Rick Beggs says he did his research before voting in Tuesday's runoff

Rick Beggs Welcome to the Compass, navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Hey, this is Rick Beggs, and I'm with Debbie wealth now. And we are the, Compass. Debbie. I voted today.

Debbie Wuthnow Rick. Good job, Rick.

Rick Beggs I did. We had our, special. Was it crowded in here?

Debbie Wuthnow Were there a lot of people voting?

Rick Beggs Oh, no, no, it was a handful. But it's been raining really hard here today, so. But this is the only day we could do it. So we went and didn't early vote for next Tuesday.

Debbie Wuthnow This is a runoff, right?

Rick Beggs It is, yeah. We had.

Debbie Wuthnow We had not as many people vote.

Rick Beggs I have runoffs and for all the big offices on, in the Republican primary. So it's really important. I knew you'd be proud of me. I probably should ask.

Debbie Wuthnow Get a gold star, buddy.

Rick Beggs Yeah. What would be the next question?

Debbie Wuthnow Well, how did you decide who to vote for, Rick?

Rick Beggs Debbie. I use this little thing called iVoterGuide, and I want to. I vote.

Debbie Wuthnow I heard it's pretty cool.

Rick Beggs It not only cool, it's truthful. So anyway, I, I did that today. I just went back through all of those. You know, we had to vote all on these people about a month ago. But, I went back through, looked through all of them and, made my selections and we went and voted. And I have to tell you, if all the work you have to do is put your address in for your ballot to come up, somebody's done a lot of work. So I appreciate I Voter Guide. And Debbie, I appreciate you because you are the president.

Debbie Wuthnow Well, I appreciate you and I appreciate you for voting and for doing your research before you voted, because honestly, that's all I wanted everybody to do, is to get into the polls and, and give them a tool so they know who to vote for. And, you know, sometimes, even though, it's still hard to decide even if you have somebody doing the research because, you know, who's most qualified? Who. Who do I pick between, what we're doing? So.

Rick Beggs Yeah. And they.

Debbie Wuthnow How did you decide?

Rick Beggs Both could have the same rating, conservative or verified conservative. And still you have to choose between two. I think we're going to kind of push that discussion, farther down the road, maybe in this broadcast or later, but because there are times you can go in the booth and you have two qualified people, what is going to be your litmus test when you're in there so that you at least feel like you made a decision based on your convictions and, and all of us, for the most part, have very few between us because of our biblical worldview. But there's some nuances. I will look.

Debbie Wuthnow Especially in the, in the primary. Yeah, especially in the primary.

Rick Beggs Yeah. But the hard one is when you walk into that booth and neither one of the candidates is good.

Debbie Wuthnow Well, that. Now I dread that. But it happens. I'm so glad I don't live in California. I mean, it's beautiful. But the frequently, in November you just don't have a good choice. You got, yeah, two Democrats that make it to November. So what are you going to do?

Rick Beggs Yeah. And now you really are talking about the lesser of two evils.

Rick Beggs But that's not what we're going to talk about today.

We titled last week Furthermore. This week we're going to title this one Furthermore More

So last week, we were talking about the verse in Exodus, Exodus 18:21. So if you have that handy. Debbie, would you read that again? Because we titled that show last week Furthermore. This week we're going to title this one, Furthermore two. It's like we have a sequel coming out.

Debbie Wuthnow Sequel to Furthermore. So Furthermore. Can I call it Furthermore More. More Furthermore.

Rick Beggs It's a little bit, It's a little redundant and it's really hard to say. Just say furthermore too.

Debbie Wuthnow Furthermore.

Rick Beggs Read on.

Exodus 18:21 says you need to select leaders of thousands

Debbie Wuthnow Okay, so this is Exodus 18, verse 21. Furthermore, you shall select, out of all the people, able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate, dishonest gain, and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands of, hundreds of 50s and of tens. So last week we talked about kind of. Go ahead.

Rick Beggs Yeah, no, you finish the sentence.

