It’s election season again, which means I once again enter into that weird phase where my ideological friends regularly make me cringe. Sometimes it’s over the top rhetoric in favor of some guy on the red team, other times it’s over the top rhetoric in against some guy on the blue team. People who ought to know better say things like, “No believer could ever vote blue.” This is logically equivalent to “All persons who voted blue are not believers.”
Yikes. Now please don’t misunderstand me. You will likely never meet a man more committed to the sanctity of live, to limited government, to conservative ideology than me. I am also a deeply committed believer myself. Last but not least, I have never voted for, nor can I imagine ever doing so, a democrat for any office. I’m more than happy to say this radically different thing, “No believer should ever vote blue.” Could never? Don’t be ridiculous.
Here is a brief list of things that are at least on par with voting blue if not worse, that believers can and have done.
1. Committed sexual infidelity.
2. Committed murder to cover up sexual infidelity.
3. Refused to share table fellowship with fellow believers because of their ancestry.
4. Denied the Lord three times.
5. Passed out from drinking.
6. Murdered his or her unborn child.
7. Driven drunk with his children in the car.
8. Whatever it is you’ve done that you desperately hope no one ever finds out about.
The first two on this list is a man God called a “man after His own heart.” The second two are man Jesus called “the Rock.” The third is a man God called righteous in his generations. That’s King David, King David again, Peter, Peter again, and Noah. The sixth is the one sixth of procurers of abortion in American, while professing to be evangelical Christians. The seventh is me and the eighth is you.
According to Jesus, there is only one sin a believer can not ever commit, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. While there may be some uncertainty as to what exactly that is, voting foolishly is surely not what it is. Which means that while it may well be a sin to vote Democrat, it is certainly a sin to suggest that this particular sin is a sure sign that that sinner is outside the kingdom. This sin, however, even those under His grace, are prone to commit.
The solution is for us to understand that while all sins are heinous, and while some sins are more heinous that others, believers are more than capable of committing the most heinous of sins. While His promises include washing us of our sins, they don’t include our being freed from committing sins until we have crossed over.
Education and admonition are good things. And it is certainly true that there are forces of foolery inside the church that seek to deny the sinfulness of voting for the Baby Killing party that should be directly challenged, calling such a sin unforgivable is a lie against the breadth and scope of the grace of God in Christ. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of which I am chief (I Tim 1:15).
When I compare my sin, (which I shouldn’t), to a political party, I can say that while my sin may effect those around me, at least it doesn’t affect an entire nation. That being said, I don’t believe that voting one’s conscious is wrong even if it goes against our conventional wisdom. We can easily be voting against God’s sovereign choice to lead this nation. I have done that several times. Is that then sin on my part?
Of course not. We’re not privy to His plans. We are to act in light of His revealed will, which is His law, not our guess on His secret will which is what He has decreed.