A Non-Partisan Voter’s Guide for Christians (No, Really)
By: Jason Park
Tags: Religion And Spirituality, Books, Christianity, Reading, 2020 Presidential Race

A Non-Partisan Voter’s Guide for Christians (No, Really)

A review of David Platt’s church & politics primer, *Before You Vote: Seven Questions Every Christian Should Ask*

The 2020 election is dividing Christians more radically than any election in my lifetime. This puts pastors and churches in an intractable position, wherever they fall politically, especially if pastors want to give guidance about voting. So what should they do? I submit that they should first read David Platt’s new Before You Vote: a wise, refreshing guide in our partisan atmosphere.

In my childhood and even up to now, church “voting guides” have been mostly a joke, ranking candidates on one criteria: how “conservative” they are. Pastors would say “I’m not going to tell you who to vote for” and then give you one of these voting guides that makes it terribly obvious who the “Christian candidate” is. I’m not saying that they were necessarily wrong about who lines up with Christian beliefs, but I do know that for a large swath of people, the term “conservative” has changed to the point where it does not reflect Christian beliefs so unequivocally. I am a conservative, no qualms about it personally, but often I feel like I can’t even use the word with non-Christians anymore because of the new connotations it brings.

But I am here to assure you that David Platt’s Before You Vote is not one of those voter’s guides that indirectly tell you what to do. He stays far away from that. What it does help you do is think through what voting as a Christian means, what the Bible says about several issues, and what traps to avoid when thinking and speaking about politics as a Christian. Even if you’re thinking, “I already know what the Bible says and what that means for me politically”, I urge you to get this book because I pray that all Christians will come away with a large dose of empathy for other Christians who come to different political decisions.

The most important thing to Platt, as it should be to us, is not that you make the “right decision” on election day. God is on the throne either way, and he has already won. As a matter of fact, Platt writes:

This world is not a democracy. This world is a monarchy, and god is the King. Sure, we may use language about our rights, and we may even compose and ascribe to a “Bill of Rights”, but the reality is simple: God has all the rights, and we are subject to him.

So you must be subject to God, and that means how you steward your vote is important. The Bible gives no direct instruction on voting, but:

(We) are in a very different position today than the church in the first century. Followers of Jesus in the New Testament did not have a say in who led them and how they would be led. For that matter, neither do followers of Jesus in North Korea or many other nations in the world today. But we do. Consequently, as “governing” citizens we are accountable before God for the good of people affected by our government.

What Platt yearns for is a church full of people who refuse to be divided by politics and make their Biblical ties more important than their political ones. He gives many practical pieces of advice to Christians in order to achieve this goal. One important example is when we say “the Christian view on (fill in the issue) is…” or “the Christian candidate is…”. Why not? Because Christians base their beliefs on the Bible, and, as Platt argues:

(No) verse in the Bible endorses any particular candidate in a contemporary election. What’s more, like the rest of us, politicians are inherently flawed human beings. God the Father has only opened up the heavens in support of one person, saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16). His name is Jesus, and he is the only leader whose character and platform are completely endorsed by God.

So, should we not speak about how Christians should think about political issues at all? Of course not, because the Bible does give some guidance on many issues. The point is this:

When someone claims to have the Christian position on an issue, he or she is asserting that every Bible-believing, gospel-embracing follower of Jesus should agree with that position. As we have seen (Platt explores these issues in more detail earlier in the book), there is a place for such statements. We have listed biblical examples, including abortion, marriage, murder, paying taxes, and caring for the poor and the immigrant. But as soon as someone uses language about the Christian position and does not have clear, direct, language from God’s Word supporting that position, he or she has gone beyond the bounds of the Bible and is unbiblically dividing the church. Claiming to know the Christian position draws a line in the sand. There are those who are in and those who are out.

Applying our faith to politics, then, requires a high degree of responsibility to not say the Bible is clear on a contemporary political issue when it is not. The Bible is clear that abortion is the destruction of life. The Bible is clear that Christians should care for the poor and the immigrant. The Bible is clear that we should pay taxes. It is not clear, however, on what a nation’s tax policy should be. It is not clear, either, on how to weight these issues when we are voting. Those questions fall under “the Christian position according to our wisdom” a helpful but important distinction given by Platt. (He goes more into detail on the reasons a given Christian might weigh some of these issues as greater than others, but I have chosen not to relay that here.)

I feel that most of the political division in the American church recently comes from Christians on both sides of the aisle feeling that they have a monopoly on truth, or the correct decisions. More than that, many Christians feel that it is more important to be in the “right” intellectually than it is to keep the body of Christ from becoming divided. The answer is clear: God will not hold you or anyone else accountable for views on issues that are not given clear and direct language in Scripture. So rest easy. Rest in grace. Try to understand your brothers and sisters in Christ before trying to convince them that you are right.

If you’re thinking, “Politics isn’t an issue in my church. We all seem to have roughly the same beliefs”, you’re not alone. Platt writes:

One prominent study across a variety of churches found that very few people attend church services with other Bible-believing Christians who hold different political views than them. This is tragic, and I don’t use that term lightly. Followers of Jesus are dividing into different churches not based on what they believe about the Bible and the gospel, but based on what they believe about political candidates, parties, and positions. This should not be so.

Why should it not be so? Because, as Christians, we are consistently being identified more easily with political parties or candidates than we are our beliefs. I have several colleagues at my school who I have asked to come to church that have not come. Why? I think it mostly has to do with the political views they think they will encounter at my Baptist church. Does my church deserve that scrutiny? I don’t think so. But it points to a larger problem in the American church today, one that is hurting Christian witness to the outside world.

I had one moderately-sized problem with Before You Vote, and it is one that I would love to ask Platt about personally if I had the chance. He speaks often of the two major political parties, and he even mentions that some Christians may intentionally choose not to vote at all as a sort of protest to the available candidates or parties. But he never once mentions even the possibility of voting third-party. I believe this is a much more effective option than not voting at all because you can easily see it in the election results. So I am flummoxed as to why Platt wouldn’t mention the possibility, even as much as he talks about how issues and their biblical basis should determine our vote. What if a minor party’s platform represents, to us, the best possible choice among the candidates? I would have appreciated some wise guidance for Christians on this issue, especially as some high-profile Christians have announced their intention to vote third-party and have received immense backlash from other Christians.

Before You Vote should not be your only source of guidance on political issues, and that is by design. The Bible should be your first source. But Platt’s short book is a refreshing call to both take our responsibility seriously and not let political issues divide the church. Some reviews of this book have missed the point completely, sowing further division instead of hearing the simple message: there are a lot of things more important than politics, and loving your brothers and sisters in Christ is one of those. Don’t cause any further division based on political candidates. It’s not worth it. Think through what the Bible says, and vote your conscience.