9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. 12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. I now claim that Christ likeness must be our ONLY qualification for a candidate to receive my vote to represent we who call ourselves Christians. If not, and we are party to someone’s election, then we are also culpable for what they do as our representative. And, yes, that means their crimes committed while in office. My God comes before any political party, before any social issue, before my state, and before my country. In fact, as Paul explains to us in Phil. 3 we are aliens in this world and our citizenry is no longer here on Earth, but we are in Christ. I call upon all who claim the name of Christ to renew their minds and no longer be conformed to this world when it comes to casting our vote for candidates. ]]>