November 3, Floridians will vote to either add or not add six amendments to the FL Constitution. In today’s sermon, we cover Amendment 1 and 2 which deal with prohibiting non-citizens from voting as well as a proposal to raise the minimum wage in Florida to $15 per hour. Today, we look at these proposed constitutional amendments and apply Biblical principles to determine which way we should vote. View more sermons applying Biblical principles to government as well as other subjects at our YouTube Channel, Facebook page, or at www.CovenantTabernacle.com.
Opening Passage — Psalm 149.
A 60 percent supermajority vote is required for the approval of any amendment to the FL Constitution.
Biblical Principles
Our Constitution and Laws Must be Based on God’s Law – Deuteronomy 4:8 — “And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?” (NKJV)
Proposed Constitutional Amendment 1, Article VI, Section 2 – Citizenship Requirement to Vote in Florida Elections
What the Proposed Would Do: Amendment 1 would amend Section 2 of Article VI of the Florida Constitution to state that only citizens of the United States who are 18 years old or older are qualified electors in Florida.
The Florida Constitution currently says, “Every citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age and who is a permanent resident of the state, if registered as provided by law, shall be an elector of the county where registered.”
Under the ballot measure, the Florida Constitution would say, “Only a citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age and who is a permanent resident of the state, if registered as provided by law, shall be an elector of the county where registered.”
A “yes” vote supports amending the Florida Constitution to state that “only a citizen” of the U.S. who is 18 years old or older can vote in Florida.
A “no” vote opposes amending the Florida Constitution, thus keeping the existing language that says “every citizen” of the U.S. who is 18 years old or older can vote in Florida.
How The Amendment Reached The Ballot: Citizen Initiative, funded by the Committee Citizen Voters, Inc.
Biblical Principles
The Same Law — Leviticus 24:22 – “‘You shall have the same law for the stranger and for one from your own country; for I am the LORD your God.’” (NKJV)
Deuteronomy 31:12-13 – “Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, “and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”
Recommendation: Vote Yes
Proposed Constitutional Amendment 2, Article VI, Section 2 — Raising Florida’s Minimum Wage
What the Proposed Would Do: Amendment 2 would increase the state minimum wage from $8.56 in 2020 to $15.00 in 2026. Under Amendment 2, the state minimum wage would increase each year as follows:
$10.00 on September 30, 2021;
$11.00 on September 30, 2022;
$12.00 on September 30, 2023;
$13.00 on September 30, 2024;
$14.00 on September 30, 2025; and
$15.00 on September 30, 2026.
Beginning on September 30, 2027, there would be an annual adjustment to the state minimum wage based on increases to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).
A “yes” vote supports the initiative to increase the state’s minimum wage incrementally until reaching $15 per hour in September 2026.
A “no” vote opposes the initiative to increase the state’s minimum wage incrementally until reaching $15 in September 2026, thereby keeping the current minimum wage of $8.46 per hour.
How The Amendment Reached The Ballot: Citizen Initiative, funded by the Florida for a Fair Wage (largely supported by Attorney John Morgan).
Biblical Principles
Deuteronomy 24:14-15 – “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates. 15 Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the LORD, and it be sin to you.” (NKJV)
Malachi 3:5 – “‘And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, Against adulterers, Against perjurers, Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, And against those who turn away an alien-Because they do not fear Me,’ Says the LORD of hosts.” (NKJV)
Proverbs 16:26 – “The person who labors, labors for himself, For his hungry mouth drives him on.” (NKJV)
Parable of the Workers in the Vinyard – Matthew 20:1-15 – “‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.” So they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, “Why have you been standing here idle all day?” 7 They said to him, “Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.” 8 So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ 9 And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. 10 But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. 11 And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, 12 saying, “These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.” 13 But he answered one of them and said, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 ‘Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’”
Honest Money – Leviticus 19:35-36 – “You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” (NKJV)
Competing Views on the Minimum Wage Law – John Morgan, Amendment 2 sponsor and chair of Florida for a Fair Wage, said, “Years ago in the south they said the economy will not work if we don’t have slaves. They were so adamant about it they went to war over it. They fought each other to own people. What’s going on in America today is we’re paying people slave wages and I’m ready to go to war for that.”
https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Amendment_2,_$15_Minimum_Wage_Initiative_(2020)
Lessons From the Past
Thomas Sowell, Jan 28, 2019
https://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2019/01/28/lessons-from-the-past-n2540365
Seventy-one years ago this month — in January 1948 — a black, 17-year-old high school dropout left home. The last grade he had completed was the 9th grade. He had no skills, little experience, and not a lot of maturity. Yet he was able to find jobs to support himself, to a far greater extent than someone similar can find jobs today.
I know because I was that black 17-year-old. And, decades later, I did research on economic conditions back then.
Back in 1948, the unemployment rate for 17-year-old black males was just under 10 percent, and no higher than the unemployment rate among white male 17-year-olds.
How could that be, when we have for decades gotten used to seeing unemployment rates for teenage males that have been some multiple of what it was then — and with black teenage unemployment often twice as high, or higher, than white teenage unemployment?
Many people automatically assume that racism explains the large difference in unemployment rates between black and white teenagers today. Was there no racism in 1948? No sane person who was alive in 1948 could believe that. Racism was worse — and of course there was no Civil Rights Act of 1964 then.
How then could there be this low unemployment rate, with virtually no racial difference? Racism is despicable. But that tells us nothing about what weight it has — compared to other factors — as a cause of particular social problems such as unemployment…
In the United States, what was unusual about 1948 was that, for all practical purposes, there was no minimum wage law in effect. There was a minimum wage law on the books. But it was passed in 1938, and a decade of high inflation had raised money wages, for even low-level jobs, above that minimum wage.
Among the effects of a minimum wage law, when it is effective, is that many unskilled and inexperienced workers are priced out of a job, when employers do not find them worth what the law specifies. Another effect of a minimum wage law is that it can lead to a chronic surplus of job applicants.
When an employer has 40 qualified applicants for 20 jobs, it costs the employer nothing to refuse to hire 10 qualified black applicants. But if he has no more than 20 qualified applicants, that is a different ball game.
The point here is that economic factors carry weight, and sometimes, under some conditions, those economic factors carry more weight than racism…
In the United States, as the minimum wage rate specified in the law began to be raised, beginning in the 1950s, so as to catch up with inflation and then keep up with inflation, the minimum wage law became effective in practice once again — and a racial gap in unemployment rates opened up and expanded.
As a black teenager, I was lucky enough to be looking for jobs when the minimum wage law was rendered ineffective by inflation. I was also lucky enough to have gone through New York schools at a time when they still had high educational standards…”
The Reward for Diligence in Work – Proverbs 10:4 – “He who has a slack hand becomes poor, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.”
The Reward for Excelling – Proverbs 22:29 – “Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before unknown men.”
Recommendation: Vote No
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