Are you ready to vote?

There are likely to be some big elections this year. The US Presidential election will take place in the Autumn and at some point, Rishi Sunak is likely to call a General Election in the United Kingdom.  Generally speaking, I don’t like it when pastors and elders attempt to tell people how to vote and I would go further and say that it is best overall if we don’t align publicly with this or that party or political tribe. 

I made an exception to this in 2019.  The General Election saw a head to head choice with one politician who had developed a reputation for not caring about the truth -even by politicians’ standards and there were significant question marks about his integrity.  On the other side, was a party leader whose embrace of extremism included prominent supporters of terrorism and violence. He had also allowed antisemitism to gain a serious foothold in mainstream British politics. For those reasons, I said that I could not vote for either option and I argued that it was legitimate to refuse the choice set in front of us, to in effect abstain.

Things have improved somewhat since then, neither leader is in place now. However, their successors did serve as senior members of their teams and to my knowledge neither have either apologised or given a credible account for why they worked so hard to see men completely unfit for office elected.  I hope that they will both be challenged on this in debates and interviews.

However, to some extent, it is normal service resolved.  My concern therefore is not to talk here about how I would vote as to try and help us think through how we make that decision.  I think that it is worth taking time to think things through early rather than feeling pressurised to make a decision close to the day. Here are the key things I would be considering.

Character

We are electing people to represent us, speak for us, act on our behalf both here domestically and internationally.  In the United States, the focus on the Presidential race makes that dynamic all the more obvious although there’s also the matter of Congress and the Senate.   In the UK, whilst at times, the election can feel presidential with a focus on the leaders, we are primarily electing local MPs who as members of different parties will determine the shape of the government.

So, we do need to think about the character of the party leaders but we also need to look at the local candidates too and find out as much as possible about them.  Most candidates will not be professing Christians but we will be able to pick up something of their values and their reputation. 

Competence

How will they do in terms of the things they are going to be responsible for.  Here, we have to primarily look at the parties and consider the following

• How have they done with the things they have been responsible for today. It’s easier to judge the siting government because they have a recent, comparable track record but we can look at the record of individual opposition politicians in their outside of politics, in party managementand in some cases when they were in government.  We can also look at a party’s track record in local or devolved government.
• What they propose to do. Does it make sense? Does it sound responsibility both in terms of what and how?

Values

It’s not just about the “what” and the “how” but also the “why?”  What do they prioritise and to what end. Now, part of this is about underlying political philosophy and Christians can disagree on things for example such as “small v large government” and socialism v capitalism.

However, it is also possible to commit to those political beliefs and policies for different motives, either selfish motives or a concern for others. As I have said, most politicians will not profess faith in Christ, certainly as Evangelicals understand it.  However, whilst we are unlikely to meet many who are openly and fully seeking to follow Jesus and obey God, there will be some whose values are much more overtly in opposition to God’s ways. 

Will we be better off or worse off?

Now, I’m not going to get into the politics of small or large government here. Whether or not you think a government should be engaged in economic management, it is still the case that all politicians pitch their manifesto on the basis that as a result of them being in government, voters will be better off.

And that’s a good question for Christians to ask in an election. The whole person matters and so do these things.  However, we want to approach this differently to the world around us.  The question is not “will I be better off” but “will we as a society be better off?”  Indeed, it may be that we decide that others, the vulnerable and most needy, future generations etc will be better off even though we personally suspect that we will be worse off.

Furthermore, it’s about more than just economics.  It’s about the overall wellbeing of society. Are we more likely to enjoy peaceful lives and will that mean greater freedom to share the Gospel? 

Preparing

I would encourage you to be preparing for polling day when it comes, now.  This means taking time to think and pray for God’s Wisdom, listening to God through His Word to be reminded of his priorities and thinking carefully about the implications.  It  means taking time to learn about the individual candidates and the parties they are standing for.

It also means that even as we exercise our democratic responsibility that we continue to trust God’s sovereignty, that we keep election results in perspective and we trust him to do what is right, even if we don’t like it.