This is Liz friends out with Crawford Media Group in Denver and today our guest is Debbie Wuthnow, president of I Voter Guide, a division of American Family Association. We’ll be talking about the upcoming election and what we can do to make a difference. Welcome to our program Debbie. Thanks for having me Liz. Debbie, tell us about I Voter Guide and what your mission is. So I Voter Guide is an online voter guide as the name implies. Our mission is to equip Christians or faith-based voters, Judeo-Christian voters to identify the candidates and information on their ballot that aligns their biblical issues because our freedoms have been under attack. We point to a quote from Bill Federer where he said the most important thing is to leave people to Christ and the second most important thing is to preserve the freedom to do the very same thing and that we see those freedoms being attacked by those we’ve elected or even judges that have been appointed by those we’ve elected. So we want to empower Christian voters, the Christian voter to be a wise, be a good steward and to vote wisely all across the ballot. You know, speaking of Bill Federer, I just saw him at the Truth and Liberty Conference up in Woodland Park this weekend and he was impressive as far as how he went over the history of the church and state and actually that whole thing was put into place so that the state couldn’t interfere with the church. But what he also said was really impressive on me was that your silence is giving your consent and I thought that was wow, that’s so true. So tell us why is it so important to get the Christian vote and do you have the statistics on the Christian vote? How many Christians do actually vote? Well, the statistic range depending on how you define Christian. So some groups will say that only 30% of Christians vote and that only half of Christians are registered to vote. You know, there’s 25 million who maybe even are registered to vote. To me, Christian participation in election comes down to a personal stewardship issue. I think I’ve heard David Barton say you really have two choices in this election and it’s not Harris and it’s not Trump. Do I vote or do I not vote? Because in the Bible’s clear, we are commanded to be salt life. We are commanded to let our light shine and to participate in government in the public square. We’re supposed to be a positive influence on government because if we don’t share righteousness, it’s certainly not going to come from anywhere else and the unrighteous will take charge and then their values will be promigated. And I think that’s what we’ve seen that’s happening and so Christians have got to participate and be salt light. You know, at a very minimum vote and vote wisely. Potentially, I would ask God, God calling me to do something else. There’s more to need to step up and actually run for office. That could be why we don’t have good candidates on the ballot. But Christians have got to get out of the pews and into the polling place and once they understand that that is their responsibility that I really need to vote, that’s where I vote or guide comes in because the next question is, well, who do I vote for? And so that’s why we research the candidates that are on the ballot from the top of the ticket down to even school board races around the nation because an information is power, but it takes a lot of time to research the candidates that are on your ballot. So I vote or guide has done a lot of that work for you and looked at not just what they say they’re going to do because sometimes kids will say one thing and do something different, but we do gather research on their actions. So if they’ve held office, we look at how have they voted on legislation? It’s called a scorecard. We have scorecards from hundreds of both liberal and conservative groups that score elected officials on how they’re voting a legislation on life and marijuana and taxes and healthcare and bigger government or smaller government. So that’s our best data point and the next data point is what have they done with their money? Because what somebody, you know, who somebody to support will indicate who what values they align with and who they accept money from, you know, are they getting big packs money? Who are they getting money from other candidates and things like that? So I vote or guide has that data as well as endorsement, which you could look at like, you know, somebody who says this, I think it’s the best candidate in this race. I vote or guide has got endorsement. Every candidate gets a chance to answer our issue survey, which is a broad spectrum issue survey. And then what I vote or guide does this really unique is we take that research and then I guess summarize it or use it to assign a rating to every candidate ranging from actually far left to verified liberal to verified conservative. We show it on a gas gauge when you get your personalized ballot at irotorguys.com. So we’re equipping the body of Christ to be able to steward of their vote by really gathering all the information that we can in one place, making it easy to use and personalize to every vote or cross the nation. I think that’s so important because I think looking at a ballot, it could be so daunting. There’s all these names, there’s all these bills or issues and they make it so convoluted that you can’t really decipher what are they really saying. If I vote yes for this does it mean the opposite because they twist it in a way that they do that and I think it’s so good that you’re able to put all of that and explain it all to make it easier for we the voters. Well, exactly. You know, I’m a voter too. So I’ve skipped in the ballot box and been surprised by the paragraphs of a ballot measure or a constitutional amendment or whatever they call it that they’re wanting me to say yes or no to and I read that thing and I’m like, well, what does that mean? Exactly. So I do what that does. So I voter guide really has stepped into that space and we are covering about 45 ballot measures across the nation. Three in Colorado, you may have more but the three that we’re really researching is you have one on abortion, you have one on school choice and then you have one on open primaries and ranked choice voting and there is a lot of deceptive media out there about what what they each mean. So I’ve got is gathering research, gathering arguments in favor of a yes, arguments in favor of a no, we’re looking at who is giving money to each side of that which really reveals what’s behind it and who’s behind pushing some of these quote unquote citizen initiated ballot measures and who’s endorsing them. But what I love is at the very beginning right under the ballot language, we have a section that says what does a yes mean and what does a no mean? So we get we get beyond give you clarity really as a voter of what does each vote accomplish or put into place because the you know some of the ads that go on the radio don’t paint the full picture and sometimes