Today is Super Tuesday meaning that a large number of states are having their primaries for the Presidential election. Currently, for conservatives, Donald Trump is far out in the lead with Nikki Haley, his only opponent trailing far behind.
I’m not sure we can remedy that situation, but I need to make this appeal.
Dear Christian Conservative, the primary vote is the last time this election cycle you will have to truly vote according to your Christian convictions. Let me explain.
From childhood, I, like most (predominately white) evangelical Christians, was trained to understand two things about politics:
- Republicans were more righteous than Democrats (mostly because of their opposition to abortion, but also because of their support of “religious freedom” and other culturally conservative positions).
- If you ever have a Republican of bad character running against a Democrat, you must still stick with the Republican because even a bad Republican is better than a good Democrat. (Lesser of two evils argument.)
These ideas were delivered to me almost word for word in many contexts for the past 44 years of my life beginning back in 1980. I was only 5, but I remember Reagan v. Carter, and I was very interested in the reasons my parents had for supporting Reagan instead of Carter. Yes, I was a weird child.
Nonetheless, if you are a conservative Christian, and you believe that voting for a conservative Republican is the right thing to do, I won’t try to change your mind today; however, I will simply point out that as long as you have two Republican options to choose from, neither of the top two principles apply.
Rather, your voting plan is literally trumped by consideration of which candidate is the better person, which candidate has the better character. At this point, you still have the choice between two candidates who equally fit the Republican bill except that one of those candidates, Donald Trump, is a morally reprehensible person from every metric of Christian ethics.
True conservatives value character over competence.
True conservatives value values over pragmatism.
Christian conservatives moreover value the model set for us by Christ.
In November, you once again will be faced with the standard option of Republican vs Democrat, and at that point, I might make the argument that you should vote for a Democrat or not vote at all, but for now, during this primary season, you still have a real option that doesn’t violate your conscience. You have the chance to vote for a Republican who is not prone to adultery, who has not been convicted of slander or fraud, who is not currently on trial for racketeering or insurrection, and who is just frankly a nicer person.
If you are a conservative Christian who wants to vote Republican, this primary season is your last chance to vote according to principle. This is your last chance this election cycle to honor your conscience with your vote.
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