How To Vote As A Christian

Undoubtedly, many pulpits this Sunday morning will tell the gathered how to vote – specifically.  I would not be so presumptuous.  The Bible does not really contemplate the sorts of issues that confront the modern voter as democracy was rare at the time and even ancient Rome or Greece were more oligarchy than democracy. Nonetheless, we are told “…whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”  So there is a valid question here – how do we vote “in the name of Jesus?”

There have been voluminous books written attempting to answer that question and yet no thorough, pithy and satisfactory answer has yet been produced. To try to do so in a blog post is an impossibility.  Rather, what I want to do here is offer some guidelines to aid our thought processes as Election Day approaches.

One, it is not about voting for the most Christian person.  It is apparently a misattribution that Martin Luther is reported to have said, “I would rather be ruled by a just Turk than by an unjust Christian.”  But, that remains a decent summation of his political perspective.  Our votes should not be based on who is in and who is not in “our club.”  Our vote should be based on the expected results a candidate will produce.  Never forget that God works in mysterious ways.

Two, pray.  We tend to think that asking God for guidance about how to vote is somehow to soil Him or make our prayer life too “worldly.”  Nothing is further from the truth.  You may not get the answer you want or you may not get an answer at all.  But set it before God.  If nothing else, having done so, He will be present in your deliberations.

Three, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”  As you decide how to vote, maintain sufficient perspective.  You are not voting to please yourself and your pocketbook – you are voting to make the world better for as many people as possible.  Vote for them, not yourself.

Four, some Proverbs to bear in mind:

“Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.”  Educate yourself about the election and its issues.

“If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.”

Five, remember this, always:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As I said yesterday, there is nothing existential about this election.