Approaching Election Day from a Proper Christian Perspective

A Consequential Election of No Eternal Significance

In 2013, my parents and I awaited the week before Easter with eager anticipation. That was when The Bible, an epic dramatization of the whole biblical narrative produced by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett was set to release. Each evening that week, my parents and I tuned in for the next episode, and after each, we raved about how well-produced it was, how it could really help to reach a younger generation with the Good News. That was, until the episode when Jesus was tempted by the Devil in the wilderness, and Mom gasped, appalled and told me that the Devil character bore an unmistakable resemblance to Barack Obama. Just like that, we went from praising the series, to mourning the opportunity for evangelism that the producers, whom I now recognize as Christian Nationalists, had squandered. With this one production decision, they no doubt confirmed the suspicion of untold numbers of young people and seekers, that Christianity in America had become a propaganda vehicle for the Republican party. But to be fair, it is no less sinful to use Christianity in service of the Democratic party. In a few moments of immaturity during the Trump administration, I found myself intrigued by articles speculating whether Donald Trump was the antichrist, and when we came to 2 Thessalonians in my New Testament overview course at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, I did a doubletake when I came to the verse about the man of lawlessness being revealed at the end of the age. “Could Donald Trump be that man?” I briefly wondered. Donald Trump certainly is a man of lawlessness when it comes to respecting civil authorities, or our Constitution. But biblically speaking, if you read the verse in the full context of the passage it is in (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12), he is not the man of lawlessness Paul is referring to. That person will perform supernatural signs and wonders that deceive many and has yet to emerge in human history. Donald Trump is just your garden variety human mortal who happens to be a narcissistic megalomaniac who admires and wants to be a fascist dictator. Unfortunately there have been many of his type in human history. And as inspiring as Barack Obama was, and Kamala Harris is, they too are humans who, like all of us, fall short of Christ’s righteous standards. It is wrong for Republicans to depict them as Satanic, but it is also wrong for supporters like me to elevate them to Messiah-like status, to believe that electing them will save America and solve all of our problems.

Family Radio, the Christian station I love to listen to while I work has been running public service announcements leading up to Election Day. One of these announcements, narrated by John MacArthur has been driving me crazy. He said a question he frequently gets around Election time is “should Christians vote?” His response is that any time Christians have an opportunity to take a stand for righteousness, we must do so, and in our context, voting is one such opportunity. So far, not bad. But then he says that Christians have an obligation to vote for the candidate who honors God and who is “faithful to a biblical standard of righteousness.” On the surface, this seems completely reasonable too, which is what is so dangerous about Christian Nationalism. To a vulnerable, naïve person, such a statement is benign and perfectly reasonable. But true Christians need to think critically about the credibility of the people making such statements, what honoring God looks like in practice, and about what a truly biblical standard of righteousness actually means. John MacArthur doesn’t say who Christians should vote for, and to be fair, this message could have been recorded years ago in a different election cycle. Or as much as I don’t want to be cynical, it could be that endorsing a particular candidate would jeopardize his church’s tax exempt status. But given his extreme and unbiblical complementarian views, and comments about slavery which I have written about before, I have little doubt he will be voting for Donald Trump. With all due respect, I cannot understand how any true Christian can say with a straight face that Donald Trump honors God and is more faithful to a biblical standard of righteousness than Kamala Harris. Donald Trump’s bad character is well-documented, so I won’t rehash all of his disqualifications here, but it is worth repeating that God is not pleased with cultural Christianity that goes through the motions of a Christian life but lacks genuine love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Like all politicians, Kamala Harris isn’t entirely truthful, and her positions change with the political winds. It is also important to note that while the Christian Nationalism of the Right is more blatant, there is a kind of soft nationalism that Christians need to be aware of in the Democratic party as well. Overall, Kamala Harris’s speech at the Ellipse was inspiring, and the symbolism of speaking at the same site where Trump inspired his followers to attack the U.S. Capitol was fitting. But I was a little uncomfortable with how she ended the speech with the line about turning the page and writing the next chapter of the most extraordinary story ever told. Though this line may have been spoken with good intentions—an effort to rally all Americans behind a common cause of figuring out how to live peacefully together—we as Christians should be weary of rhetoric that perpetuates the harmful concept of American Exceptionalism, a form of idolatry. The story of our country is not the most extraordinary story ever told.

