Introduction
We’re just shy of election day, and I now add my voice to the general cacophony that is the 2020 election. I have no grand delusions that my voice will be a bugle call, but I am not one to miss out on the fun so here goes. What follows is in two sections, first, what is a Christian to make of this year of our Lord 2020. Second, should conscientious Christians feel bad about voting for Trump?
Dark Mysteries
You might not understand why we Calvinists can remain quite happy, jubilant, and even laugh heartily at all the twists of providence which this year has brought. It bakes down to this: either God is on the throne, or He isn’t. Because He is on the throne, the Calvinist looks at this year and says, “Thank you, Lord.” Bible believing Christians can give thanks for every inch of this year that seems to be drunk-driving while high on amphetamines.
We don’t always get to know the “why” of the circumstances God sends our way. But we most certainly can discern what should be the takeaway from these ominous thunderclouds: our sanctification. God wants us to become more like Christ through this year. He ordained it all. He created you for good works which He prepared in advance for you to do. We’re not told that those good works will be done under conditions of sunshine and roses. We not told the circumstances of when our good works will need to be done. We just told that God has ordained them beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:10).
One of the most important things Christians need to keep in mind––not just in light of the pandemic panic, the riots, and the incredibly polarized political climate, but all the time––is that the fundamental Christian confession, “Christ is King” is a political statement.
I’ve said it before, and will continue to bang that drum. Call me a one trick pony, one-note wonder, or narrow minded, Christ is King is not just a quaint theological statement. It is not just bumper sticker material. It is a claim on every sphere of human life, including our civic and political life. Christ shed his blood to save the world, and the world through Him shall be saved. It will be saved as it repents of its child-sacrifice, its sexual preference for sexual perversion, its greed, its injustice, its lust. It will be saved when we as individuals, families, towns, and nations bend our knees and confess that Christ is Lord.
We must remember that God has raised up Trump and Co., and if He wills it He will unseat Him. Whoever sits in the Oval Office come January, they are there by God’s design, for His glory, for our good, and because God is telling a story that ends with all His enemies defeated.
Vote for Trump?
So, in light of that foundation of peace because of God’s sovereignty over all things, how should we vote? I was vocally against Trump in 2016 (though I was pretty sure he was going to win). I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. In my mind, he was a New York liberal with an R next to his name. So imagine my surprise at the amount of pleasure I’ve enjoyed as I beheld the Trump administration roll out policies other conservatives had campaigned on and never delivered. He also was tenacious in fighting not only the Democrats but the media and the squishy, moderate RINOs. He had a battle on many fronts, and has commended himself well in the execution of the office which the American people elected him to perform.
So yes, I will be casting my ballot for D.J. Trump. I seriously considered Kanye (more seriously than I’d like to admit), but as others have noted, it is imperative for conservatives to re-elect Trump with a decisive electoral and popular vote.
Here are a few reasons why conservative Christians can vote for Trump with a clear conscience. But first an important rabbit trail. We should get out of the habit of calling voting a “sacred right.” It most certainly is a right, but calling it sacred? Give me a break. Ideally, we’d have honorable men to vote for, but we’ve sent our kids to government schools for the last fifty years and are shocked that honorable men aren’t the result. It’s like expecting to harvest corn in Iowa after sowing thistle. You get what you get. I’d much rather be voting for Pence (which we kind of are), Cruz, Sasse, or John “Fresca” MacArthur (if he’d run). Vote. But don’t make a bigger deal of it than you should.
Second, clear consciences come from being right with God. It comes from evangelical faith in the Good News that Christ holds the scepter of the universe. By His decree, this is the battle we are in, these are the candidates we have before us. The Lord has put us on a high-wire, riding a unicycle, and then throws us a ball and a knife and we need to determine which one to grab. So here are the rock-ribbed reasons to pull the lever for El Trumpo.
