I recently saw folks on my FB page debating over a claim that if Jesus were a US voter today, he would clearly vote Democrat. I tend to disagree but I wanted to see what you noble folks thought.
Why would Jesus vote at all for any particular secular leadership person? He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Leaders owe allegiance to him, not him to them. His Kingdom is not of this world, it supercedes it. John 18:36. A king would only vote for himself not some vassle. Followers of Jesus can choose to vote for whichever party will provide the most ethical, honest, truthful and competent political leadership. They can also choose to not vote for parties and candidates they consider to be dishonest, corrupt, deceitful, or incompetent. Where voting is enforced by law it is possible to vote for ALL of the candidates by crossing every box, thus refusing to choose between equally undeserving candidates, and thus rendering the ballot invalid. .
Very good points, Tiffy! I agree that I doubt Jesus would vote for anyone unless compelled to by law. And when I said that I tend to disagree with the notion that Our Lord would vote Democrat, it is because by his own words he would be firmly placed in the Monarchist camp, with himself as the monarch, lol. However, just because all political parties are undeserving, as you say, it is overly simplistic imho to say that they are equally undeserving. The poll question, as stated, was not which US political party would Jesus vote for, nor even what US political party would you vote for, but rather which party most closely espouses the teachings of Jesus Christ. Would your answer be none?
A. Yes, none. Because the Kingdom of God cannot be imposed by law. It is entirely entered into by gratefully accepting God's Grace and forgiving other's sins as ours have been forgiven. That having been said though, some politicians and some polititian's policies are not opposed to Christ, some are. The ultimate one that will be opposed, being the Anti-Christ. No one in their right mind should vote for that one, but judging from the way many voters in the USA have voted and will vote, and the criteria your political parties operate with, I guess he would achieve a sufficiently comfortable majority somehow. The UK? Not much better.
At this particular election, it is a pretty clear choice; one is a fallible champion of Christendom, while the other is an infallible champion of Planned Parenthood.
I know there is a lot of disagreement on the issue. My concern is that we are over-valuing impressions over policy. Putting aside personalities and pubic personae, it is reasonably certain that the incumbent won't definitely run our country into the ground in economics, school funding, abortion access, etc. While the challenger pretty definitely will. The only reason the challenger is even in the running is for his personality; in terms of actual policy, there's pretty much no dispute that he would be catastrophic to our nation, and to the Christians specifically. Conversely, the incumbent has polarized everyone on account of his personality, but in terms of policy there is little disagreement as to the good effects. Let's look at policy, not impressions.
I can't say I have much sympathy for the policies of either. I take the view that my participation in elections is a form of consent to the current situation. That's why I don't participate.
I appreciate your perspective Stalwart. Trump is awful from a personal standpoint, but in terms of policy he was doing OK in key areas for me up until the pandemic. Biden is also awful personally and has never done anything in terms of policy in 47 years even remotely approaching the realm of OK. I haven't made my decision yet but I'm leaning heavily towards one of the third party candidates. In terms of the poll, I'd say that per their platform the Constitution Party is by far the most overtly Christian as they appeal to ghe Christian God quite a bit and are very very culturally conservative. But then platforms are only one part of the picture. All in all, its a pretty dismal looking election year from where I stand.