Christians and Politics
By Libby Krieger
Christian, you have a duty to care about politics.
Too often I hear fellow Christians saying that they don’t involve themselves with politics.
It’s too confusing, complicated, or perhaps dirty, they say. Or, even more common, “Politics are divisive. All we’re called to do is love others.”
Those things may all be true, but it’s not the full truth. The very existence of sin in the political realm (along with every other temporal realm) doesn’t negate the Christian’s duty to promote truth, goodness, and righteousness in this world.
The divisive point is often supported by the hyper-fixation on “love” by modern Christians.
Christians are called to love the Lord and our neighbors – these are the first and second greatest commandments. But do modern Christians properly understand what “love” is?
Loving others does not mean the unrestricted tolerance and acceptance of all things – true or untrue. Here’s how the apostle Paul describes it in his first letter to the Corinthians:
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”
Note that love rejoices with the truth and, therefore, must inherently reject rejoicing for what is not true. Applied to the public policy issues of our day, it is not loving to rejoice for “reproductive rights” – a euphemism for women murdering their unborn children.
It is not loving to “affirm” perverse sexual desires or gender transition – which is antithetical to God’s unique design of man and woman.
It is not loving to cede the culture to those who want to promote sin. We can’t sit idly by and allow those who rejoice in sin dominate politics and therefore the public policy that affects us all.
“Love trumps hate!”: another asinine phrase that is rendered meaningless by the misunderstanding of love. Love can trump hate — if and only if — it is a godly love based on truth. Love must also be sincere, as Paul notes in his letter to the Romans.
He continues: “Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.” Paul commands us to hate. How can that be, one may ask?
Well, to love the good means to hate what is evil – which threatens the good. This is a righteous hate that Christians not only can have – but are called to have – towards things that are evil.
Good and evil, right, and wrong, black and white, and truth and falsehood all come directly from the Word, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Not every Christian needs to be an activist. We all have our gifts and abilities. Some of us are talented musicians, accountants, engineers, etc. – and that’s great. But we all can do our research and show up on election day.
Elections determine who gets to govern and make laws – laws that either align with eternal truth or seek to destroy it.
What if neither candidate represents Christian values? This is a reasonable question that we must all grapple within the reality of a fallen world.
Many Christians feel morally convicted voting for a candidate they don’t feel meets high moral standards, and so they abstain from voting. I understand the dilemma. And if we lived in a vacuum, I would perhaps do the same.
But the reality is, we have two choices (in a typical general election).
Abstaining from voting only enables the worse option. We live in a world where choices and ideas have consequences, and choosing the lesser of the two evils is the best – though often less than ideal – path forward.
Take Former President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, for example. Many Christians took issue with Trump’s rhetoric and found that to be a poor example of someone claiming to be (at least nominally) Christian. While completely understandable, the options were to vote for pro-life Donald Trump or pro-late-term-abortion Hillary Clinton. Or abstain and effectively help clear a path for Clinton.
While I don’t necessarily encourage single-issue voting, abortion is an obvious issue that Christians of all stripes find morally repugnant.
And while not every single public policy matter is clearly black and white between right and wrong, there are several which Christians should feel confident to use as a litmus test
And many of the largest cultural winds dominating the political space will have a massive impact on our generation and our posterity – which is all the more reason to be engaged in politics.
Young Christians should be consumed in this battle for truth. We are the ones who will be living through much of the aftermath of these cultural battles – however they turn out.
We may not be having children quite yet, but soon enough, our children will live in a world where truth is the antagonist. That is, unless we can flex the muscle of courage and take a stand now.
Abandon apathy towards public policy and elections. And do so with grace and love for God, others, and what is good and true.
