative campaigning specifically. Hopefully, rampant property taxation, wild deficits and liberal nonsense are being seen as the moral insanity they really are.

More importantly, I hope all this reflects a healthy return to biblical morality—a mirror of Heaven’s principles for conventional marriage, healthy families and fiscal responsibility. The campaigns of winners and losers alike were financed by currency bearing the inscription "In God We Trust," and our national Pledge of Allegiance contains the phrase "one nation under God."

The timeless warning still stands in Psalm 9:17. "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." To those yearning for spiritual stability, the wonderful alternative still stands in Psalm 144:15b: "…Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!"

Dave Virkler