Who Would God Vote For? - The Politics of God

I have the luxury of living in a swing state where 90% of the ads on TV or on the radio are from political campaigns. One that I’ve seen several times in the past week is a Mitt Romney ad that closes with Romney telling the country that he will best “maintain America as the hope of the earth.” I sure hope the “hope of the earth” doesn’t rest in America’s hands, because if it does, our issues extend far beyond healthcare, gun control, and abortion.

So where does our hope lie this season? And if it’s not in the American government, how should we approach politics, especially as we vote in a few days?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This year’s presidential election has had a decidedly different feel than back in 2008. In some ways, the circumstances surrounding the United States are quite different today, even improved, as the recession no longer has the same stranglehold on the economy it once had and our foreign engagements are comparatively peaceful.

Yet in 2008, there was a sense of hope and change in the air, regardless of which nominee took office, that could not be more different than the tense debates and disillusioned voters of today who are pessimistic that either candidate offers much hope. (And results in videos of little girls crying like this one!)

From abcnews.go.com

Perhaps people have come to more fully realize that neither political party or candidate is able to completely deliver on the hope and change that they have promised – this after one of our most promising, likeable, well-spoken, elected leaders in recent history has himself failed to live up to some peoples’ expectations.

More on this later.

My main motive for writing this is to plea with Christians everywhere to guard against placing our hope in the wrong places and to make sure our zeal for the Kingdom of God continuously outweighs our political fervor, especially in the midst of election week.

I sincerely hope that a few days from now, as the election results roll in, regardless of who is elected as the next president, that there is no mention of the anti-Christ or of our country coming to an end, and that there is no need to write an apology to non-Christians like this one. Four years from now, we’ll likely be back in the same spot, unsatisfied with what our government has done for us – but the United States of America will remain intact and the sun will continue to rise in the morning and set in the evening.

But come Tuesday evening, our reactions to the election results will be a telling indicator as to where our hope truly lies.

The good news is that God is in control and He will not flinch, regardless of who is voted into office.

Colossians 1:16, speaking of Jesus, says, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together…that in everything he might be preeminent.”

So if all things were created by God and for Him, this begs the question of how we can honor God through the political process.

So I ask, what does God care most about come election season and every other day of the year?

Life – from conception to the grave.

And while one political party focuses almost entirely on life in the womb, the other thinks that whatever is in the womb is not life. Neither party has the same regard for the entirety of human life as God.

So then, how should we approach politics as Christians?

Two things:

First, we must advocate for the entirety of human life, and when the government steps out of line with Kingdom values, we must prophetically speak truth where there are lies and deceit and light where there is darkness. As our Colossians passage mentions, the government was created for God and at the end of the day, is responsible to Him first, and all politicians will give an account of what they did with the power and resources they were given.

So when politicians allow for and support abortion, we stand up for all of the unborn babies who have been killed. And when they seek to repeal new healthcare policies that offer affordable healthcare to those who otherwise can’t afford it or simply stick to the status quo, we advocate for the uninsured. And when politicians plan to revoke conscience protection for healthcare workers, we speak up for our moral rights. And when they refuse to clean up gun control policies so that weapons intended for militaries and mass killings won’t end up on the streets, we speak against that too.

Second, we live out the coming of God’s Kingdom and Christian values better than the government ever will or even has the ability to.

We help the poor in our neighborhoods, support single mothers and offer alternatives to abortion, we ensure that medications and supplies make it to those that need them here in our own country and abroad, we get involved in the political process and lobby for changed policies, and we certainly support those within our own churches and congregations so that “there is not a needy person among [us].” (Acts 4:34)

As Julian, emperor of Rome from 332 to 363 AD said of the Christian Church,

“It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.”

So think hard, and humbly go to the polls and vote for whomever you’d like. In fact, I don’t buy that we shouldn’t “push our values on others.” Everyone “pushes their values on others” because everyone, Christian or not, votes according to their own worldview. And at the end of the day, we are responsible to God for who we give the authority to run our country (though not in a way that might put one’s “soul in jeopardy,” as some have falsely and unwisely claimed) just as the government itself is responsible to God.

But vote not because your hope is in one candidate or the other but because you believe one perhaps embodies Kingdom values better than the other.

And whoever wins, honor and respect that person. Encourage and pray for that person – and humbly critique them when they’re wrong. But don’t expect one man to fix everything you think is wrong with our country in the next four years.

The reality is, neither Republicans nor Democrats fully embody the things that God cares about. And when we hold strictly to party lines or create a dichotomy between the two and describe one as purely good and one as purely evil, we’re tragically wrong and we completely alienate about half of the U.S. population by holding such views.

As Dr. Mark Young has said about this year’s election, "I think it will be time for us as the people of God to call ourselves to repentance. We have tried to sanctify and make distinctly Christian that which is not and give [our] lives to it in ways that only further separate the Gospel from those who need to hear it."

But thankfully, at the end of the day, God is in control and He holds all things together.

And we don’t have to put our hope and trust in a corrupt political process because a God exists who created the world, sent His only Son into the world to live a sinless life, and to die a horrible death but rise again three days later so that death might be destroyed, our sins might be forgiven, and the whole earth, and every nation, tribe, and tongue, would be restored to Him.

It’s through this that we find “the hope of the earth.” 

For thousands of years, people have put their hope and trust in a political ruler who would empower them and give them everything that they need, and for thousands of years, God has been pointing to the Cross and reminding people that that's not the way that He works. God already has his Man and He sits in the ultimate seat of authority and power, holding everything together.

May our hope be found in Him, and Him alone.

-CK

"The king is not saved by his great army;

a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

The war horse is a false hope for salvation, 

and by its great might it cannot rescue.

Our soul waits for the LORD;

he is our help and our shield.

For our heart is glad in him,

because we trust his holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,

even as we hope in you." (Psalm 33)