An election year is, once again, upon us. It is a presidential election which will undoubtedly be referred to as the “most important of our lifetimes.” Anxiety and animosity, fear and frenzy, slander and suspicion are already the air we breathe, the water in which we swim. But things seem to get turned up to eleven when it comes time for campaigning and voting. So, we have compiled a few select resources that we have found helpful in navigating our political moment as well as provided some reflections on politics, political engagement, and the voting booth.

Helpful resources on political engagement

A Christian Guide to Political Engagement (PDF)

The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention has produced a very helpful Christian Guide to Political Engagement. This is a resource written in the style of a catechism as a starting point for believers to consider how we ought to think about politics as exiles who belong to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son and believe that Jesus is Lord (Col. 1:13; Phil. 3:20; Heb. 12:22). This catechism is also a guide for how Christians should live every day that is not spent in a voting booth as well: “Our political participation should not be boiled down to a vote cast on one day, important as that vote may be. Politics is about life in community with others, and those relationships exist even when candidates aren’t vying for our votes, donations, and attention.”

This guide provides a very helpful set of moral principles to help triage our moral concerns as we approach the voting booth:

1. Christians should aspire to vote for the candidate or platform that they believe best pursues and approximates biblical righteousness and biblical justice in their policies and character.
2. Christians should avoid willfully and knowingly voting for candidates or platforms that undermine first-tier creation-order issues that include the dignity and nature of human life, support for the natural family, and the ability to exercise one’s faith.
3. Christians can conscientiously abstain from voting or vote for an alternate candidate if neither candidate or platform satisfies criteria 1 and 2.

Another online resource that has become a breath of fresh air amidst the noise and tumult of our cultural moment is Mere Orthodoxy. This ministry produces media that is orthodox and resistant to radicalization and extremism, calling its audience to reflection, patience, and simple faithfulness, not rage, recklessness, and compromise. There are many articles on political and cultural engagement worth reading (for those who sign up for free), but here are two for starters:

• Editor-in-chief, Jake Meador, provides a few notes on “staying sane in an election year.”
• In light of the aforementioned principles for voting outlined in the ERLC’s guide, they present a very compelling case for voting third party.

Reflections on political engagement

In addition to these helpful articles, here are a few of our own reflections:

The hope for our nation is not political—if by political you mean whether Republicans or Democrats run the country. The mess we are in requires a different kind of political solution: the gospel of the kingdom of God. The gospel is an inherently political message because it announces the lordship of Jesus, and we believe it is the proclamation of the gospel and the work of the Spirit in and through the church that brings true transformation and hope to the cities of men. The church is the city that brings life and healing to the nations through the preaching of the word, its worship, and the faithful witness of its members to the risen Christ. In other words, the hope for our nation is not a donkey or an elephant but the Lion and the Lamb. It’s become cliché to say that, but it’s what we believe, what actually matters for how we view politics, and what the church needs to hear.

No earthly political system will ever deliver on all its promises to produce the perfect society. If you believe in the “total depravity” and radical corruption of mankind, then it should be expected that even your preferred, “perfect”, and precious political party is part of the problem. What this means is that, even when your candidate wins an election, there will still be problems with our society and biblical justice will still fail to be upheld. We need to taper our expectations and not put all our eggs in a blue or red basket. Furthermore, no political figure will ever be an earthly messiah. Anyone who hails a particular candidate as God’s messiah, his “anointed one,” is preaching heresy and guilty of blasphemy against the Lord Yahweh and his Anointed, his only-begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Political engagement must not be our greatest concern or ultimate hope. Yes, vote according to a conscience informed by Scripture; yes, stay informed about and involved in politics; yes, seek the welfare of the city where we are in exile and pray to our God on its behalf (Jer. 29:7). But devote your entire life to proclaiming and portraying Christ, and practicing the habits of grace (Acts 2:42). Reprioritize your commitments to your local contexts: your family, church, and community. Pursue justice right where you are by treating your neighbors according to the righteous character of God—with love, patience, fairness, and truth. And set your hope on the King who will one day put the world to rights.

Don’t buy the political hype and frenzy of mainstream and social media. The good news is that the word of God is not bound by politics or public policy. The church will thrive in times of peace and prosperity as well as a culture of utter chaos and moral bankruptcy. Even if our nation continues to face God’s judgment for its wicked rebellion and idolatry; even if we continue to have corrupt, inept, immoral, ungodly, and unqualified political leaders from both sides of the aisle, we can still rejoice! We can still have hope that our gospel labor is not in vain (1 Cor. 15:56-58). In fact, in the darkest of times, the church will only shine brighter as the light of the world. For Christians, it’s a win-win.

Furthermore, social media is NOT the place for constructive political engagement. As we have written elsewhere, social media, by their very design, predispose us toward certain behaviors, amplify problems, and form us in ways that are predominantly unfitting for citizens of heaven and antithetical to the gospel. Therefore, our political discourse (as well as theological discourse and any other complicated and potentially triggering discourse) should be in person as often as possible (cf. Rom. 1:11-12; 1 Thess. 2:17; 2 Jn. 12).

Christians must embrace a biblical posture toward their governing authorities, regardless of who they are. Each election cycle gives us an opportunity to show our divided nation what it looks like to be Christians who are citizens of a better and more lasting kingdom (Phil. 3:20), who aren’t tossed about by the winds of partisan politics, who are filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23), and whose hope is not in princes (Ps. 146:3-5).

We must strive to cultivate Christian charity. It’s easy today in our increasingly polarized world to cancel people based on what our favorite preachers or podcasters say. There’s no time for nuance anymore, and far too often the church is guilty of friendly fire rather than bearing with one another. In times like these it would do us well to remember Paul’s letter to the Colossians:

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful (Colossians 3:12-15).

To make matters worse, as the world becomes more hostile to Christians, we may feel like it’s time for the gloves to come off in our fight against the world. Gone are the days of being winsome, of being respectful, gentle, kind, and patient. But this flies in the face of what the Apostle Peter says:

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander….Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation…. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people (1 Peter 2:1, 11-12, 15).

No matter how bad the world gets, no matter how hostile or polarized our world becomes, we are not exempt from the ethical teaching and expectations of the New Testament. We must strive to cultivate Christian charity. In other words, let’s remember that we are first and foremost citizens of heaven, citizens of the new Jerusalem, and let that guide our political engagement as exiles living among the cities of men.