A Christian voting reminder

I have some thoughts to share as a Christian as we in America brace for the results of another presidential election.

First, while it’s true that the writers of the New Testament had no direct familiarity with voting as a way of running a civil government (and therefore Paul’s admonition in Romans 13 to be “subject to the governing authorities” directly concerned autocratic governments without consideration of citizen opinion), it was not completely alien.

As a learned Pharisee, Paul would have been familiar with the way the Roman Republic functioned prior to the dictatorship of the Caesars, and he likewise would have known of the Greek Athenian experiment with democracy several hundred years prior.

Regardless, more specifically, voting has been one of the primary ways the church has made internal decisions since the times of the New Testament – in Acts 15, effectively the first governing council of the church, verse 25 notes the council “decided unanimously” to select particular men to be sent to teach gentile believers. 

Likewise, the critical decisions made at the Seven Ecumenical Councils within the church’s first several hundred years (including the ultimate defeat of Arianism, the writing of the Nicaean Creed, and the selection of the books to make up the New Testament) were ultimately decided by votes.

All this to say, voting isn’t a recent or uniquely Western or modern issue, but instead has been something Christians have been involved with since our beginning.  There’s no disconnect between being a Christian and voting.

Second, it bears repeating, underlining, shouting, repeating, preaching, and repeating again that the way of civil government and politics is not the way Christ’s Kingdom functions or achieves its goals.

Politics is about power over people: ultimately, government exists to make laws that control behavior in one way or another.

The Kingdom of God is about power working under people: Jesus’ command to his followers is to pick up their cross and follow him.  That means self-sacrifice and service through love.  People are loved into the Kingdom – it’s not possible to do so by force or coercion; it’s in fact the starkest of contradictions.

You can’t get any more different than the way of worldly politics and empire (Caesar and the sword) and the way of the Kingdom of God (Christ and the cross).

The Christian’s hope is not in politics, empire, or who wins an election.  The Christian’s only hope is in Christ and him crucified.

The way this world works – the politics, the nations, the governments – will eventually disappear and only the Kingdom remain.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t involve ourselves in politics for the time being, it just means we have to understand life within the proper context, and while our actions absolutely have important life and death ramifications right now, we should not be overcome with fear, because we know God will somehow work all things out in the end.

Third, it is alright and even to be expected that many Christians will have different political opinions and beliefs.  Unlike what some extreme talking heads try to tell us, Christians can vote differently from one another and, yes, 100% still be Christian.

If we’re prioritizing how a Christian votes (or not) more than we are how that Christian follows Jesus, then that should be a blaring neon sign that we don’t have God’s perspective on fellow Christians.

The Christian job is to reconcile, to bring disparate people together, united in love of God – not united in every thought, opinion, or belief, but united in love of God.  We don’t have to agree on everything, and in fact it’s healthier when we don’t, when there is diversity of opinion.

Paul explains this ministry of reconciliation in his second letter to the church in Corinth, 5:16-19 (NRSV):

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way.  So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”

I’m sick of seeing Christians tear people down, including other Christians.  It is perfectly alright to have disagreements, including very serious disagreements, with each other.  We can do our best to work in love to dialogue with one another to see if we can change opinions, but it’s not a deal breaker if we can’t.

The truth is, I guarantee right now at least one of your opinions is wrong.  And so is at least one of mine.  Despite our best efforts, it’s a virtual lock that either our biases, our prejudices, our incomplete information, or our misunderstanding have successfully given us at minimum one opinion on an important issue that is flat wrong.

We make mistakes.  It’s not necessarily OK, per se, that we do, but it’s to be expected.  A Christian lives in a paradox in that our mistakes (like anyone else’s) can carry dire consequences for ourselves and others, but if we truly carry ourselves in humility in our discipleship with Christ with contrite hearts and spirits, we will be forgiven.

And that same grace and mercy God offers to us for our mistakes is the same we need to have for all other people.

It’s the spirit of antichrist to haughtily look down our noses at others for their political opinions.  I’ve seen folks claiming they wouldn’t want to be in another Christian’s shoes during Judgment – I’ve got news for you: it won’t go that well for you, either, if that’s how your heart works. 

Lastly, if you’re a Christian leader, your number one job is to be able to minister to everyone ­– if you’re wearing your political opinions in such a way that you alienate people, make it difficult for them to approach you or your church, or are clearly fostering an environment where only one kind of political belief is welcome, you’re sinning.

And sinning greatly, I might add.

By alienating and ostracizing others (whether it’s intentional or implied by your behavior), you are demonstrating a lack of love and, in fact, a level of hatred for those not on your “team” or in your “tribe.”

“Whoever says, ‘I am in the light,’ while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.  Whoever loves a brother or sister abides in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling.  But whoever hates a brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness” (1 John 2:9-11).

I’ll close with this: our job as Christians is to love.  Period.  Not to condemn, not to guilt trip, not to look down our noses.  Love.

We are salt and light – salt seasons, flavors, and preserves a dish: it doesn’t dominate it.  Our job isn’t to control other people and make them live according to our morals (whether they like it or not) – we work through service and love, demonstrating through our actions why the hope we have is worth pursuing.

If we’re resorting to the methods of Caesar to promote the way of the cross, we’ve completely lost the plot. 

By doing so, we show that we don’t truly believe our own message.  This hypocrisy is a leading cause in the decline of the church.

So remember to choose not just during elections but all year round to live out our lives not by the political ways of the world, but through service, sacrifice, and love.