Friday thoughts: A thread on why current evangelical voting rhetoric in 2020 is demonstrating the underdeveloped nature of our political theology:
Is the issue why voting for Trump—as a Christian—is wrong & hypocritical because voting for the Democratic alternative is right? Is the answer not to vote? What if the Christian is not persuaded that voting third party is the best stewardship of their vote? Help me understand.
I have never heard a compelling answer on what conservative Christians are to do in this election if they are not supposed to support Trump, do not want to not vote, or not vote third party, or not vote for someone whose political judgments oppose their own.
Will those Christians recommending others not vote also not vote themselves? Vote third party? Should *all* write-in? Or is it acceptable to vote for the candidate whose platform is hostile to Christian morality against the candidate whose character often seems unChristian?
(Caveat 1: This does not exempt the Trump administration from morally problematic actions like family separation, which also occurred under the Obama admin. I’m evaluating this by: Which platforms *intend* policies unambiguously incompatible with Christian morality?)
(Caveat 2: Voting is bigger than just the candidate and platform. It also results in an ecology of various groups who latch on and exploit the voice of the one who is in power. Here, I think both parties bear the same guilt: Identitarianism of different varieties).
I don’t ask this antagonistically, cynically, or disrespectfully. I genuinely don’t know what principles of voting remain intact that are serviceable to existing political contingencies with the current critiques existing as they do. Totally open to persuasion.
I think the most principled argument is: Do not vote or all must vote third party. I at least accept the integrity of this view (though it’s unachievable and unrealistic, see above).
Is that a moral obligation? Are we willing to say anyone who does neither is thus sinning?
Is that a moral obligation? Are we willing to say anyone who does neither is thus sinning?
Much Christian discourse around politics and voting implies the inexorable conclusion that voting is impossible since all candidates and all parties are morally compromised. If not, what’s the moral threshold to vote? Not vote? I have zero clarity from current discourse.
In my view, I see no moral highground or propheticism or rationale that’s not at least as equally compromised for Christians who say they can’t vote for Trump, & will vote for Biden. Platform, candidate, or whatever—this logic entails reconciling itself to great moral compromise.
So that puts us back at the beginning: What are the acceptable moral thresholds under existing political realities that one is willing to accept in order to vote for a candidate? Is that measured by candidate or platform? This is where lines must be drawn.
If you think it is wrong or unwise for Christians to vote for Trump, the same Christian is then burdened to prove that their moral threshold to vote for Biden is not equally compromised or problematic.
Given current rhetoric, there seems to be no operative, justificatory principle that allows one to vote as a citizen of this nation without some degree of compromise. So what degree of compromise is allowable without being subjected to judgment from other Christians?
Or, do we exempt or scrutinize less the thresholds that serve our political interests? Because that cannot be what this is about: Power & self-interest.
So how are we to vote with equal, coherent standards applied to all? What theological motifs should guide us?
So how are we to vote with equal, coherent standards applied to all? What theological motifs should guide us?
