Earlier this week I participated in a panel with some of my colleagues on glorifying God amid election angst:
Brian Tabb (@BJTabb) moderated, and the other panelists were Joe Rigney (@joe_rigney) and Rick Segal (@ThatRickSegal).
Follow-up thoughts:
- The above video does not include our answer to the final question—“Whom do you plan to vote for?” Joe Rigney, Rick Segal, and I each answered the question a little differently: (a) Joe Rigney basically argued what he writes in the final section of his article that Desiring God published today: “The Gift of God’s Judgment: Our Election Crisis and Opportunity.” (b) I basically agreed with Joe. It will be a game-time decision. I understand why some of my friends plan to vote differently, but at this point I plan to vote for the most viable third-party social conservative. (c) Rick Segal did not share whom he plans to vote for, but he exhorted everyone to vote rather than abstain.
- The article that has currently received the most page views on my website is “Can You Vote for Donald Trump with a Clear Conscience?” I think both of the main presidential candidates are morally disqualified. But as I say in that article and as I tried to convey in the panel, my main goal as a pastor-theologian is not to persuade people not to vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. I want to encourage people not to sin against their conscience and to encourage Christians to obey what Romans 14 teaches about disputable matters.
- On October 26, 2008, Mike Bullmore—my pastor at the time—prefaced his sermon with a 135-second pastoral exhortation in light of the upcoming election. Here’s an excerpt: “There’s something more important than your voting next Tuesday … and that is where your confidence is, where your security is. … Let there be no loss of confidence in the goodness of God. Let there be no loss of security, whoever is in office. … There’s no cause no matter what happens—ever—for those who belong to God to worry or complain or whine.”
