Evangelical Leader Dr. Richard Land Tells Christians to Vote Their Values and Beliefs Tomorrow, Rather Than Be Swayed by How Mainstream Media Portrays the Candidates
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—In general, Americans are an independent group who don’t take kindly to others telling them what to do.
So why, asks Evangelical leader Dr. Richard Land, are voters allowing the mainstream media to dictate tomorrow’s crucial and historic election with bias?
Land, also president of Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES, www.staging.ses.edu), recently talked about the link between media bias and the election, as well as Christians’ duty to vote, on his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” which airs on nearly 800 stations nationwide.
On the air, Land recently told listeners this story:
“Mark Halperin, co-managing editor of Bloomberg Politics and a senior political analyst with MSNBC, went to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in an attempt to make contact with WikiLeaks’ co-founder Julian Assange,” Land recounted. “Halperin wanted to interview him for the political documentary ‘The Circus.’ Assange’s assistant came out and told Halperin that Assange did not have time for an interview. Halperin asked the assistant to take a handwritten question from Mr. Halperin to Mr. Assange, and then he quickly wrote out these words: ‘What aspect of the Podesta emails do you think the U.S. media has under-reported?’ A short time later, Assange’s assistant came back and with a one-word answer. Scrawled across the note in Assange’s own handwriting was this word: ‘Everything.’
“That pretty much sums it up,” Land said. “The corruption and disdain for the law practiced by Hillary Clinton and her senior aides is manifestly evident in the emails from John Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman and a former top aide to President Obama.”
This story, Land continued, is also evidence that media bias is staggering in this election. One media watchdog group, he added, found that the three major broadcast networks spent 23 minutes covering Donald Trump’s sex scandals, but 57 seconds on one of Mrs. Clinton’s recent speeches to Brazilian bankers, where she stated that her dream was a hemisphere with open borders.
“Recently leaked emails have also revealed that President Obama did not tell the American public the truth about when he knew that Mrs. Clinton had a private unsecured email server,” Land said. “The President had been emailing Mrs. Clinton on a private, unsecured server, sending confidential and classified information that can be easily hacked. That’s irresponsible, dangerous, and the American people need to know about it. The media has failed them.”
With just one day until the election, Land is reminding voters, especially Christian Evangelical voters, to rely on their own research into the candidates, rather than the media, when making their decisions at the polls.
“This is an unusually important election for America,” Land said. “A majority of our fellow citizens feel our country is going in the wrong direction. The question is, will America vote to change the direction tomorrow? It is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, as President Abraham Lincoln reminded us. Therefore, we have a sacred obligation as Americans and as Christians to vote, and when we vote, to vote our values, our beliefs and our convictions, because hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens have sacrificed all of their tomorrows on the fields of conflict to protect our right to vote, to determine how we will be governed.
“We have a duty to vote,” he continued. “We denigrate their memory and their sacrifice when we don’t vote. We also have a sacred obligation as Christians to vote and to participate in the electoral process. The Apostle Paul instructs us in Romans 13 that God ordained government to punish those who do evil and to reward those who do that which is right. He also tells us that for conscience sake we are to be good citizens and support the civil magistrate. That does not just mean paying your taxes and not breaking the law. It also means being salt and light and seeking to influence government and society for its good and for justice. And it does include voting. Vote tomorrow. And when you do, vote your values, your beliefs and your convictions.”
SES is a leader in apologetics education—teaching students to defend their faith and talk intelligently, passionately and rationally about what they believe and why they believe it. Many courses focus on societal issues from a Christian worldview, delve into scientific apologetics or contemplate creation research.
SES explores ethical issues through its “Ethics in Emerging Technology” program; for more information, visit www.ethics.staging.ses.edu. At SES’s apologetics blog, www.WhyDoYouBelieve.org, Land and other SESvoices address the most pressing issues of the day.
Land is featured in his nationally syndicated daily radio commentary, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” which airs on nearly 800 stations nationwide, including nearly 200 on the American Family Radio Network, 100 on the Bott Radio Network and almost 400 on the CSN radio network. “Bringing Every Thought Captive” is also podcast daily on the free SES mobile app and airs locally in the Charlotte, N.C., area every weekday. The “Bringing Every Thought Captive” television program, hosted by Land, airs on the NRB Network Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and midnight EST. “Bringing Every Thought Captive” also reaches nearly 2 million households in the Chicago area on the Total Living Network. For details about stations, times, downloads and more, click here.
Land has taught as a visiting or adjunct professor for several seminaries and has authored or edited more than 15 books. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University in England and his bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) from Princeton University. Land also earned a Master of Theology (Honors Program) degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received the Broadman Seminarian Award as the Outstanding Graduating Student. Dr. Land was the 2013 Watchman Award recipient from the Family Research Council for his leadership on moral and cultural issues. He also received the Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth from Biola University in 2010. Land served previously (1988-2013) as president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social, moral and ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on American families. In 2014, he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow of the ERLC’s Research Institute, and in 2015, he was named in the top 15 of Newsmax’s “Top 100 Christian Leaders in America.”
Southern Evangelical Seminary invites visitors to its web site to join the more than 20,000 people who have already downloaded the SES Apologetics App for Windows mobile devices and Android and Apple phones and tablets. Those with the app can get the very best news and information in Christian apologetics, including articles, audio, video, blogs and more from today’s most able defenders of the Christian faith—William Lane Craig, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, William Dembski, Frank Turek, Hugh Ross, Gary Habermas and other well-known speakers, authors and teachers.
Southern Evangelical Seminary has been ranked as one of the top graduate programs for General Christian Apologetics by TheBestSchools.org’s “Top 10 Graduate Programs in Christian Apologetics.”
For more information on SES, visit its web site at www.staging.ses.edu or its Facebook page, follow the SESTwitter feed, @sesapologetics, or call (800) 77-TRUTH. For more information about SES’ “Ethics in Emerging Technology” program, visit www.ethics.staging.ses.edu.
