There is No Excuse For Christians To Vote for Democrats
“True prophets and teachers may take courage, and thus boldly set themselves against kings and nations, when armed with the power of celestial truth.” – John Calvin
I recently read yet another example of Democrats lying and cheating in an attempt to maintain their hold on political power.
In this case, it was Democrats keeping the Green Party off the ballot in Nevada because a (Democrat?) state employee had sent the party the wrong form for collecting signatures to get on the ballot. This is not to be confused with Democrats keeping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the ballot in Wisconsin.
We could add many other examples of this. Kamala Harris maintaining that Congress must act before her administration can do anything about America’s open Southern border. Tim Walz saying that “You Can’t Yell Fire in a Crowded Theater” is part of First Amendment law. Or MSNBC calling J.D. Vance a liar for claiming that government, academia, and the private sector have conspired to censor conservatives.
When I read the Nevada story, it brought to mind Patty Loveless’ 1993 country hit, Blame It On Your Heart. Loveless is singing to her ex-boyfriend who keeps trying to get back together with her. She makes it very clear that she is done with him because she won’t forget his “lying, cheating, cold dead beating, two-timing and double-dealing mean mistreating, loving heart.”
It might not be immediately obvious why, but my problem with all this is not really the Democrats. There is no doubt in my mind that as a party they are breaking just about every law, command, precept, and testimony of God. But that is what I expect from people who hate God, who seem to make up the majority of Democrats these days—at least the ones we see in public. They are just doing what fallen, unredeemed enemies of God do. I don’t like it, but I understand it.
What does get me worked up are those people who claim to be on God’s side but find reasons for maintaining fellowship with these Democrats. People like David French, Ray Ortlund, and other Christians who are likely to vote for Harris for president or support the unbiblical policies pushed by Democrats. Why can’t they, like Patty Loveless, remember and reject the lying, cheating, double-dealing, God-hating heart of the Democrat Party?
In my more reflective moments, I believe a poor understanding of Scripture is behind these Christians’ dalliances with Democrats. There are a number of reasons for this, but one is that many churches are struggling or failing to do their job of “devot[ing] themselves to the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42) and being “a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
C. S. Lewis, in The Abolition of Man, explains the crucial role the church plays in helping the saints see the world though biblical eyes:
The little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likeable, disgusting, and hateful.
Because many churches fail to fully train their flocks in the “discipline and instruction of the Lord,” some members run off like lost sheep thinking they are better off, at least when it comes to politics, with the wolves. Unfortunately, as Megan Basham has described in painstaking detail, in many cases the sheep are following the shepherds’ pursuit of the wolves.
In this essay, we’ll examine three areas that help explain why many Christians are failing to recognize the lying, cheating heart of the Democrat Party.
“And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat, Saying, this fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.” – Acts 18:12
When the Jews rose up in insurrection against Paul, they accused him of persuading men to worship God contrary to the law. Of course, the opposite was happening—Paul was preaching God’s law while the Jews were the ones attempting to persuade men to worship God contrary to His law.
One does not have to be an astute political observer to see that this is exactly the same deception that Democrats are practicing today. They, as a party, are attempting to convince the electorate that Trump, Christians, the “far right,” etc. are doing what they are actually doing.
They are taking away our “unalienable Rights,” such as free speech, private property, the right to assemble, etc., with which Americans are “endowed by their Creator.” Yet, they attempt to blame conservative Christians for this: “These far-right extremists are hellbent on restricting rights and taking away Americans’ freedoms.” At the same time they are destroying the family through abortion, same-sex marriage, and transsexuality, they say they are “fighting for families and investing in their economic freedom.”
David French provided a template for Christians seeking to ignore the Democrat’s evils when he announced he was going to vote for Harris to “save conservatism from itself.” Whenever he had to deal with the evils promoted by and engaged in by Democrats, he brushed aside the Democrats activities, excusing his choice by providing a false or highly manipulated version of Trump’s and conservative’s evils.
Democrats support the violence of Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and flash mobs across the country? “But only one party has nominated a man who was indicted for his role in the criminal scheme to steal an American election,” says French.
Ray Ortlund, the founding pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, who recently announced his support for Harris, takes the same approach.
Democrats support the “horrible evil” of killing babies up to just before birth? “Evils on the other side have risen to levels that jeopardize the foundational rule of law in our country,” says Ortlund.