Debbie Wuthnow I was just gonna, I was gonna say, last week we talked about the context of this whole, scripture. You know, what was Moses doing? And his father in law shows up and watches him at work and says, moses, you cannot be judging all of the people. You need to select these leaders. and we talked a lot about, you know, what was going through Moses's head and what was going through Jethro's head and, and, and the levels of government that are implied by this. Tens, fifties, hundreds and thousands. But there's a section in the middle of that verse that I feel like really gives. one of the places in the Bible God gives other places where he gives, you know, qualifications for elders, for teachers. But I think this is qualifications or qualities that you want to look for in those people that you select as leaders of hundreds of thousands, of 50s and of tens. And I think we should really talk through that.

Rick Beggs What do you think, Rick? And it's in that, Furthermore verse that you read are all those characteristics that you look for. But I think it's it. It probably is appropriate, if you're a leader of a business. These are the types of men and women you're looking for as well. Or in your church. These are the types of people.

Debbie Wuthnow I think anytime somebody's in. Anybody who's in leadership, these are excellent, qualities to, look for in. In leaders in any area. Honestly, I'd love babysitters to do some of these, you know, people you put over your kids. It's just good qualities. Right. Well, you can't get an able babysitter.

Rick Beggs Babysitter coming over to your house and wanting to make sure that they adhere to these, distinctions.

Debbie Wuthnow You're trusting them with your babies.

Rick Beggs Yeah, that's right.

Debbie Wuthnow Or your grandkids. Well, they're great qualities.

Rick Beggs Yep.

We would love able men and women, um, to be leaders

So what's the first one we want to talk about?

Debbie Wuthnow Well, honestly, the first two words. Able men or. Yes, because, you know, they use men to. To mean people. in most cases. In many cases. In this one, we would love able men and women, to be.

Rick Beggs Yes.

Debbie Wuthnow Those we select as leaders.

What does it mean to be an able person or an able man

So what does it mean to be an able person or an able man?

Rick Beggs Well, take a crack at it. Take. Take a crack at it. What comes to your mind when you hear the word able?

Debbie Wuthnow A bunch of things come to my mind. So without just spewing them, the first one is that they're qualified, which to me means they have, the skill set. So maybe the training. The training they have the character traits or the aptitude to be that job. Do you need a hard worker? Do you need somebody creative? Whatever you need for that position that they have, that quality. and to me, it's more, a little bit of it is about experience. Are they ready for this job? Would they be able to perform well if we give them this responsibility? So it's both training and knowledge, but also, wisdom. Not just the book smarts about it. But can they apply that in doing this job? Would you agree?

Rick Beggs Yeah, I would. Matter of fact, I actually looked it up. You know, I'm not a big dictionary guy, but sometimes when you. When you hear a word, we all assume what able means. but what I read was that the word able primarily functions as an adjective. Adjective.

Debbie Wuthnow Adjective objective or adjective adverb. What are we talking about here?

Rick Beggs Gosh. Yes. Adjective, meaning having the necessary. I know, it just. It wouldn't come out of my mouth.

Debbie Wuthnow Right.

Rick Beggs It's still not coming out of my mouth. Right. Meaning having the necessary power. Skill. You were just talking about that. qualifications. Resources or opportunity to do something. It also denotes being highly competent, talented.

Debbie Wuthnow Okay.

Rick Beggs Can do, or skilled in a particular field.

Debbie Wuthnow Okay.

Rick Beggs Able.

Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, I would. That kind of goes along with what I was saying. So they need to be able to do it. one other thing that occurs to me is, the courage and the backbone to do what needs to be done. Not just the ability to do it, but the, conviction to do what's right. Even when it's, when it's hard to make the right judgment and then to follow through on it. so that judgment and that courage to do the hard thing, the right thing. That might not be easy. I mean, if we think about our elected representatives, there's a lot of pressure that gets put on them by lobbyists, by, the other side just come on, compromise and come to an agreement. But if you, you need, and there's an, there is always an element of finding the win, win in those types of situations. But to stand firm in, in doing what's right, to me, that's part of ability, to do the job that you need to have that courage. That makes sense.

