Bryan’s Political Primer

With little less than a month until the fateful day, I thought I would give you a political primer. Really, it is just my philosophy for voting, and I would be interested in it being critiqued by you and/or perhaps influencing you as well. Here it goes.

First, let me acknowledge that God is sovereign.  This means that whether a Democrat, or Republican, or Socialist, or Libertarian, or Communist, or Monarchist is elected (I know some of those categories overlap… in fact, all of them do!), God is still in control.  Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.”

Second, I need to affirm that part of the Christian duty is to see to it that, as much as it is up to them, the least amount of evil is done in the world.  Not only is the Christian fight in the world against sin (both personally and nationally in this case), but against the consequences of sin as well.  At every turn, it is the Christian duty to oppose evil.

Third, I think that as a Christian voting you are always, whether you like it or not, voting for the lesser evil.  I suppose if you were an optimist you could say you were voting for the greater good, but that’s just semantics.  Except for the rule of Christ, there will never be a perfect ruler.  There can be righteous rulers or good rulers, but never a perfect one.  Thus, it is about the lesser of two evils.

Fourth, since “evils” must be defined by political positions, one must decide which political positions rightly deserve the label “evil”.  Which issues that politicians have influence over involve the most evil?  The most good that can be done is in the opposition of evil, so we could put it more positively: which issues that politicians have influence over involve the most potential for good?

Fifth, and logically, since it is the Christian’s duty to see to it that the least amount of evil is done in the world, then the Christian must use their vote to promote the least amount of evil existing.

There you go.  That is Bryan’s political primer.  Critique it please because I want to be as biblical in my thinking as possible on this subject.  Here is how the application of my philosophy works itself out for me, at least on a national level:

It will come to no surprise to readers of this blog that I see abortion as the issue that truly deserves the label “evil” (see here and here for instance).  I have yet to hear any argument to convince me otherwise.  While I cannot see how a true Christian could be consistent in their thinking and thus faithful in their walk with Christ if they did not oppose abortion, I suppose the principle of labeling things evil could be applied to other political positions and a decision based off of that as well, such as the war, or health care, etc.  Even if there is little hope for a complete overhaul of the scar of abortion on our society in the near future, I still think I have a moral obligation to do what I can to oppose the greatest evil in America with my vote.

How does the application of this philosophy come out for you?  Is my philosophy mistaken?  Let me know!

bry