'American Idol' finalist on why some Gen Zers and millennials don't vote

We recently caught up with our friend Rachel Hale, an American Idol finalist from Season 12  who is now a contemporary Christian music artist.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. You can watch the full conversation at My Faith Votes here.

Rachel, tell us a little bit about what you’ve been up to lately.

I released a new single called “Promised Land” in June. I sat down to write the song with Vince Sherman, and I went into his home studio to write. I’ll never forget that morning because I went in very, very discouraged because when I was a little girl, I felt like God told me that I would sing and bring people to Christ through music. I wondered how that dream was ever going to come to pass. All of a sudden it was like the Lord came to me and reminded me of the story of when God said to Abraham, “I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky and sand on the seashore.”

I’ve heard that story a million times. But in that moment God reminded me, “Where did Abraham live?” He lived in the desert and all he saw all day long was sand and all he saw all night long were stars. And the Holy Spirit was like, “Rachel, I gave Abraham a promise that correlated with the environment he was in.” Basically, God gave Abraham a tangible vision for the promise that correlated with his life. So it just dawned on me that it’s so important to maintain vision when you’re walking through whatever season you’re in, in order to see the promises that God has spoken over your life come to pass.

How do you see your song and your music video relating to the divisive times we’re living in?

Exodus 3:11 says, “But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ And God said, ‘I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.’” The sign that God was with him was a promise that would come to pass in the future. After Moses did the thing God was telling him to do, then the sign that God was with him would appear.

So that’s why this song exists. It’s the continual dwelling on the promise that God has spoken over every single person’s life who listens to this song, who sings the song, because I believe that’s actually how we’re going to enter the Promised Land — by speaking out and dwelling on the promise that God said would happen.

Let’s go back to 2016 and the popular clip you did for My Faith Votes in which you answered the question, “Why should Christians vote?” How would you answer that question now?

I don’t know that I would say too many things differently. However, what I would say is in Matthew 5, Jesus did not call us the light of the church. He called us the light of the world.

People need to know that we need to be in the world. We don’t have a darkness problem. We have a light problem. I think it is time that we rise and shine. I believe it’s time that we start voting, that we start speaking up, that we start showing up in government. Because if we are not shining, then we are the reason the world is dark.

Why do you think there’s such a disconnect between Millennials and Generation Z wanting to take action, but yet they don’t often vote?

I think there are a million reasons for this. I can only speak as a Christian Millennial because that’s how I grew up. I was scared of the government for a long time because I grew up believing that the media was evil and that the government was corrupt. I would hear that from the pulpit all the time in different churches. I also grew up hearing that the rapture was coming, that the end times are here. So I thought, “Well, what’s the point, really?”

I think Generation Z and Millennials need to hear that God is in government. If you look at the Old Testament, God created government. There are people who are working in the news that are trying to change the media and bring it back under the kingdom of light.

For parents of Generation Z and Millennials, I think it’s important that we stop saying things like, “The news is full of evil.” I think we need to start saying, “God is working in the news” and start praying for the people that are working there. We’ve got to stop cursing the things that we want to see God move in. I believe God wants to redeem that sphere. We have to start raising up our children to be involved in it and say, “Actually, God designed this, so let Him inhabit it.”

I would like to encourage each person listening that it’s actually your time to take your promise that God has spoken into your life, arise and shine and begin to get involved because the world is growing dark. There’s no light, and we are responsible for shining light. We’re going to share what God has told us to share, be who we are called to be and release his kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.

At My Faith Votes, we encourage you to stand for both high voter participation and voting your values. Learn more about upcoming elections and access Christian Voter Guides here.