Post-Republican Christian voting

Christians don’t see things the way others do. When you understand things not only by what is seen but also by what is unseen but revealed by God as true, when you take into account what is spiritual and eternal, your assessments and calculations are different. This is true in politics.

Since the 2012 election, America has seen major setbacks for religious liberty, a matter of no small concern for Christians. Last summer, the Supreme Court gave same-sex marriage nationwide constitutional recognition. There was already broadening persecution of Christians who hold biblical convictions on marriage and sexuality. Bakers are targeted and ruined for declining to supply wedding cakes for gay nuptials. A decorated fire chief was terminated for his published thoughts on the biblical view of sexuality. Christian colleges are pressured to conform to the normalization of sexual confusion. They are even shamed and punished for exercising their legal and constitutional rights on this front.

The now common rhetorical device for disarming religious liberty is to affirm it while denying that it can include any practical moral objection to the cutting edge of the sexual revolution. As Human Rights Campaign spokesman Stephen Peters put it, “Religious liberty is a bedrock principle of our nation; however, faith should never be used as a guise for discrimination.”

The Christian’s freedom to live consistently as a Christian—to worship but also to speak, to do business, to educate—is more important than the economy, illegal immigration, and even national security. But this has not registered in any way with the presumptive Republican Party nominee for president or with GOP officeholders lining up behind him for this fall’s general election. Though Donald Trump has spoken in support of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, we can expect him to exercise his business instincts in New York City–fashion by accommodating LGBT pressure groups here at home. This together with his multiple wives, avarice, coarseness, disregard for the rule of law, and complete indifference to the mind of God in everything has evangelicals asking what remains for them in the Republican Party.

Evangelicals got on board with the Republican Party because in 1980 the Republican Party got on board with them: government limited to its God-given sphere, opposition to abortion and the sexual revolution, and protection of private property and market mechanisms for encouraging the productive use of God’s bounty. At this point, however, evangelicals can paraphrase Ronald Reagan: We didn’t leave the Republican Party; the party left us—not only the office holders and officials, the so-called establishment, but also our biblically indifferent GOP neighbors.

The political fundamental for a Christian is that, as the Apostle Paul wrote, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). For this reason we “seek first the kingdom of God” and pray to our King, “Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10, 33). The kingdom priority is freedom for God’s people to proclaim and live the gospel (1 Timothy 2:2). Perhaps we’re past due for feeling out of place in America’s post-Christian two-party system.