Theology Blog

In the midst of what is one of the more contentious, anxiety producing, discouraging presidential elections in history, many people of faith are talking about how their faith and the scripture impact their voting decisions. The truth is that our Christianity should shape every aspect of our lives, in fact, it should dictate every aspect of our lives. I believe every Christian should carefully, thoughtfully and prayerfully consider how they vote. Just like any other important decision we make, our identity as disciples of Jesus Christ should inform our decision making process. So often in our country we talk about the more Christian or Biblical candidate, party or platform and when we do so we make some dangerous assumptions. The truth is that the Bible is unclear or silent on many issues we face. In some cases, one can interpret what the Bible has to say about something in two different ways. While the Scripture is our guide to life, it does not lay out every detail of life. To assume that one candidate, platform or party is more Biblical than another is dangerous, unrealistic and simply untrue. If one looks carefully at the whole scripture, they can see that every candidate, platform and party has aspects that are consistent with the Christian faith and aspects that are contradictory to the Christian faith. This is where the faithful, difficult, Christ-centered decision must come for each individual as they prayerfully decide how to vote. Its not clear cut. It never has been and never will be. One can say that based on their faith, beliefs and politics that they have decided to vote a certain way, but no one can realistically say that the Bible, Christianity or Jesus tell us that one person, platform or party is universally more biblical than another.  Its simply not true.