How Would Jesus Vote?: A Christian Perspective on the Issues (Hardcover)

~ Dr. D. James Kennedy (Author), Jerry Newcombe (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his final book, Kennedy, who died in September of this year, joins his Coral Ridge Ministries colleague Newcombe in proffering this biblical justification of their socially conservative position on issues important to their followers, including abortion, the death penalty, war, education and freedom of religion. Kennedy and Newcombe make provocative claims throughout. Regarding abortion, they cite a study that found that 99% of women who have had abortions now wish abortions were illegal. About allocation of government funds, they argue that money currently spent on school lunch programs would be better spent on national defense against jihadists. When discussing health care, they accuse England and the Netherlands, both countries with national health services, of killing babies and the elderly. Such remarks are paired with what Kennedy and Newcombe characterize as a humble search of the Scriptures, and each chapter ends with a summary of how the authors feel Jesus would have American Christians vote. While most of this book is standard conservative Christian fare, Kennedy and Newcombe give it a distinctive Calvinist flavor, focusing particularly on Calvin's belief that God has distributed this world's goods as he has seen fit, and that not all poor people are deserving of Christian charity.
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Review

“Scripture commands us to ‘influence and occupy,’ to ‘expose the deeds of darkness,’ and to ‘let our light so shine.’  How does the Church do that without bringing a biblical worldview into the ‘marketplace of ideas’? In How Would Jesus Vote?, Dr. D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe brilliantly unravel the argument that Christians should not be involved in ‘politics.’  After finishing this book, dear reader, you will eagerly seek the next opportunity to take the Gospel out into the whole culture, including the political arena.”
–Janet Parshall, nationally syndicated talk show host


“Dr. Kennedy is one of my personal heroes — a man of tremendous courage and faith with a great heart and vision for restoring America’s Godly heritage.  This book is a wake-up call to us, as individual believers and the church, to not stand on the sidelines, but to vigorously defend our faith and values in the public square.”
–Alan Sears, President, CEO & General Counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press (January 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400074061
• ISBN-13: 978-1400074068
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #658,439 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very timely and thought provoking, February 8, 2008

By	Barbara Warren - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

It's an election year, as you've probably noticed. The candidates all want to tell us how wonderful they are and how they can solve all of our problems. But how do they measure up in God's sight?
So how would Jesus vote, Democrat or Reublican? If you said neither, you got it right. Contrary to popular opinion, Jesus doesn't belong to any political party, but he does care about how we stand on the issues and how they compare with God's Word. The authors cover a lot of topics we need to consider when deciding how to vote: abortion, stem cell research, suicide and euthanasia, war, education, health-care, environment, etc. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of a campaign, and forget the important things, like where does that candidate stand on the issues, and what is acceptable to God.
The authors don't tell you how to vote. They just examine the issues from a biblical point of view, back it up with scripture, and leave the rest up to you. Very thought provoking, especially for an election year. Recommended.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The author's perspective on the issues..., September 19, 2008

By	jeff! (OH) - See all my reviews

I'm giving this book two stars instead of one because it isn't the worst book imaginable, but, as others have stated, it is pretty bad. In what I believe to be an honest attempt to instruct the reader where Jesus would stand regarding certain issues, it gives a very one-sided evaluation of an issue, followed by a concluding paragraph that states (literally) "Jesus would vote for (insert position)." Amazingly, Jesus ends up taking the Republican stance on every issue, and the author's "evaluation" of the issues do nothing more than give the author's reasoning for why he believes that Jesus would take said stance. This is basically a book telling you the author's stance, and his [weak] arguments for why he believes Jesus would agree with him.

For instance, the author states that Jesus would not believe that global warming is caused by humans, and the support he gives to this argument is that most evangelicals do not believe so. The author argues that scientists are divided on the issue of whether or not global warming is caused by human activity, and that it is only due to the [liberally] biased media that we aren't aware of this. On the "issue" of education, the author forgets about the premise of the book and spends a chapter trashing public education. Using a few random statistics that are supposed to show why he believes the American education system is completely ineffective (and let's admit, we aren't world leaders in public education, but his statistics are weak support for his argument) and he then claims that the downfall of public education lies in its secularization. According to the author, any good Christian who can afford it should home-school their child or send them to a private Christian school. The author concludes that Jesus wouldn't be happy with the American public education system, and ends the chapter saying little more that that Christians will be held responsible for the education that their children receive.

I'll stop with the examples, but read this book for yourself and you'll see how clearly biased it is. The author gives no perspective whatsoever on these issues, many of which are far more complex than he would ever lead you to believe, and clearly argues from a very conservative standpoint why, in his opinion "Jesus is on our side." We all know these arguments, and this book is not what America needs. We need truth and earnest dialogue; this is not conversation, this is a soapbox.

12 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wow. This is indescribably misleading., July 21, 2008

By	J. SHARP (Alabama - United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am an evangelical Christian. I am conservative on many social issues (especially abortion), moderate on most civil liberties and foreign policy, and liberal on a few economic issues. I thought I'd check this book out, based on its claim of nonpartisanship, to see what scriptural wisdom might be applied to political issues that have an element of ambiguity, like entitlement programs or the minimum wage.

Well, there's little help in that regard here. On moral issues, things are pretty clear but whenever there's no scripture to directly back up a claim (some chapters quote no verses to support their position) the authors merely default to a conservative position and try to make it sound like God agrees with them. This is especially true when it comes to economic issues.

I think many honest Christians unconsciously mistake a cultural influence toward conservatism for a scriptural position without really examining it. This book either falls victim to that or takes advantage of it.

How would Jesus vote, according to this book? Straight ticket Republican.