Voting for the truth, not lies

In speaking to Israel long ago, the prophet Hosea lamented, “You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies.” Hosea’s words ring true today. Throughout my legal career, I have had a front-row seat to what happens when lies make their way into policy. The resulting bitter fruit not only brings chaos, it brings grievous harm to all image-bearers. As we head into this election, it is these lies and the resulting harms that have my attention.

This election, I’m thinking about detransitioner Prisha Mosley, who was just 17 years old when healthcare providers persuaded her to undergo so-called “gender-affirming care.” They cut away her healthy breasts, pumped her with testosterone, and transformed a vulnerable teen into a lifelong medical patient. All because of a lie that God makes mistakes, we are not fearfully and wonderfully made, and we are whoever and whatever we claim to be.

I’m also thinking of Chelsea Mitchell, who suffered from that lie in athletics. Even though she was the fastest high school female runner in Connecticut, she lost her first state championship race to a male. Four times, she watched officials award what would have been her state title to boys competing in the girls category. Her experience is shared by women and girls worldwide who have lost nearly 900 medals to males, according to a new report from the United Nations.

Adaleia Cross is also on my mind. A track athlete from West Virginia, she was forced to share a locker room with a male who sexually harassed her. And because of another school policy in Colorado, a young girl was asked to share a room on an overnight school trip with a boy without her parents’ knowledge or consent. These stories multiply yearly.

I’m thinking, too, of Jean Marie Davis, who was once trafficked across 33 states. When she got pregnant, a pro-life pregnancy center cared for her, and miraculously, she chose life. Today, she leads a pregnancy center that helps women in similar situations. But Vermont officials are threatening to shut down her ministry because of her Christian and pro-life beliefs.

Similar outrages are occurring in California, Colorado, Washington, New York, and New Jersey. Officials are trying to keep women from receiving life-saving options—both for themselves and their unborn babies—all because of the lie that unborn lives don’t matter and abortion is the best answer to an unexpected pregnancy.

I’m thinking about Adam Smith-Connor, too. Though he’s in the U.K., his case speaks to the rising climate of global censorship. After praying silently on the public street near an abortion facility, he was criminally convicted—merely for thinking the wrong thoughts in a censored area.

Censorship has cast its dark shadow over much of the Western world. Months ago in Brazil, a justice on the Brazilian Supreme Court suspended the social media platform X in the country in the name of stopping “misinformation,” which he said could “unbalanc[e] the electoral result [in Brazil] … to favor extremist populist groups.” X eventually met the court’s demands and was allowed back online—but a chilling new precedent was set.

That pernicious logic has reached the United States. California recently tried to censor online speech in the name of stopping “disinformation”—meeting stiff (and thus far successful) resistance from the Babylon Bee, which sued. Vice President Kamala Harris has also spoken openly about wanting to censor platforms over so-called “hate” and “disinformation”—as if the First Amendment never anticipated such things.

Why does this matter? Because if we can’t speak freely, we lose the ability to expose lies and advance truth on any issue. And the lies that have been infused into public policy demand citizens who speak the truth. This election is a crucial moment to protect free speech, the cornerstone of so many other freedoms.

We should have no illusions that any political party will save us. In a fallen world, every party is tainted by sin. But we must also reject any notion of moral equivalence between the two major parties’ positions. While one is frustratingly inconsistent and sometimes sacrifices principle for expedience, its platform still embraces key truths and champions free speech. The other has now placed the culture of death at the heart of its agenda, even suggesting that abortion should trump religious freedom. And its commitment to gender ideology—in the face of mounting scientific consensus against it—is an affront to the image of God.

As citizens of a republic, we have the awesome privilege of choosing leaders who will protect God’s image-bearers and restrain evil in our world. Voting should therefore be an act of love for neighbor. And it should teach our children something as well.

As we vote, may we insist on leaders who will enshrine truth into the law, so that the harms suffered by Prisha Mosley, Adaleia Cross, and so many others will finally come to an end.