Both Jerry Falwell Jr., and Zack Hunt, a former pastor and the author of Godbreathed who spoke on a Zoom call for Evangelicals for Harris a call that was discussed in this Rolling Stone article, agree that the goal of a presidential election is not electing a pastor. But Zack Hunt sums up the key difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris perfectly. “The problem for Christians is not that Trump fails to live up to the Christian principles he claims to defend.”—We all do, even pastors—“The problem is he actively and aggressively works to undermine the way of Jesus with everything he says and does, and with every policy he wants to enact.” Even if you just arrived from another planet and know nothing about the policy track records of Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, you ought to be able to tell who genuinely seeks to honor God just by listening to them speak in side-by-side clips: I am always struck by the contrast between Donald Trump who doesn’t even try to tame his tongue, giving it free reign to spew deadly, poisonous rhetoric that inspires division, hatred and violence, while Kamala Harris seeks to heal and inspire all Americans with an inclusive, optimistic vision for our country’s future.

But in an article published in Religion News Service, Caitlyn Schiess cautions that as commendable as it is for true Christians, especially young people to reclaim true Christian principles by breaking away from the white supremacist, xenophobic, Christian Nationalist platform of their parents’ Republican Party, we must be careful not to make the same underlying mistake as our parents’ generation, the mistake of believing that the spiritual stakes for our country are high every election year, meaning that our votes are of eternal spiritual significance. “We have forgotten that for Christians, all of politics is contingent and provisional,” Caitlyn Schiess writes, “Our votes, cast by and for fallen and finite creatures will always and only be heavily mediated opportunities to aim at the best good available to us. They cannot bear the weight of expressing our Christian identity or representing everything the Bible commands of us.” This absolutely does not mean Christians should not vote, especially in this particular election. Although no election has eternal spiritual significance, the conscience of true Christians should be stirred to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city” (Jeremiah 29:7) which to my conscience means voting against candidates who admire and wish to emulate fascist dictators whose lust for power aggressively undermined the way of Jesus, and led to some of the darkest moments of human history. Of course Old Testament verses must be applied cautiously to our context. As I have written before, the United States is not a covenant nation as ancient Israel was, but we can learn from the principle that all Christians in a sense are living in exile. This country is not our true home and yet we are called to contribute to its peace and prosperity, and in so doing, offer a foretaste of God’s kingdom. But no matter who wins the election, true Christians must never forget that until Christ returns, we will not find a candidate completely faithful to a biblical standard of righteousness, and because we, the voters are also fallen and finite beings, we cannot fully imagine what a biblical standard of righteousness even means in practice. This is why it is dangerous to apply “spiritual warfare” language to secular activities like elections.

Spiritual warfare is theological speak for the reality that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). But in his book Losing Our Religion, Russel Moore explains that when tribalism connects with resentment, and resentment connects with fear, culture wars are viewed in terms of spiritual warfare, with human beings as the irredeemable “demons” to be opposed. Reading this explanation, and remembering the backlash against the first black president that was all over the news at that time, the portrayal of the devil as Barack Obama sadly makes sense. Furthermore, even if you know that your political opponents are not literally demons, Russel Moore reminds us that metaphors matter. In the same way that history has shown that referring to a minority group as vermin can eventually provide a permission structure for genocide, using spiritual warfare language against political opponents likely provided the permission structure for the insurrection on January 6, and continues to provide the permission structure for conspiracy theories and efforts to sabotage the election by setting drop boxes on fire or threatening election officials. And for my part, as appalled as I am by this paranoia and misuse of spiritual warfare language, it is hard not to respond by becoming a little fearful and paranoid myself. If I voted early, could our Republican municipal clerk throw away my ballot? Even on Election Day, could my ballot be rejected? After another election—pre-pandemic when election conspiracy theories were nowhere near as intense as they are now—I know of a Republican poll worker who was suspicious of a woman with a disability whose mother helped her fill out her ballot. But our country’s turmoil will not end until we all get out of this mindset. “The entire point of spiritual warfare is that it is not present or absent based on tribes or factions,” Russel Moore reminds us, “If spiritual warfare were simply another way of saying “arguing with each other” or “owning the Libs” or “raging against the corporate machine” or whatever, spiritual warfare would mean that some people are exempt, and other people are unsalvageable, irredeemable” (Losing our Religion Page 133). This would mean denying two of the most fundamental truths of Scripture, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13). Though Donald Trump’s words and external deeds undermine the way of Jesus, only God knows what is really in his heart. He, like me is just another broken but redeemable human being. The angry election deniers threatening violence if the election doesn’t go their way, are just broken but redeemable human beings too. All humans are made in God’s image, and God loves us even though none of us is righteous. That is why Jesus says that those who genuinely desire to follow him must love their enemies.

