Voting One’s Conscience, Not Party

While the major political parties’ presidential tickets are set after a summer of speculation, the next five-plus weeks will feature what I call “silly season.”

Namely, claims aired on social media and elsewhere that to elect the candidate the writer favors is sure to bring prosperity and blessing. To choose the opposition will mean destruction and doom for the republic.

I would like to go out on a limb here and say that both sides of that argument are wrong. The country will survive and life will go on, even if it won’t proceed exactly as we might like.

Closer to home, I appreciate the fact that our pastor never endorses political candidates, letting congregational members make their own choices and praying for whoever wins.

After all, as he reminds us, 1 Timothy 2:1-2 says: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (ESV, emphasis added).

Courting Disaster

While we are to pray for leaders, a church hitching its wagon to a candidate or a particular political party is to court disaster.

It makes the church, which is to speak truth to power, a servant of those in power. It leaves the church with no moral authority and makes it just one more special interest group.

God’s people should know better.

That’s why I found a recent survey of evangelical leaders so encouraging. Publicized by the National Association of Evangelicals, it noted that 98% of evangelical leaders agree pastors should not endorse politicians from the pulpit.

The results were from a May/June survey. When asked the same question in 2017, a lesser 89% said pastors should avoid endorsements.

Perhaps during the interim clerics became more aware of the chicanery, disillusionment, and poor outcomes that result from the church making its bed with major political parties.

A Valid Witness

It’s worth noting what several of the survey respondents had to say:

• Tami Heim (whom I interviewed when she was in the Christian retailing world), chief executive officer of the Christian Leadership Alliance:

Pastors are “called to stay centered on biblical truth. In doing so they can provide that perspective on issues relevant to our time. They should challenge congregants to study Scripture and support leadership based on what they believe to be true.”

• Richard Stearns, president emeritus of World Vision U.S.:

“Politicizing the church is divisive within the Body of Christ, harmful to the public witness of the church, and a distraction from the priorities of the kingdom – namely, the Great Commission to proclaim the gospel…”

• Carl Nelson, president of Transform Minnesota:

“Our greatest moral authority is had when we avoid alignment with any one candidate or party and offer critique of all candidates from a biblical perspective. Too many times it has been proven that when we endorse a candidate we have not followed through on our duty to hold that candidate accountable to the full spectrum of views we represent.”

• Kimberly Reisman, executive director of World Methodist Evangelism:

“Endorsing from the pulpit further polarizes our current culture. God can use leaders from all parties, and to equate God’s will with the will of any political party or person is exceedingly dangerous and a threat to the overall witness of Christians in the United States.”

Enough said. Voting is a privilege and a right, one which should be exercised via one’s own conscience. We won’t all agree, but that’s what is so great about living in a country where we are free to disagree.