Rick Beggs And. Oh yeah, but even so, when you do get that job, whatever job it is, but in this case, you go to D.C. or you go to the capital of your state to serve the people who voted you in the influence and the rush of pressure that comes around. So when you say backbone, sometimes you may get the job. And you were more than able to do that job, but now you're swayed when you go there. Why? Because every morning you get, up, you open up the paper and you may read good, bad or ugly things about you based on somebody's opinion. And now social media side, well, there, there it is again. Social media. I mean, just the power of words, of people, may make you do things you would have never done before, even after you get elected. So, Abel.

Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.

Rick Beggs Well, we all, I like. We want to be like backbone. Yes, yes. We all want to be liked. Sadly, it's our human condition, isn't it?

Debbie Wuthnow Yeah. And some of us are more people pleaser than others. So it's that element of pleasing the one, pleasing God and doing what's right instead of, you know, some comments or the trolls that are out there. I learned that phrase, on social media, they're just, they're pushing buttons, they're trying to cause trouble. And can you. Do you have the, the ability to, to, to use your judgment, to apply your wisdom and to do what's right even when it's not hard or when it Is hard.

Rick Beggs Yeah. and that you playing for an audience of one.

Debbie Wuthnow I love that phrase and it's so key. Yeah it, that is, you know, seek first the kingdom of God, seek please him, and then let let the flag fall where it may and flack will come. We, it's promised. But don't let that sway you from doing what you know is right.

Rick Beggs So if you are able.

Rick Beggs Does that make you just qualified to be the guy picked? Evidently not.

Debbie Wuthnow Qualifications there.

Rick Beggs Yeah.

It's able men who fear God, it's the phrase able men

So what's the next one?

Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, in fact I love well and, and I would group this. So if you look at the grammar, which I wasn't excellent at grammar, but it's able men who fear God. It's not able men comma who fear God, it's the phrase able men who fear God. So to me, well the first one is you can't just be able to know that. You can't just be able. to me this is somebody with a biblical worldview. Somebody that and this isn't the scary fear that I'm trembling and I'm afraid. This is the reverence and the awe, knowing who God is, understanding his power, understanding your position in relationship to him and having a biblical worldview.

Voter Guide suggests looking for biblical worldview in prospective candidates for office

So this is where I will frequently say we, we want to, I personally want to elect people who think like I think, people who share my values and to me, sharing my worldview, my biblical worldview is what that means to me is the able man who fears God, who to me it becomes a Christian, they understand or at least a, you know, would they say a deist that fears God and understands there is a God that judges and, and oversees the world, what does that mean to you?

Rick Beggs Yeah, I, I, when, when you hear people talk that they don't want a relationship with God because they feel he's some angry deity and then they point to verses about fear. They don't, they don't really have a biblical perspective of what that word actually means. you described it as a reverence or awe, a respect, a deep submission, you know, to somebody higher than you and their authority. And then you add on top of that, I mean the majesty of God, the holiness of God and in his ability to do any and everything he desires. Yeah, I, well and love the idea of somebody who's qualified and who also believes that about God combined.

Debbie Wuthnow Well and I agree. And a couple of proverbs come to mind. 17 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and Instruction so that it's like the foundation or the prerequisite to have the wisdom to do the job. And then Proverbs 9, 10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One. And knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. So that reverence, that fear, is a prerequisite of the wisdom and knowledge that we want to see in our elected representatives. So when you contrast that with what a fool looks like. Go ahead.

Rick Beggs I've been there many times myself. but I just know, even walking into the booth today thinking of this verse, because we had, you know, just discussed it last week and really thinking through about the men and women who are running for these offices and was there a place that I could gather from all the information I got of high voter Guide? Was there, Could I come up with an able man or woman who fears God, who awes God, who understands the holiness and majesty of God? Not, being terrified of an angry God, but being so inspired by him. Is that possible to find those things when we look through? I voter guy, I said it's possible because there are a lot of places. Yes, I could find and match up information.

Debbie Wuthnow Well, where did. What specifically gave you that information?

Rick Beggs Well, for instance, I could look through and see who gave to them and who did they give to. I mean, you. We've gathered that as public record, but if I could match what they've done in those areas, who they gave to, who gave to them, and if they answered the survey, I could read. Yeah, their, their worldview did that's the best way.