they don’t even tell the truth. Exactly and even if they even if they did say something about it like we said earlier, they can be saying one thing and it means something totally different but they make it sound really good. Yeah reproductive right. Yeah you’re taking away my right to control my body. Yeah they use phrases we call them code words that say they sound good but they really need something else. So our team is really trained to analyze those and factor that in when we’re clarifying that what do the ballot measures mean and even when we’re rating candidates to read through and look for those code words because those are in a way glimmers or red flags for the positions that those candidates support. Yeah exactly. You know speaking of the ballot measures here in Colorado, what are some of the other issues that Christians in general should be concerned about when they are thinking about casting their vote? Oh there’s some well you know Christians are Americans so the issues that Christians care about are overlapped with what Americans care about so the economy. Where is what’s going on with inflation and jobs and you know I’m not keeping as much of my income so that’s important because that impacts my family. I think beyond that as a Christian we still have to pay attention to life. God gives us life. What is going on with where that position is in your state or with your elected representative? I think parental rights has become an important issue for conservatives as they’ve looked at what’s going on in the schools with the trans and I don’t even know what to describe it. So what’s going on with the indoctrination of our children? And that’s really why we started covering schools because of all the CRT and the sexual oscillation of our children. So I think we need to know where your candidates stand on that. So you know as we’re doing our research and looking at the issues is government getting bigger or smaller on our parents having rights. Do they want boys and girls to pass around? All of those issues we factor that in as we’re evaluating candidates but we’re also looking at the values of the candidate so that rating is not just on the issues but it’s on trying to get to the world view of that candidate. So we ask values questions like on marriage, on gay marriage, on the the the the the the the the the the the the boys and girls bathrooms and even asking candidates to describe their spiritual beliefs and values. Because if you understand what what their foundation is that helps you to know if they really are going to represent what’s important to you as a vote. Yeah and I you know I think to as Christians not only being Americans but as Christians that they should vote biblically like what does God say about these issues you know because they’re important. It is but how many people know that? I mean, I’ve got some scary studies but what 51% of Americans will say they have a biblical world view but only 9% really do. So I think that I would call on people to really to try to learn what really does the Bible say. I voter guy has written we write weekly emails that are educational and we then turn those into articles on our website. We have a whole series of what the Bible says about per its rights what the Bible says about immigration other other issues that are important to Christians. So go check it out at ivoterguide.com. Click on insights and articles you can even search it. We’ve got tabs to find them by category but make sure you’re educated. Sadly that same similar study from George Barna said that only 37% of pastors have a biblical worldview so we can’t necessarily assume that just going to church on Sunday morning is going to be the spiritual education that we need and we need to take ownership of our own discipleship and to seek that out and make sure you’re training your children and your grandchildren in what biblical values really are. Right and I think you hit on a good point as far as the pastors. I think they really need to make a stand up at the pulpit and start talking about these issues and not think we need to you know don’t need to confuse church and state but that we really need to get state into our churches but keep the state out and really inform the church of these issues. So leads to my next question what do you say when people are against let’s say President Trump or even Harris they don’t they don’t want to vote because they don’t like either one of them. Well I’ve actually been listening to some sermons on this and Gary Hammer has a great one if anybody wants to go listen to it which is that a Christian should and you can’t it’s you got there is no choice to not vote it is biblical to participate in to be felt light we’ve got to be light and then you can’t nobody there’s no perfect candidate none of us are good even Jesus said no one is good but God so there is no perfect candidate we are all sinners but we need to vote more on the policies and less on the personality who’s going to accomplish more biblical things not 100% biblical things but more biblical things compared to the other candidate so it’s choosing the candidate who will restrain evil more and accomplish more good at every level but especially the presidential level. We’re visiting with Debbie Wuthnow president of I Voter Guide a division of American Family Association and we’ve been talking about the upcoming election and the importance of voting now more than ever Debbie what would be one takeaway you would like to leave our listeners with today. I would encourage them before you vote get some information and go to I Voter Guide.com enter your voting address your red where you are your address and we will provide you with a personalized ballot in in Colorado we will be releasing that on October the 10th about October the 10th which is right about the time that they start mailing out anybody who’s requested us to vote by mail and prior to early voting so be an informed voter go to I Voter Guide.com I would actually encourage you to go sign up for our emails because it is educational they’re designed to be short and shareable educational content that will teach you more about civics and what the Bible says about political issues but then something that you could share with your friends and your families to help educate them we can’t depend on our pastors we each have to do our own responsibility so vote wisely and then help share that information with others. I love what you said when you said one of the ways people can be sought to flavor and even preserve the world is to influence those who manage our government by participating in the election process and voting when eligible voters choose not to vote they walk away from our chance to make a difference. Debbie thank you so much for taking the time with us today and I encourage all of our listeners go to I Voter Guide find out the information you need get the resources you need to make an educated vote and vote. Amen vote thank you Liz. [Music]
