Evangelicals make up a solid voting bloc for the Republican Party, as they demonstrated in 2016 by turning out for President Trump.
They aren’t a completely unified bloc. Pew Research Center reported in October that evangelical support for Trump had slipped from 83% to 78% since August. Some evangelicals have denounced Trump for his character flaws and policy positions, claiming that supporting him would taint their Christian witness.
Still, most think Trump’s policies actually align with their Christian values, even if his character is hardly that of a believer. How they will vote this election likely depends on where they land when their political ideologies and their theological positions intersect.
On Oct. 22, John Piper, the renowned reformed theologian, author, and former pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, wrote a controversial article “pondering the implications of the 2020 election” and in it, he essentially denounced Trump but also failed to endorse Joe Biden.
Conversely, Albert Mohler, theologian and head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote the exact opposite piece a few days later. Even though Mohler lambasted Trump’s character, saying the “reality is that he is sadly deficient in many of the most crucial issues of character and moral virtue,” he yet went on to make a solid case for voting for Trump — or at least to explain why he would cast his vote for Trump.
Politics and the Bible contain a myriad of nuances. There wouldn’t be so many different political factions and churches if they didn’t. Certainly, parts of the Bible are black and white. Some of the Bible’s commandments are absolutely clear: Love your neighbor, do not steal, do unto others what you would have them do unto you, do not murder. Yet nowhere does the Bible precisely prescribe whom a Christian ought to vote for.
Piper suggests that because Trump is not a man of good character, a vote for him would endorse that mindset or promote that worldview, and he thinks that’s dangerous to and unbecoming of his Christian testimony. “I think it is baffling and presumptuous to assume that pro-abortion policies kill more people than a culture-saturating, pro-self pride,” he writes. “When a leader models self-absorbed, self-exalting boastfulness, he models the most deadly behavior in the world.”
Mohler agrees Trump has significant character flaws but values the policies he has put in place over that. “[Trump’s] arrogance and ego and constant need for adulation drive me to distraction. But character is some strange combination of the personal, the principled, and the practical,” he says, continuing, “let me put it another way — I cannot accept the argument that a calm man who affirms the dismembering of babies in the womb has a superior character to a man who rants like Genghis Khan but acts to preserve that life.” The dichotomy between absolutism and pragmatism seems to be one of the underlying conflicts between these men. In some ways, both men are right.
Piper’s view is far more absolute and eternal in its considerations. His theology and his life’s mission affect his every thought and action. I would never have expected him to promote or vote for a man like Trump. Don’t Waste Your Life was one of his most popular and profound books. In it, he pleads with the next generation of Christians not to fritter away choices and tasks but to ensure everything they do honors God — to live with eternity in mind. You could name Piper’s essay “Don’t Waste Your Politics” and see, with clarity, the lens through which he views theology and politics. He will always embrace a more absolute view of culture and politics.
Unfortunately, Christians still live on this earth, which is flawed and full of sinners (themselves included), and politics is anything but absolute. Pragmatism reigns here, even if Christians would have otherwise. To this end, Mohler says he lives “within the Augustinian tradition, and thus I see politics and culture as being of temporal but nonetheless very real significance for human beings and the communities we build.” Some Christians boil this down to a “means for an end” philosophy.
The biggest difference between Piper’s view and Mohler’s is that Piper condemns Trump’s character and says little of Biden’s, and at the same time, pits Biden’s bad policies against Trump’s bad character. He hints that, in that competition, Trump definitely loses.
Still, if Trump’s character is on trial, Biden’s should be too. In trying Biden, we would find ourselves wondering if we should only elect politicians who act and believe just as evangelicals do. What about Catholics or other categories of Christians? Can Christians vote for a man or woman who is not a Christian and still have a clear conscience? This mindset would surely lead to a swath of people who feel they are unable to vote because no one would meet those qualifications consistently. I don’t think that’s what God wants for his people who are to live in the world, though not of it.
Mohler concluded, “We are tempted to separate personal character and political policies as if they can be cleanly divided, but character is policy and policy is character. … In my ideal world, I would vote for a candidate in whom the personal, the principled, and the practical earn my admiration. I do not live in that world. I live in this world, and I must act accordingly.”
This is, in essence, the conflict between Christians and the world in which they live: How do we reconcile the temporary election with the eternal Savior? How do we live actively and presently in a world that hates everything we value but also in a way that will result in our hearing “well done” at the judgment?
C.S. Lewis said, “Your soul has a curious shape, because it is a hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the divine substance.” That hollow, of course, is not in the shape of the 2020 election, Trump, Biden, your money, your job, your kids, or your favorite hobby. It has never been, and it will never be.
The hollow of every person’s soul is made for a relationship with the Divine Creator, and every heart is restless until it rests in God, as St. Augustine said. So, how should evangelicals vote? How will they vote? They should vote just like that: In a way that honors God and reflects their values, whatever they may be.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