Debbie Wuthnow Honestly.

Rick Beggs A biblical worldview. Yeah, but, but a lot of times you don't get that. But you may see in the body of all of their work how, they voted, who gave them money.

Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.

Rick Beggs On their social media, what do they talk about? And you can get little glimpses of things that might give you a clue. Did you, do you ever play when you were. Well, not you, but your kids. where in the world does Carmen San Diego. Did you ever do that game?

Debbie Wuthnow Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rick Beggs He would put you somewhere in the world and you had to find. You had to find the way. Yeah, it was one of the early games. my kids love that. That's kind of what this is. You have given all the information and I at I voter Guide and now, the little bit of work that I had to do was if I couldn't exactly find an able man or able woman who fear God, could I put enough puzzle pieces together with all the information I Voter guide has put together. Could I. Make some good decisions based on all that information. And the answer for me today was absolutely yes.

Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.

Rick Beggs Absolutely.

Debbie Wuthnow Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you, sometimes you have to dig a little deeper and you know, kind of compare things side by side or read the language.

Rick Beggs Well, not everybody does.

Debbie Wuthnow Every candidate would answer the questionnaire. Well, not everybody does, but when they do. I love that we have values questions on the survey that. I mean my favorite and I call it my tiebreaker is one that says briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values. So how do they describe their relationship to Jesus or to God? Or do they say, you know, I grew up Catholic or did I, I just went to church. I'd love to see a candidate that exposes the. Their faith really and what the root of that is because that to me is that man who fears God. Do they understand that? We also ask about, you know, what does the separation of church and state mean to you? That can be very insightful if they've answered the survey. But you know, even if they haven't answered the survey, you can look for I would call them little seeds or the phrasing that they use in their social media or on their website or as you said in their, in their giving, you know, what types of organizations are they supporting, or are they receiving support from. Those are all little things that you can use use to try to determine both the able men and the, their relationship to God. But there's more in those qualifications too.

Rick Beggs Yeah, I mean if you. As we move on here, you know, it's not just able men or women who fear God and then. But there's a next step.

Debbie Wuthnow There's two more steps. Yeah.

Rick Beggs In the scripture, but the next step in this one is men of truth.

Are candidates telling the truth when they write surveys or questionnaire

So how do we, are we gonna figure out who's truthful? Because honestly, when you look at the you know, the survey that you take or the questionnaire that you give them, who knows that they're telling the truth when they write this? Are they writing. I mean these are things that, that you really before, even before I went into Ivoter, God was to say, lord, I need your wisdom here. I'm going to get a lot of information. Help me make a decision based on your truth, not on their truth. Everybody wants to talk about their truth today. There's only one truth. And so Lord, show me what your truth is. For this person who I'm looking to vote for and have be a leader for me, speaking on behalf of me in my state or My federal government.

Debbie Wuthnow Well, I think there's two layers of it. We want them. To me, truth is one of the attributes of God. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. But it's also a moral standard of conduct that we can assign to humans. Are we truthful? Do we tell the truth? Do we, you know, little white lies or, you know, any kind of a lie? and to me, that's part of this. Men of truth are, are they telling the truth? Not just, you know, do they know who is the truth, but, verifying the things they say. candidates will sometimes say one thing and do something different. And to me, that's not big.

Rick Beggs That's not, that's not true, is it? They will say something and then not do it. What are you nuts? Can't be true.

Debbie Wuthnow I'm just an observer of human character. I've seen it happen.

Rick Beggs That's right.

Debbie Wuthnow And yeah. so it's. And honestly, God calls us to be discerning, to be listening, and to be measuring what we even from our pastors. Right. The pastor will tell you, listen to my word, but go, go back to the word yourself and verify it. If we do that for the teaching from our pastors, how much more should we do do that for people seeking the power and authority of being an elected representative. So we really need to just not take them at their word. I mean, I mean, until they verify themselves or, you know, you. But even then, we still need to be, what, wisest? wisest serpents? Innocent as doves. We need to be, well, be discerning in seeking who's telling the truth.

