One of the fundamental rules of politics is that the only poll that matters is the one taken on Election Day. We learned that in the most recent Iowa caucuses. Polls showed Donald Trump ahead by five points. He lost by four. That is a nine-point swing — way off. Polls may reflect the sentiments of voters, but they do not tell you which candidate is going to get supporters to the voting place.

Evangelical Christians are disgusted with the policies of the Obama administration, but will that disgust help elect a president who will take us in a different direction? They are passionately pro-life and pro-traditional marriage. They are also the people most likely to want to cut government spending, address the national debt, reduce government regulations, cut taxes and protect our Second Amendment rights. Yet none of that matters if they don’t vote.

In the last presidential election, 65 million evangelicals stayed home, giving Obama a second term to continue his fundamental transformation of the United States. They were lukewarm about Romney 2012 as they were about McCain four years earlier. Without an effective get-out-the-vote strategy for churches that transcends the enthusiasm factor, Republicans will lose the upcoming presidential election.

Democrats operate like a big city political machine, paying for votes in the inner city and using fear to motivate the black vote. In every presidential election they tell black voters that Republicans are going to return them to slavery or take away their voting rights. They will say and do anything — including telling outrageous lies and spewing Marxist propaganda — to get their people out to vote. Buses will be sent to pick them up from nursing homes and elderly housing. They will spread “walking around” money to “motivate” them. When they get them to the polls, they order them to vote a straight Democrat ticket. Nice people.

It is not necessary to replicate these racist and illegal antics, but it is absolutely necessary that a strong GOTV strategy is adopted, especially in conservative evangelical churches.

First, each pastor needs to make sure that every member of the church is registered to vote. Churches should hold two voter registration months each year — one for primaries and one for the general election. The pastor should preach a sermon in each of these months to explain that in a free society where you get to choose your political leaders, not voting is a sin. In most countries throughout the world, citizens have no say over who leads them. American Christians must be taught that it is a blessing from God to be a citizen of this Constitutional Republic, where our rights are protected and we choose our representatives.

Second, a permanent voter registration coordinator should be appointed in every church to make sure that 100 percent of those eligible to vote are registered. Free software is available to check on the voter registration of each member.

Third, churches should include citizenship in Sunday School curriculum to teach congregants that Christians have a responsibility to God to vote their biblical principles, not race or party. Many Christians, and not just black Americans, voted for Barrack Obama, and he has turned out to be the quintessential anti-Christian president. Christians in America have paid a terrible price during his presidency, not to mention the tens of thousands of persecuted and murdered Christians in the Middle East and Africa that he has ignored.

Fourth, every member should be asked to sign a pledge to vote and include in that pledge a plan for when, where and how they are getting to the polls. For those people who need help getting to the voting booth, the church should organize to be sure they get there. It is perfectly legal for churches to use their busses to transport people to the polls, and they should do so.

Finally, there must be follow-up after an election. The church should recognize and celebrate those who voted. It is important to make voting a big deal in the lives of Christians.

The left is dragging America into a Godless, amoral abyss. It is up to pastors and churches across America to make sure we fulfill the vision of “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

E.W. Jackson is the founder and Senior Pastor of THE CALLED Church, founder of the Chesapeake Martin Luther King Leadership Breakfast and founder/president of Stand Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to bringing citizens together across racial and cultural lines to restore America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and values.

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