Over the years, particularly the last five years as a pastor, I’ve often had people frustrated with me for not being more overtly political. Our modern political climate is one that has swallowed all of our culture debates. Everything gets coded as left/right, red/blue, good guy/bad guy.
I hate this. The name of this newsletter and podcast, and the blog from which they sprang, is Stopping to Think. I have a deep dispositional dislike for settings and situations in which I am expected to simply “pick a side” and not to give critical evaluation. I want to carefully weigh and judge issues, policies, and candidates. I will carefully weigh each. That often leads to stances out-of-step with both political parties.
I also don’t think it’s my job as a pastor to bind consciences on issues to which Scripture does not directly speak. There are times as a pastor when I need to use relational capital, exercise authority, or otherwise do things which may be uncomfortable for those in my charge. I don’t want to burn up the right to do that on something so transient as an election. There really are about a million things more important that election day in the life of your average Christian.
But elections do matter. And, having a “paper” trail on the internet that is somewhat extensive, I should probably explain any major changes in opinion on something - or someone - like Trump.
Trump: NO, No, yes.
In October of 2016 I stepped down from my place on our county’s Republican Party central committee. I wrote a letter explaining my reasons, but they were pretty simple: I was mainly a Republican for social reasons. In the fusionist combination of hawkish foreign policy, libertarian economics, and social conservatives, I was (and am) squarely within the category of the latter. I understood the importance of strong national defense and free market policy, but those aren’t the big issues for me in domestic policies. I support the clearest of Christian concerns: defining marriage as exclusively heterosexual and monogamous, protection of unborn life, and an emphasis on character in those who hold public office.
Trump represented, in my sometimes less than humble opinion, a major rejection of the main reasons I was supporting the Republican party. On the issues most important me, he was a philander, a supporter of abortion (at least when he wasn’t thinking about running for office as a Republican), and -at best- a waffler on the question of homosexual marriage. I couldn’t think of a worse candidate, and frankly, while I wasn’t actively rooting for him to lose (I voted third party), I did hope his much anticipated loss would kill the part of the Republican party that thought running Trump (or anyone like him) was a good idea. In short, I was all-in on my Never-Trumpness in 2016.
2020 painted a somewhat different picture. Trump, much to my surprise, kept his word on judges. He appointed three originalist justices to the Supreme Court, which ultimately led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs decision in 2022. His economic policies, highlighted by tax cuts and regulation cutting, were on the whole good for the economy. Covid-19 was a wild-card, and probably the biggest reason some on the right lost faith in him, but I don’t think it’s fair to blame him for Covid or its aftermath.
But my concerns about a leader of character continued unabated. Trump was, and is, manifestly not a man of integrity. I had pretty big concerns about what a Biden/Harris presidency would look like, but with Iowa polling +2 for Trump, I felt pretty safe voting 3rd party again (he had won in 2016 by 10%, and wound up with an over 8 point advantage in 2020). I didn’t like Trump as a candidate, had no desire to support him, and didn’t feel pressed hard by the realities of the election.
Perhaps my biggest concern in 2020, though, was the god-like status Trump had gained in the minds and hearts of a pretty sizeable number of Americans. Including, most disturbingly, many believers in Jesus Christ. It was if he could do no wrong. He was “God’s chosen man”, and it didn’t matter what he said or did, these folks would and will defend him tooth and nail. His claims of “I alone can fix it” from 2016 seemed to have been bought, hook-line-and-sinker, by a large portion of the electorate. That gave (gives) me the heebie-jeebies.
Those concerns carried on, perhaps were amplified, when Trump began his campaign for the 2024 election. He demolished every foe he faced in the primary field. And he did so with a large measure of support from Christians who, I had hoped, would get behind a more worthwhile candidate.
I’m not giving my endorsement to Donald J. Trump. If anything, my concerns about his stance on key issues has continued. His full-throated backing of IVF displays a lack of understanding or care about the principles in the pro-life cause. This led to a GOP backdown from it’s previously pro-life platform. He’s well past establishing his favor toward gay marriage, and this has evaporated as a political issue. Further, his language, demeanor, and carriage are still completely unpresidential. They are more like a guy you would sit and have drink with than someone you would trust to lead your state, let alone the nation. Less important, but I also have doubts about electing a man of his age to office - he was born in the same year as Bill Clinton, whom we elected to his first term 32 years ago and George W. Bush, who was elected to his second term 20 years ago. He seems to be in good health now, but who knows about next week or month or year? Especially after two assassination attempts in recent months. Suffice it to say, I’m still not a fan of candidate Trump. At all.
But as we’ve approached the 2024 election, something has felt fundamentally different. I do not feel the freedom to sit out and try to keep my vote “pure.” Perhaps the biggest change here has been my attitude toward what I’m doing with a vote in a political election. I’ve never been a fan of “lesser of two evils” thinking, it strikes me as lazy morally difficult to defend. But what if my vote isn’t about “approving” of a candidate, or saying, “well, at least he’s less evil, so I’ll like him”? What if, when casting a vote, I’m simply making a prudential choice, one more tactical than moral in nature?
I recognize the morally vapid nature of both candidates’ positions (they’ve both made major policy shifts which clearly are driven by polls, not genuine changes of mind or heart on the matters at hand). I also understand that while Trump’s policies are often bad, I don’t think it is unfair to characterize some policies and actions of Harris/Walz as straightforwardly evil.
Here, I think is the main difference between them: the Republican ticket is indifferent toward Christian values, while the Democratic ticket is hostile to them. Christians need, then, to understand that a Republican vote is not a Christian vote. But the difference between indifferent and hostile does matter, and it makes sense to prudentially opt for leadership that ignores you (but might listen to you at some point) over leadership that hates you and what you stand for. Just have eyes in your head enough to know that’s what you’re doing.
Trump’s no savior. But at least he isn’t out to get you.
So, I guess all of that has been a big run up to say my attitude towards our options for President haven’t really changed in the past 8 years. Trump/Clinton, Trump/Biden, Trump/Harris - none screams “good vs. evil” to me. They all scream, God’s judgement on a wicked nation. I don’t see a Trump administration as source of blessings that will flow all over the country and make things better, far as the flag is found. But I do think it would represent a lesser judgement than a Harris administration. And so that’s how I voted.
Is it how you should vote? Well, I’ll quote myself from 8 years ago: that’s between you, God, and the ballot box.
Ecclesiastes 2:13-17 (ESV) Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.