I admit I am terribly undisciplined when it comes to formal prayer time, but I agree with pastors who advise that we should pray in preparation for Election Day and the days that follow, as the outcome won’t be known right away. But be careful. Christian Nationalist organizations are promoting prayer events tomorrow night. One event is calling people in all 50 states to gather for one hour and pray for God to save our country, unify our people and heal our land. On the surface, this sounds nice and innocent. But the United States is not a covenant nation. God’s plan is far bigger than the United States of America. We are just another empire whose existence Scripture already told us will not be eternal. And, you have to ask what kind of unity these organizers are praying for. Is it a biblical unity, the kind of unity that “makes every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3), or is it a manipulative call for unity behind a political agenda to restore a nostalgic cultural Christianity that is contradictory to the teachings of Christ? I will be using a prayer guide from Intervarsity Press, recommended by KTF Press, a Substack publication that seeks to elevate marginalized voices and help Christians break free of the harmful influence colonization and white supremacy has had on the American church. The important thing to remember is that the purpose of prayer is not to give God our wish list. During a dark season of anxiety in a previous job, I viewed prayer this way, and was a mixture of angry and devastated when my wish for a different job was not granted. But eventually, the stress and anxiety of the job was removed with a simple change of position within the same company. This taught me a valuable lesson, that God’s wisdom is far superior to ours, so the purpose of prayer should be to ground ourselves in Christ, and align our hearts to his. Because all political candidates will fall short of God’s righteous standard, we should pray for trust that no matter the outcome, God is sovereign and His will will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. If the outcome we wanted is granted, we should pray that we are not tempted into an attitude of smugness toward our acquaintances who voted for the losing candidate, or into political idolatry toward our candidate. Since all candidates will fall short of God’s righteous standard, Christians will need to hold power to account no matter the outcome, so we should pray for humility and discernment. We can pray a genuine prayer that election officials will conduct the vote counting with integrity, but we should also pray that everyone, especially professed Christians, will peacefully accept the results of the election, remembering that the political activities of this world are contingent and provisional. But most importantly, we must pray for our political enemies. In my case, whether or not he wins the election, I should pray for Donald Trump, in the sense of praying that he might have a change of heart and repent of all the ways he has undermined the way of Christ, and that if he does, I will rejoice and not be resentful like the workers in the parable who worked a full day in the vineyard and resented the workers who only worked the last hour and received the same wage (Matthew 20:1-16). We should lament and ask forgiveness for the times we may have been complicit in mistreating people we disagree with whether through name-calling or mean-spirited jokes. We should pray that we will show mercy and compassion to our enemies if they are hurt by the policies of the candidate they voted for. And above all, if someone in our lives comes to see the error of their political idolatry, we should be quick to reconcile with them and warmly welcome them back into the fold, just as Christ does when we stray from him.

That Reminds me of a Song: As I was writing this, The Kingdom of Jesus from the Porter’s Gate came to mind. It artfully reminds us that the kingdom of Jesus is both something that is within us which we have the power to give the world a glimpse of, and a future home we can joyfully anticipate. In both cases, this kingdom is so much greater, so much more powerful than the kingdom of this world. This should give us comfort when it seems as though evil is prevailing. I especially love how the song has the recurring motif “oh say, can you see” an allusion to our national anthem, used to remind us that we can only have one allegiance, and allegiance to the kingdom of Jesus has so much more to offer than allegiance to the United States of America.