How should a Christian Vote?
What does a Jesus-shaped political platform look like?
How should a Christian vote? Progressive or conservative? Democrat or Republican? This has become a seemingly increasingly important question given our polarized political climate, where common ground is continously dissipating and it seems imperative that we pick a side. One must be either progressive or conservative, and pledge fidelity to that side in every policy area, or so we are told.
The problem with this for Christians though is that the gospel is in some ways conservative, but in other ways progressive. It is after all God’s plan of salvation and redemption for the world, that wants to restore what is wrong (and in that sense, “progressive”) while also holding on fast to what is already good (“conservative”).
Jesus himself could be described in some ways as both progressive and conservative. Take for example Jesus’s interaction with the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Jesus at once protects the woman from being stoned by those who are committed to law and order, our modern day conservatives. Yet, when letting her go free, he also tells her to go and sin no more, a rebuke to the feel good-permisibility of modern day progressivism. Jesus at once showed the woman great compassion, which was radically progressive for the time. Yet he was also very conservative and traditional in affirming the Judeaish law concerning sexual purity. As his followers, we are called to act in a similarly dual way.
Though being both liberal and conservative in our policy stances is paradoxical and very different from the way people in the United States normally engage in politics, we must remember that our savior Jesus was very paradoxical. Take for example, his very incarnation: he was both fully God but also fully human, at the same time. Jesus condemned lustful thoughts, but also showed great care and compassion for prostitutes. He quoted scripture and highly valued it, yet also scolded the Pharisees for their single-minded devotion to it. He said that he had come to bring a sword and division, yet also love and reconciliation. He was calm 90% of the time, even upon being arrested to be put to death, yet also flipped the occasional table. He was very paradoxical, which can make following him a little confusing and difficult at times, but is also why his gospel is so powerful. He provides a complex solution to our complex world, affirming both of our sensibilities to act with compassion and conviction. Christian heresies have often arisen as a result of attempts to simplify Jesus: to make him just man or just God, or to make him a God of just love or a God of just laws. While comprehending and following a simplified Jesus may be easier, it’s reductionist at best, heretical at worst.
Acting in compassion and conviction, moreover, fits best with the Christian view of the world. A traditional Christian perspective of the world sees humans as made in the image of God, with inherent dignity that should be respected and worthy of love. This squares well with progressive aims of providing humans with basic needs like healthcare and housing. But Christianity also teaches that humans are marred by sin, and thus capable of great evil. This, conversely, is a reason to give less government assistance to people, knowing that they will abuse it. The gospel though doesn’t allow us to pick and act upon one or the other; it can’t be that humans are just good or just evil — that we either act with just compasssion or just conviction with them. Rather, humans are both, and Christians should analyze policies with that dual perspective.
While our reductionist society wants us to make an “or” decision on human nature and whether to act with compassion or conviction, I believe as Christians we are called to have an “and” perspective that takes into consideration the twofold nature of humans. We should help struggling people and put on the necessary restrictions on the help in order to prevent abuse. We should have great care and compassion for the unborn and those who need healthcare, regardless of their socioeconomic status. We should value and strengthen the family unit and help those who are not blessed to have the best family situation. This is a greater rationality that the gospel, with its understanding of the dual-nature of humans, provides.
This does not mean, however, that Christians should just be middle ground or centrist partisans. Gospel values will move us to be “radical” (in the eyes of political pundits) in some of our policy perspectives, but radical in both directions. God calls us to administer justice, care for widows, foreigners, asylum seekers, the unborn, the poor, and the oppressed. This will lead us to some radically liberal and conservative ideas.
Just because we don’t fit perfectly into the two party system also doesn’t mean we should disengage. A way of caring for our neighbors is by staying engaged in public matters, and in our votes we can vote in ways that contribute to the welfare of the city in which we find ourselves in (Jeremiah 29:7). Our political participation still matters, it should just be different.
So, how should a Christian vote? As we see, neither party encapsulates the heart of Jesus or the gospel in full (despite what many on both sides would like you to believe). Voting then, is a matter of wisdom, and our choices should be made through time spent in prayer and reading with God, to discern what the most important issues are. We should definitely do our homework and do our jobs to be well-educated voters, but we should also be careful that our votes are being shaped more by Jesus than CNN or Fox News. I do want to caution us though to consider the limitations in our perspective and wisdom as well, before we think that there is an “obvious most important issue”. Consider the fact that 80% of white Christians vote Republican while 90% of black Christians vote Democrat. While the most important issue for white Christians, generally, has been preserving what has been good in our white, Christian history, for black protestants it has been reforming what has been broken. Abortion has been the bellwether issue for white evangelicals for the last 40 years, and while I’m sure black Christians have cared about protecting the unborn as well, it seems that it’s understandably been a less important issue than fighting for the imago Dei. As I’ve said, issues on both sides are important. But let us be humble and charitable with one another in coming to decisions on what the most important issue(s) are. I know for myself what I believe God has placed on my heart as the most important issue this year. But I also know that no matter how I vote, my politics are a lot more complex than the politics of an average American partisan, because they’ve been shaped by the heart and rationality of Jesus, whose message is greater and more powerful than any political party’s message will ever be.
A big thank you to the Rev. Tim Keller who has shaped the way I see what it means to live as a Christian in a post-Christian United States and whose ideas are interspersed everywhere in this article. Also to Justin Giboney and the AND campaign who have also given me a very helpful framework for thinking about what distinctly Christian political engagement in 2020 looks like. Definitely recommend checking out their website, https://www.andcampaign.org/, for more information.
