The Lesser of Two Evils?
I can’t remember a presidential election year that I didn’t hear someone say "I guess I’m going to have to choose between the lesser of two evils." I believe that for a Christian choosing evil is, in itself, an evil act. So, if we believe that the two (or more) candidates running for president are evil men (or women), then we just should not vote for any of them. But let’s take a look at what we mean by evil. When we are talking about "two evils" are we talking about two sinful people? If so, then the only possible candidate for president we can support is Jesus! Every person who has ever sought the office of president has been a sinful person. Some of those are redeemed sinners — some are not. If we are not talking about garden variety sinners when we call them evil, what we are we talking about?

I’m not exactly sure what we meant 40 or 50 years ago when this expression was used and I am not completely sure what unbelievers mean by it today. What I want to consider is what us right-thinking, conservative, evangelical Christians mean. There was a time in the late 1970's and early 1980's that evangelicals rediscovered their identity and became "radical." Just before I was a believer, I marched with Christians in downtown Nashville against adult businesses which had a thriving trade in that part of the city. There was a relatively large crowd that night that almost filled the Downtown Presbyterian Church. It was not too much later that I was part of a growing group who picketed in front of abortion clinics and attended every pro-life rally in town. Christians were taking to the streets on many fronts. Christians were aware of culture more so than the preceding few decades. Many Christians were being influenced by the reconstruction movement which was teaching an optimistic view of God’s Kingdom on earth. Books about restoring (or building) Christian America were extremely popular. It was a giddy time for many of us. It was during this period that the Religious Right became a political entity. Ronald Reagan was elected president and there was an upbeat attitude in the evangelical community.

To my parents generation, voting was a civic duty. I remember listening to them discuss the candidates and the political parties. Sometimes they disagreed — those were the more interesting conversations. I also remember (1950's) sitting as a family watching the national conventions and listening to the speeches. In some ways that was a blessed time as we had not yet learned about "sound bites." In any case, after the conventions, speeches, and campaigning, my parents, and a substantial number of their peers, went to the polls and voted. They understood a very fundamental fact of our political system — someone was going to be elected president and lead the country for the next four years. They believed it was their responsibility to have a say in that decision.

Today, evangelicals have a different view. Over the past thirty years , we have been encouraged to believe that voting is giving our stamp of approval to the ideological views of one of the candidates. We have subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) been trained to compare the views of candidates to a list of litmus tests provided by the various conservative/Christian leaders: abortion, gay rights, immigration, etc. Every vote is now an ideological decision. If a candidate does not score well on our litmus tests, then he is an "evil" and we look elsewhere. If all available candidates come up short, then, according to some of our "leaders", we stay home and don’t vote. There is an unspoken assumption that voting for an "evil" is probably sin on our part. And that is where we are today in this election cycle. Both Democratic candidates are de facto "evil" and the Republican candidate has been found lacking by many of the leaders of the Religious Right. Consequently, we are being counseled by some to just "sit this one out." I’m not going to do that. I’m going back to that fundamental truth: someone is going to be elected. I believe that Christians living in a democracy have a responsibility to vote. I also believe that our decision process needs to move beyond a list of litmus tests. Among other things, we need to look at what Scripture tells us about the role of government and consider not only a candidate’s view on our hot button issues but how we perceive he will assure that justice reigns, particularly to the poor and disenfranchised. God is much more concerned about the poor than He is about a wall on our borders. God is much more concerned about those who have to choose between food and medicine than He is about the growth of our 401k accounts. God is much more concerned about people having jobs in order to feed their families than He is about America competing in the global economy. And God still holds the heart of the king in His hand.