Where to begin? I have always attempted to avoid politics because as a pastor who believes that God certainly did give His children free will, my position is to explain what God expects of us and not my party leanings. Okay, now I can move to phase one.

In Samuel 8, old Samuel wanted to have his sons as leaders, but they were dishonest and not fit to fill the position. The elders said to him, "Your sons can't be dependent upon to even pretend to be judges. Give us a king like every other nation has."

Samuel replied, "Alright. But you'd best be warned. This king will take your sons and make them part of his army. He will make most you work in the fields and he will claim every vegetable. He'll make your daughters into cooks and slaves. Ten percent of everything you possess will belong to him. You just might ask God to forgive your choice and make everything like it used to be, but God won't listen."

Their answer, "We want a king!"

While the Israelites believed they would make a divine choice, here's what they did. Samuel 9, "There was a very wealthy man who just happened to have a son who was not only the most handsome in the town, he was the tallest." While the biblical story gives us a lot of information about Saul, the king to be, my guess is that being tall and handsome beats the socks off being an average guy. Most likely, the signs read, "Pick Saul. He's Tall!"

According to what I have read, "A country's history is shaped by its people and not by its leaders."

Sounds good, but I have to debate this side of the argument. One source said that we must recognize historical figures like Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Stalin and Hitler and claim disastrously bad endings. Another writer tells us, "History is driven by individuals. Inventors, authors, rebels, revolutionaries, assassins, explorers, founders of movements all have made and changed history."

Now for the other side. History also teaches us that the masses -- that's us -- can stand up and challenge and defeat even the most powerful leaders. Take the fall of the Soviet Union for example.

Let's move to another point. Since many countries have many styles of government, what leadership form is the best? Most seem to agree that democratic leadership is the most effective and so my choice is the good old U.S.A. First off, we are a republic – as stated in our Pledge to Allegiance – which means we the people have the right to use our political power to freely choose and elect our representatives. We have a Constitution to follow and, if we take the time to read it, has agreed upon articles and amendments with checks and balances. That ought to be the end of any argument. Unfortunately, the weakness of a democracy is that we can elect some winners and losers who can serve in a majority or a minority party. We should have listened to George Washington who believed -- and I think rightly so -- that parties were factions that would divide, disrupt and even use violence to advance their point of view.

Final point. We are a nation that has a pot full of people on both sides of the political spectrum. I have some good friends who think my way of thinking is so full of compromise and evaluation that I simply can't see their point of view. I believe that their point of view is so wacky that they can't separate the trees from the forest. What we have agreed on is that we will listen to one another and bite our tongues and keep our opinions to ourselves. We get along just fine. We have also agreed that whichever party wins this fall, we will support the elected and work very hard to make the party in power a force of good for the country.

God gives us the freedom of choice. Choose wisely.

Thanks, God!