Minimizing the sin of unbelievers by French, Ortlund, and others in the church by claiming others are sinning in worse ways does not comport with the apostles’ teaching. Paul, for instance, spoke plainly about the wickedness of unbelievers:
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. – Romans 3:14-18
Christians must humbly acknowledge that at one point in their lives they were just like this, yet Paul also teaches that our past should not stop us from walking away from fellowship with unbelievers:
But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him … – Acts 19:9
When Ortlund announced that he was going to vote for Harris, French responded, “This is the way.” Such blindness to the lies of the Democrats and the teachings of the apostles must be laid at the doorstep of churches that fail to instruct their flocks in biblical truth.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. – Exodus 20:16
As I have written elsewhere, Christianity has long held the Ninth Commandment to require more than just not lying about our neighbor. It also requires “preserving and promoting of truth between man and man,” “standing for the truth,” “from the heart sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth, and only the truth,” and not “prejudice[ing or obscuring] the truth.”
Yet because of the failure of the church in this area, some Christians exhibit a misguided understanding of truth that often leads them to see falsehood in the speech of Trump or in conservatives where there is none.
For instance, Russell Moore, editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, blames vaccine hesitancy among Christians on falsehoods, “the sort of conspiracy theorizing that comes across social media along with a sense of uncertainty.” He does not consider the possibility that Christians may have come to their conclusions based on credible reports from front line doctors and others who have seen the harmful effects of certain vaccines.
Moore also accuses Christians of speaking falsely when waiting for “talking points” to justify supporting Trump after the Access Hollywood recording came out and after January 6.
In my church, an elder recently claimed this Trump quote, “There have never been people treated more horrifically than J6 hostages” was “shameful and intellectually dishonest.” A couple of members of our church pointed out that he seemed to be ignoring Trump’s frequent use of hyperbole, which was clearly on display in the quote, just as it often is in the Bible. Not to mention the fact that most of them have been treated horrifically.
These and examples reported by Basham are representative of the church’s struggles to stand as “a pillar and buttress of the truth” in the current political debate. Too many Christians simply can’t see the truth about lying, cheating Democrats who with seemingly each word they speak do everything they can by their unrighteousness to suppress the truth (Romans 1:18). In part, this is because too many shepherds in the church are criticizing Trump and his supporters or are simply unwilling to teach their flocks about the wickedness that has become the Democrat Party standard.
“See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” – Jeremiah 1:10
It is no secret that Trump appeals to many Christians because he is willing to fight against many of the progressive policies being pushed by Democrats.
Why does this attract us? It is because God has called us to be fighters.
Jeremiah was called by God to “to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow” the nations and kingdoms of this world. John Calvin explains this was a necessary predicate of Jeremiah’s work of building and planting because “impiety, perverseness, and hardened iniquity had for so long a time prevailed, that it was necessary to begin with ruin and eradication; for Jeremiah could not have planted or have built the temple of God, except he had first destroyed, pulled down, laid waste, and cut off.”
As New Covenant prophets in an America filled with “impiety, perverseness, and hardened iniquity,” Christians have much the same task before them. While our “weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,” we still “have divine power to destroy strongholds.” We are called to “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete” (2 Corinthians 10:4–6).
This is Christian warfare, done under the authority and commission of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:16-20). He Himself has been set over the nations to “break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” so that they will become His heritage and possessions (Psalm 2). Against this, “the gates of hell shall not prevail” (Matthew 16:18).
Calvin foreshadows the problems some Christians today have with our call to warfare. He wrote that God exhorted Jeremiah to remember his calling during his work because He knows that men are often “afraid of those who are invested with power, or who possess wealth, or a high character for prudence, or who are endued with great honors.” Too often, we “timidly or servilely … flatter men, or … show indulgence to their lusts and passions.”
It is obvious that French, Ortlund, and other Christians are indulging the lusts and passions of Democrats. As we have seen, this is often done to excuse their claims that it is acceptable for Christians to vote for or support the policies of Democrats.
The Way Forward
Voting for Kamala Harris is not “the way” for Christians to carry out the Great Commission and deal with the lying, cheating, cold dead beating heart of the Democrat Party. Instead, we should be encouraged by God’s reminder to Jeremiah that we are carrying out His calling. Calvin wrote that this will help us overcome our natural timidity by being “magnanimous in spirit.” And remind us that as “true prophets and teachers [we] may take courage, and thus boldly set [our]selves against kings and nations, when armed with the power of celestial truth.” And thus “not … spare [our] hearers, but freely reprove them whenever there may be need.”