Judiciary
Trump has completely remade the judiciary and filled it with originalists, who aren’t there to legislate the law, but to rule as to the constitutionality of the laws which the knuckleheads over on capitol hill, or at city hall, have cooked up. In our recent dust up with our Mayor and City Council it is evident that the pandemic has exposed how essential it will be to have common sense justices at every level to rule on the nonsensical and tyrannical laws which we have yet to imagine. Amy Coney Barrett is the tip of the spear, but we are talking a generation worth of judges that will rule on whether a mom can force her five year old boy to take estrogen pills against the father’s will. We are talking about whether your church will be allowed to stay open when Gov. Newsom begins the climate change lockdowns. We are talking about whether you will be thrown in the clinker for mis-gendering someone.
Anti-War
I said this over on Twitter the other day:
News agencies like to cover bad things. They get more eyeballs if there’s a fire, a fight, a riot, or a rainstorm. They don’t get clicks (and revenue) if it’s a slow day in Mayberry. Trump has brokered an extraordinary peace deal in the Middle East, which if it were any other President, he would have received all the Nobel Peace Prizes. His administration took ISIS out with remarkable swiftness and as little loss of life as possible. Libertarians ought to turn out in droves to vote for Trump based on his anti-war policies alone.
Pence 2024
Follow me here, this reason is simple: even if you gag a bit at Trump, Pence is teed up, and ready for a 2024 run (regardless of what happens in a few weeks). That said, his standing will be much stronger if he runs as the sitting VP. His debate performance the other night showed that he has the toughness, patience, and conservative bona fides to be a great President someday. It became readily apparent in the debate the other night, that he has played a massive roll in guiding the Trump admin. Think of voting for Trump as a drawing Australia in the board game RISK; you might not like it, but in the long run, you’ll be better poised for global conquest.
A Slingshot to the Left
If there were a soundtrack behind this reason, it would not be ominous creepy music from a Halloween horror movie. It would be some slappy bass notes from Mo-town. In other words, take it all in stride, tap your toe and go on with your life. What I’m trying to say is I’m not a prophet of doom and gloom.
If Trump loses, the Republican party will not slide to the right. Bet the farm on it right now. It will slingshot to the left like a ferrel dog released from a cage. The argument will go that Republicans need to appease the progressive gods, and must atone for its sins by disfellowshipping the likes of Cruz, Crenshaw, Graham, etc. Evangelicals, MAGA-folk, and Tea Party Republicans will be the scapegoats.
Trump has proven a better defender of conservatism than many who have been conservatives in name only. If you don’t like the GOP with Trump as the figurehead, you’ll like it even less if the folks over at the Lincoln Project get their grubby mitts on the control levers of the party. They will bow low to the Biden administration, and we will have Mitt Romney (or as Biden fondly calls him, “You know, the Mormon”) as the candidate in 2024. Now that would be some serious doom and gloom.
Vote Like Free Men
You are men and women who are in a country which has enjoyed the greatest degree of freedom and prosperity ever enjoyed in human history. If you would continue to enjoy those freedoms it will not be through hand-wringing, wondering what people will think about you if they find you voted for Trump. They will have voted for Biden, whose character is just as sketchy is Trump’s. This moment requires courage. Courage to not fear man. Courage to vote for Trump in irony, knowing that a vote for him is a vote for continuing to oppose him where he veers wrong.
The hand we’ve been dealt is a tricky one to play. I still take issue with Trump on many points. He is abysmal on LGBT issues (lighting up our embassies in the flag of sodomites for instance). Planned Parenthood is still dismembering babies, and we’re still paying for it, and they are still donating to exclusively Democrats.
However, a vote for Biden/Harris is a vote for crushed skulls of nine-month-old babies. It is a vote for more progressive nonsense, where terms like sexual preference will be extremely offensive overnight, even through everyone was fine with using it ten minutes ago.
Either way it goes in a few weeks, Christians need to do three things. Faithfully read and hear the Scriptures––Genesis to Revelation––do what it says, and then teach our nation to do likewise. But here’s my prediction, Trump in a landslide electoral victory. But I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet.
Photo Credit by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
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