Over the last few weeks, our Grace@Work Midtown group has been discussing voting in America. Since God blessed us with the opportunity to choose our leaders (unlike many countries today and historically), how do we use that gift in a manner that honors him? As most of us would agree, that often isn’t an easy question to answer. But instead of pointing the finger at the politicians, maybe we, as Christians, should begin by looking in the mirror.
How did we get here? Perhaps the church hasn’t been voting in a manner that honors God. The Bible says that “there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1). Thus, “the authorities are ministers of God” (Romans 13:6), “God’s servant[s] for your good” (Romans 13:4). Of course, many governing authorities fail to obey God and instead become a terror to good conduct instead of bad. They will answer to God for that. But since we in America elect our government leaders, maybe we’ll have to do some answering to God if we choose leaders who have told us plainly that they intend to implement agendas that embrace things that God calls evil.
Our discussion prompted some questions from an attendee, and I thought it might be helpful to share the responses.
- Is it wrong to mix politics and religion – aren’t we supposed to render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s?
Politics shouldn’t wag the tail of religion, but in voting, we’re giving our voice to how we build our nation. I’ll render my nation-building capital to God rather than Caesar since God determines the periods and boundaries of nations (Acts 17:26). Politics are controversial because they deal with real-life issues. Which actions and speech are compelled and which are forbidden. Which actions and speech are incentivized and which are discouraged. God has a lot to say about those real-life issues, so divorcing politics from religion would be to ignore him and instead do what is right in our own sight. The Bible shows us that that’s a recipe for disaster.
While talking about these things in bible studies or churches may be controversial, I fear the alternative is that our meetings simply turn into an abstract academic exercise that may scratch some religious itch for people without impacting their lives.
- Are we voting for a team or a
person?
The idea that we’re voting for a team recognizes that (1) a presidential candidate pledges to uphold his party’s official platform; and (2) the president appoints hundreds or thousands of executive-branch employees and federal judges who will make decisions he never touches. That doesn’t mean the person at the top of the ticket is irrelevant, but it would be foolish to simply ignore all the folks that person will put in charge of our government if he wins.
- Can either Republicans or Democrats claim the moral high ground?
I would agree that neither Republicans nor Democrats should be bragging about their moral authority, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make distinctions. And here I’m looking at specific policies.
The current Democratic party resists any restriction on abortion (the unjust killing of a human being) and wants to force taxpayers to pay for them. This is a great evil. Joe Biden says “transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.” Democratic policy encourages boys and girls to deny how God made them, including by surgical mutilation or chemical sterilization, not to mention seeking to force schools and businesses to allow biological males into women’s showers. This is a great evil. Next, Democratic policy seeks to compel everyone to embrace and affirm all sorts of sexual immorality. This is a great evil. In fact, while Christians often warn that these things will bring God’s judgment, Romans 1 actually identifies such acts themselves as God’s judgment on a people that refuses to worship him.
Further, the Democratic platform advocates teaching all these things to our children in schools, which risks incurring Jesus’ warning that “[i]f anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me – to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). I could go on, but I’ll stop here for the sake of space.
While the Republican party is far from perfect, I’m not aware that it seeks to compel people to actively participate or affirm actions God calls evil, at least not to the degree that the Democratic party’s policies do. I’m willing to consider counter-examples.
It’s becoming common for Christians to accuse Republicans of having a poor record on treating minorities or illegal immigrants, but I don’t often hear many specifics about how particular policies of the current Republican platform (or the Trump administration) violate specific passages of Scripture in these areas. It’s disturbing when I hear Christians accuse other Christians of racism or xenophobia without specific evidence to support that serious charge.
While I see a lot of vague references to Old Testament passages commanding fair treatment of sojourners, I’m not sure many of these people have actually read the Old Testament. It doesn’t support borderless nations or disregard for national laws – to the contrary, sojourners were expected to fear God and obey his law (Deut. 31:18). Scripture specifically says that God determines the boundaries of nations (Acts 17:26). In any case, even illegal immigrants are generally given the protections of our laws. (And while it’s a little before my time, my understanding is that Democrats were heavily involved in opposing integration and the like.)
- Doesn’t the Sermon on the
Mount show that Jesus was a liberal – 60% of people said “yes” in a recent
poll?
I don’t think the general public has a qualified opinion on whether Jesus was a liberal or a conservative. But the Sermon on the Mount generally addresses individual behavior not government policies. Encouraging individuals to lend to their neighbor is not the same thing as authorizing the government to take whatever it wants from citizens at the point of a gun. Actually, God warned the Israelites that that sort of thing would be the negative consequences of choosing a king (1 Samuel 8:10-18). I’m comfortable saying that our government-mandated efforts to help the poor while abandoning God’s morality have generally failed (whether implemented by Republicans or Democrats).
Moreover, the Sermon on the Mount presupposes the importance of following God’s morality. It says, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). That’s talking about God’s will, not man’s will. The Sermon on the Mount says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:21-23). Condemning workers of lawlessness hardly sounds like a liberal talking point these days.
- Why
would a Christian support a compulsive liar, self-aggrandizing, bigot,
xenophobic, sexist, racist, narcissist, sociopath?
I didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 because I didn’t trust him to do the good he promised, and I did trust him to continue exhibiting his negative qualities like some of those listed above (though I don’t believe all these charges have been proven true). Since elected, he’s done more of the good than I expected, including in appointing judges, supporting those who oppose abortion, and protecting the ability of Christians to preach the gospel. Plus, the Democrats have become even more ambitious about compelling everyone to embrace evil. So I’ve reached a different conclusion this time. But if someone says he can’t vote for Trump for these reasons, I understand.
On the other hand, I don’t understand how a bible-believing Christian could vote for Biden given that he’s pledged to pursue a platform that would compel people to embrace some of the very acts that led God to kick the Canaanites out of their land (see Leviticus 18), including the unrestricted ability to kill unborn human beings. That’s a tough one for me to get past.
We do face an unenviable choice, which I suspect is itself a sign of God’s judgment on us. May he have mercy on us. But I don’t think that mercy is likely to come if Christians willingly embrace a nation-building plan that, as a matter of official policy, unashamedly calls good that which is evil and compels everyone else to do the same. I don’t see anywhere in Scripture suggesting that we’re likely to enjoy God’s blessing while relishing in the very things that Scripture refers to as God’s judgment.
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