American Family Association: Being Salt and Light in the Culture, Especially Leading Up to Important Midterm Elections

TUPELO, Miss.—Regardless of their political affiliation, many would agree that the culture is in a dark place right now. But who is to be the salt and light, especially as the nation prepares for important midterm elections?

American Family Association (AFA, www.afa.net) Public Policy Analyst Abraham Hamilton III recently wrote a commentary for The Christian Post titled, “Salt & Light: Should We Engage the Culture?”

“When we survey the landscape of a society deteriorating around us, an oft-asked question is: ‘Should we engage the culture?’” Hamilton wrote. “To answer that question, we must turn to God’s Word, our metric for evaluating everything. Matthew 5:13-16 records a portion of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount in which He says, ‘You are the salt of the earth’ (v.13) and ‘You are the light of the world’ (v.14). In both verses, the word you is plural in Greek. So the ‘you’ Jesus assigns to salt and light duty includes all of those followers who were present for the Sermon on the Mount. Furthermore, it extends to those of us who are His disciples today.

“Salt is a preservative agent,” Hamilton continued. “If you’re from New Orleans, Louisiana, as I am, you are very familiar with dry salted meats. Prior to the introduction of the technological wonder that is refrigeration, salt was used to preserve the integrity of various proteins. Light is a force of power. Darkness is not. It merely reoccupies the space vacated by light. It is nothing more than the absence of light. We intuitively know darkness isn’t affirmative, it’s passive. We know, at the very moment light is introduced into a dark room, that darkness is instantly vanquished.”

Also as the nation prepares for the elections, and as Christians consider the importance of their votes, AFA Action (www.afaaction.net), the governmental affairs affiliate of AFA, is again offering its iVoterGuide.

“In the midterm elections, voters will determine which candidates will make decisions on their behalf,” said AFA and AFA Action President Tim Wildmon. “These decisions could include issues like religious liberty, limited government, free enterprise, national defense, traditional biblical values, the sanctity of life and marriage. And there are also the extremely important decisions of confirming federal judges, who have lifetime appointments, including Supreme Court justices and other federal judges, who are nominated and appointed by the president. If liberals gain control of the Senate, the likelihood of confirming conservative judges disappears.”

Wildmon reminded that just a few years ago, liberals used the power of the state to advance their agenda. For example, liberals used:

• U.S. Department of Education to advance a facility usage policy to allow boys who think they are girls to enter school restrooms and showers designated for girls only.
• Federal court system to use rogue judges to violate the religious liberty of Christians by forcing them to choose between violating their deeply held religious beliefs or losing their businesses.
• U.S. Department of Agriculture to force a meatpacking plant to be silent about beliefs in support of heterosexual marriage or have the business shut down, and
• IRS to target conservative groups filing for tax-exempt status.

“If conservative voters become complacent, history could repeat itself,” Wildmon said. “The historical trend is that the party of the president in the White House during the midterm election nearly always loses seats in the House of Representatives or the majority flips to the other party.”

Those interested may view the AFA Action iVoterGuide online in advance of Nov. 6 voting. Americans can also find voting details and the contact information for local elections offices here.

American Family Association representatives are available to conduct immediate breaking news interviews via its LTN line at AFA studio headquarters. Contact Media@HamiltonStratetgies.com for more information or call 610.584.1096, ext. 102.

View the media page for AFA here. For more information on American Family Association, visit www.afa.net or follow AFA on Facebook or on Twitter @AmericanFamAssc.

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To interview a representative from the American Family Association, contact Deborah Hamilton, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, 610.584.1096, ext. 102, or Jeff Tolson, ext. 108.