Tomorrow — Tuesday, Nov. 5 — registered voters will elect the 47th president of the United States of America, providing one of the candidates secures the necessary 270 electoral votes. A third of the U.S. Senate will be elected and the entirety of the U.S. House. A host of state and local offices will be filled as well.
Some already have voted by way of early voting or an absentee ballot. I am one of those, having voted on Thursday with my wife, Jackie. For me, there is something neat about going to the polls to vote whether on Election Day, another set-aside day during early voting, or by an absentee ballot. I know I am voting with tens of millions of others who share at least one thing in common: citizenship in the USA.
Jimmy Gentry
Polls will close across the land at appointed hours. While lines may be long, depending on where one lives, hopefully everyone who goes to vote will be able to do so.
I imagine most Americans will devote their evening to watching the returns on their favorite news network, listening to the radio, going online or doing a combination of all three as the results are presented. Some will bounce back and forth between this network and that one. Some will be happy, others sad. Some will be calm, others angry.
Regardless, the morning after, we are still Americans. Diverse? Yes. Polarized? Definitely. But still, we are Americans.
Every presidential election year, many of us become more and more disgusted with the tone campaigns take. They are becoming nastier and nastier, it seems, every four years. Democrats are at fault and Republicans are at fault. Even now I wonder what it will be like in 2028. Presidential historians note it always has been this way.
“In some respects, we’ve lost all sense of character, decency and integrity.”
That precedent, however, doesn’t validate its continuation. In some respects, we’ve lost all sense of character, decency and integrity. In addition to the malevolence, it is sometimes hard to know whom to believe. One can spend an enormous amount of time wading through all the issues and where each candidate stands. It can consume one to the point of obsession. Every succeeding presidential election becomes the most important in history. It can be an exasperating time. No. It is an exasperating time.
I recently retired after a 50-year career of preaching and teaching. I write as an ecumenically minded Baptist minister at large. I write as a Christian with a Jesus worldview. First and foremost, that is who I am. Being a Christian supersedes any political party.
I understand there is nothing wrong with politics. Politics is how we relate to each other. Look up the word politic and its variants. It has Greek roots, from which words like “citizen,” “citizenship” and “city” come. It is used in the New Testament. As a Christian, I also understand anything can be corrupted by sin, including politics. Whenever politics hints of dishonesty or disdain for some part of humanity, then its motivation is not from the Holy One, but the Evil One.
Christians are afforded a unique opportunity as citizens of two kingdoms: a kingdom of this world (the kingdom of the USA) and a kingdom not of this world (the kingdom of God). And Christians are to remember these two kingdoms are not the same. Christians are summoned to participate in the kingdom of this world by voting, running for office, living exemplary lives and challenging political agendas when they are corrupt, contemptuous or cruel.
There are agendas put forth by both Democrats and Republicans that, from a Christian worldview, are to be challenged and condemned. Yes. Both parties have sin. And there also are agendas put forth in both major political parties that are to be commended and supported. Yes. Both parties have good. Why can’t we see this?
So many issues confront us not only in an election, but also in everyday living. Justice, human rights, poverty, the sanctity of all human life inside and outside the womb, marriage and family, religious liberty, church and state, peacemaking, just war, nonviolence, immigration, economics, affordable health care for all and creation care are just a few.
Jesus people have a biblically mandated charge to address such issues not only at the polls, but in how we live each day as members of Christ’s church for the betterment of humanity through a faithful and calculated witness about the Cross and Resurrection. This includes how we use our money, for example, which is not ours in the first place. Everything belongs to the Creator God, revealed in Christ, and we are just stewards of what belongs to the divine. Sometimes we are good stewards, and sometimes we’re not.
“Christians have a wonderful opportunity to really change the world, but not so much through a president or city councilperson.”
Christians have a wonderful opportunity to really change the world, but not so much through a president or city councilperson. It is true that change can and should come through these and at times does. The Creator God can use whomever God chooses — even a pagan. But ultimately, change comes through Christians who seek to be and experience the presence of Christ through their witness of love about the gospel to anybody they encounter anywhere and at any time. And it has nothing to do with being a Democrat or Republican.
An enormous occasion is offered 21st-century Christians to use politics to shape a better world, and to do so with honesty, respect and kindness. It is possible to be confident and at the same time humble. And humility is the badge of genuine Christian faith. That badge needs to be worn “humbly,” for we are a culture that has no shortage of arrogance.
Missiologists say one-third of the world’s population, a bit more than 2.5 billion people, claim to be Christian out of 8.1 billion. If only a quarter of the third sincerely followed biblical standards, as interpreted contextually through Jesus, in their politics, history would be transformed, and a worldwide renewal would begin.
So if you are a Christian who is a registered voter and you haven’t voted, go vote tomorrow. If you aren’t a Christian, go vote. We’ll not all vote for the same candidates. All Christians will not vote the same way. And that is OK. Vote “according to the dictates of your conscience,” to borrow a line from our fourth president, James Madison.
And after we cast our votes with millions of others — many of whom will be Christians — and they are tabulated, do remember something. No matter who is elected, Jesus is still Lord on Nov. 6 and every other day following that day.
No election can ever change that. Never.
Jimmy Gentry is an ecumenically minded Baptist minister at large, who lives in Rome, Ga., with his wife, Jackie, who is an RN. He recently retired as pastor of Garden Lakes Baptist Church in Rome, having served that congregation for eight years and eight months, and after a career of preaching for 50 years.