Rick Beggs Well, you're even. It's more important to you because you're from Missouri, which means you got to show.

Debbie Wuthnow Well, no, they got to show me. That's exactly right. I'm a show girl. So show it. Prove it to me. Prove. Prove it. Prove it. Don't just say it, do it. so that's what I. Okay, so here honestly, I,

Rick Beggs I'm hearing you.

Debbie Wuthnow Oh, I was going to say it applies to me more so in not just what you say you're going to do or what you've done, but what are you saying about your opponent is where I was going to go because sometimes they will not tell the. I mean the consultants, they try to win. Right. Are they telling. Are they telling the truth in all areas, I guess is a way to say that.

Rick Beggs Well, how I sort of measured this again in I voter guide. If we're going to kind of stay to why we exist for People not only to be good citizens and to vote wisely. And we want to be telling the truth. And so we're trying to ferret out how they have lived out truth. But one of the ways that was very fascinating for me to do was I would. I would look through, let's say they answered the questionnaire and. And then I read through that stuff. Well, then I would take what they said about each of those categories and I would go back and see who gave them money. Who did they give money to?

Debbie Wuthnow Well, that's putting it all in context and looking at the whole. That's right. Picture.

Rick Beggs Right. Or how they voted. This may be somebody who's been in another office. They may have been a state representative, and now they're running for lieutenant governor. And you can go back and read some of the records of how they voted. And you go, okay, so this is that guy who said one thing.

Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.

Rick Beggs And did another. And now, you know, something different. Ruth. Yeah, go ahead.

Debbie Wuthnow Truth is important.

Quality, which is, well, how's it phrased

Well, I want to make sure we have time to get to that last quality. Quality, which is, well, how's it phrased. Those who hate dishonest gain. A different translation says not corruptible. So, aren't covetousness or don't have covetousness. So to me, that's an important quality as well, because we don't want them in it for their own gain, for their own, power, for their own greed. we want them to run. We want them to serve the audience of one and be honest and truthful.

Rick Beggs And of course, this is what Moses was searching for when Jethro gave him this. And then later on in. In that portion of scripture in chapter 18, Moses actually went after the men's and women. The men and women. In that case, back then, it was the men. Hey, Debbie, what is that sound?

There are several important elections coming up this week in elections

That's for elections.

Debbie Wuthnow That means we got elections coming up this week. And let's talk about those elections that are coming up this week. So you voted today, early voting, but they're, you know, this coming Tuesday, which is the 16th, there's going to be a primary runoff, another runoff election, which are so important. That one's going to be in Alabama. Polls are going to open at 7am and close at 7pm California, you have a special election. Really key to vote in those special elections. I know you just had your primary, but the special for CD14, you have to drop your ballot off by 8:00pm Georgia, again, there's. You have your runoff. So on Tuesday, vote for. Between 7am and 7pm and also on Tuesday in Oklahoma, you have your full primary where polls are open from 7am to 7pm Again, all your information [email protected] but we also have early voting or absentee voting going on in Maryland, through the 18th for their primary on the 23rd. In NewSong York, early voting starts today, this Saturday for your election on the 23rd. Utah, early voting runs through Friday, the 19th. Your primary will be on June 23rd. And then Louisiana early voting is underway for your primary runoff on June 27th. And lastly Colorado, but not leastly, you have early voting starting on the 12th and your primary will be on June 30th. So that's what's coming up this week in elections. And where can they go to ivoterguide.com before you vote?

Rick Beggs That's right.

Debbie Wuthnow iVoterGuide.com put in, enter your address, your ballot. Yep. And sign up for our email list and we will send you emails with details.

Rick Beggs And I want to encourage our listeners, if they missed any of our episodes, you can go on to afr.net afr.net or even better yet, get the AFR app. And then right there you can not only listen to our broadcast Saturdays, when we're on 2:30 on the east coast, but you can also go back and look at, and listen to our other, broadcasts that we have done. And if you have any questions, we would, really encourage you to write us at [email protected] Remember, we're grounded in God and, and rooted in research. Want to thank our producer, Brent Austin and remember our true love as always, Jesus.