Dear Texas Pastors: 

As you know, there is an opportunity to vote right around the corner.  This is an extremely important election and our churches MUST place a high value on ALL eligible members fulfilling their Biblically-mandated responsibilities as citizens at every opportunity.  To that end, we want to make sure that everyone is preparing for the November election.   

Please note the following important dates/deadlines:

•          Last Day to Register to Vote

•         October 4, 2010

•          First Day of Early Voting

•         October 18, 2010

•          Last Day to Apply for Ballot by Mail (Received, not Postmarked)

•         October 26, 2010

•          Last Day of Early Voting

•         October 29, 2010

•          Election Day

•         November 2, 2010

 There are three categories of potential voters that sometimes are not ready to vote on Election Day:

1.       First, those who have moved since the last election.  IF YOU HAVE MOVED SINCE THE MARCH PRIMARY ELECTIONS, YOU MUST RE-REGISTER TO VOTE. 

2.       Second, IF YOU TURNED 18 RECENTLY (or will turn 18 before November 2) YOU NEED TO REGISTER TO VOTE AND MAKE THIS YOUR FIRST ELECTION! 

3.       Third, even if you are properly registered and intend to vote, waiting until Election Day is risky because, well, life happens (car trouble, sudden business travel, sick kids, etc).  PLEASE MAKE PLANS TO VOTE EARLY, IDEALLY ON THE FIRST DAY OF EARLY VOTING (October 18).  You may vote early at any early voting location in your county, and you only need to have a driver’s license (ie, you don’t even need your voting card).  So voting early is the easiest – and the safest.

 To help out those who need to register, here is a link to the Texas Secretary of State website where you can fill out the form, print it and mail it to the voter registrar in your county (ie, probably Harris or Montgomery County):

http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/reqvr.shtml

Your County Voter Registrar's address can be found at the top of the online outputted voter registration application once you have submitted your information from the fill-in-the blanks screen.

Pastors please announce that you will survey your members before early voting, during early voting and after Election Day.  We have found this to be a helpful tool to build enthusiasm, awareness and maximum voter turnout – our goal is 100 percent!  

Finally, if you have not yet ordered the non-partisan voter guides in quantity for your church’s needs please email us at info@uspastorcouncil.org ASAP and we will assure it is filled and guides delivered!

Austin, TX -   The Texas Pastor Council, an inter-racial, inter-denominational organization representing local pastor councils in Houston, Austin, Beaumont, El Paso and other pastors throughout the state, issued the following statement in support of the Balanced Teaching of Religious Groups (Rives) Resolution:

 “After reviewing the facts presented very clearly in the text of the Rives Resolution itself, particularly in light of increasing censorship of Christianity’s role in our history as well as current society, we support the adoption of the resolution.  Its key principle and objective is summed up very concisely in the title – balance.  Webster’s definitive 1828 dictionary gives one definition of this word as, ““Figuratively, an impartial state of the mind, in deliberating; or a just estimate of the reasons and arguments on both sides of a question, which gives to each its due weight, or force and importance.”

Balance presupposes equal weight given proportionately to more than one object, opinion, informational content, etc., and that is what is vital in our textbooks...

Back in "the day" as my children say, as a young man, husband, father as well as Christian, I read a book that, for me, was revolutionary. I was a product of a non-Christian home and government schools that even through the '60s and '70s had expunged references to Christianity from our history textbooks.

Like most of my peers, I was aware that our Founding Fathers were patriots but had never been told of the deep, personal Christian faith of so many of them. Then it happened.

In the early '80s, I bought and read "The Light and the Glory," authored by Rev. Peter Marshall and David Manuel. It rent the veil of the secularists and opened my eyes to the truth – our nation had deep Christian roots and heritage in the lives, documents and actions of those who risked all to hand this precious gift to us.

Little did I think I would have the privilege of working with and getting to know Peter on a personal level and the great passion for our Lord and for this country he displayed as a mirror of his father and mother. His sudden home going last week was another profound passing of a hero of our times, in the mold of D. James Kennedy, Bill Bright, Jerry Falwell and other such godly men.