I have no love for the Democratic Party. As someone who has voted for third party candidates from 2004 through to 2016, I’ve seen their attempts in my state to block 3rd party candidates from the ballot box.
And yet, their moves are nothing in comparison to the dangers and meanness that is a part of Trump. Call it hyperbole if you want, but, while President, he once actually asked his Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, if the military could shoot protesters. He is now threatening to use the military to attack those on the Left if elected.
We can relegate some of Trump’s statements to hyperbole, but we can’t do that with all of his outlandish statements. And his personality flaws and his statements serve as an ominous warning of what could happen to America if he is elected. If he is elected, then perhaps the only thing that could save us is a subsequent military coup
Give me a break. You survived 4 years of Trump already, I doubt the second term will be much different. You’ll notice he still stepped down from office and that Biden’s currently the president.
Mass layoffs in the federal government will be the only difference this time, those people need to look for honest work… That’s why they fear Trump, not cause he’s a threat to our way of life but a threat to their gravy train… Hoping for a military coup is terrible thing, you don’t want to see that happen. That’s why General Flynn got prosecuted for suggesting such a thing.
Noah,
Really? What held Trump back from acting like a dictator the last time? Wasn’t it the courts and Esper’s decision not to have the military shoot at protesters along with Pence’s decision to refuse Trump’s request on the electoral ballots?
Again, we see the same Trump, only this time the SCOTUS is acting more favorably toward him along with a Speaker of the House who believes the big lie. Was he speaking in hyperbole when he said that he would use the military to confront Leftists when in the past he sincerely made the request? What kind of Presidency do you think he will have when he says he will eliminate woke influences on the military?
The real question is what kind of Presidency does Trump really want and how much of that can he accomplish when he will have more support than the last time he was elected? And don’t forget Project 2025.
You can minimize Trump’s rhetoric all you want but his history and his own words speak for himself. And what has happened in history when rhetoric like his was minimized by the voters?
He will be given a mandate by the people if elected. That would justify getting rid of the woke elements in the military and government. It would justify all actions to Make America Great Again which we all want – if we are loyal citizens. A lot of what you speak is lies about Trump that are propagated by dishonest fellows.
Bill, great write-up.
I’d welcome a follow-up, a hermeneutic for that describes how Christians should apply the Great Commission and Jer 1:10, Ps 94:10-18; Ps 96:10-13, and the bulk of Mosaic law for civil jurisprudence, for the work of “discipling the nations” and “teaching them to obey all I have commanded.”
It is challenging to think through this in the political sphere.
Levi,
I am confused as to your interest in applying the bulk of the Mosaic law to society when the bulk of the Mosaic law was not ever applied to the Gentile branch of the Church during the times of the Apostles.
Had to look up what ‘the Great Commission’ is. I am not a troll, I find much of the content on this site interesting and I appreciate understanding where people are coming from without hiding their faith or intentions. It’s laid out in black and white here for all to see. But I have to say, I’m curious what happens to those of us who don’t want to made disciples? I worry nothing good. Are you (eventually) going to kill us all? Even if we’re not hostile to your project, but just don’t want to be part of it? I guess we would be considered unrepentant sinnners, what’s the Biblical guidance there?
Eleanor,
If one is a Christian, then one should want to do their part in carrying out the Great Commission.
But your question is an excellent one. What about those who don’t want to conform? What do some here want to do with them?
Part of authoritarianism is to react to nonconformity to the authoritarian’s traditions with hostility. But then again, those who embrace authoritarianism do so out of fear, according to Erich Fromm. So we might want to ask why does non conformity make them so afraid.
Don’t listen to Curt. He doesn’t understand what anyone writing here is about. He thinks everyone at AR is an authoritarian fascist Nazi out to rule the world by installing a Fourth Reich of Christendom. What disingenuous poppycock.
Is it disingenuous or is he just not particularly perceptive? Either way, I agree it’s poppycock.
Jordan,
You’re wrong. I would not make that assessment of anyone at AR. What I do see is a lot of authoritarianism in many of the contributors here, but not all. And there are many kinds of authoritarians. Nazi Fascists were extreme authoritarians who were different than many of the other extreme authoritarians. Christendom exhibited varying levels of authoritarianism none of which were Nazi-like.
What is authoritarian is when people make non specific, non-rational criticisms aimed at getting people to automatically or reflexively reject what another person is saying.
If you don’t want to be made a disciple then that is your prerogative. We are not called to force people to believe even if history has some bad examples of this happening. Live and follow the laws and you should have no problems in a Christian society – which America started out as such.