In my position I get to know just about as many evangelicals who are supporting Obama as are supporting McCain. Most of these people stridently support their candidate. And with the exception of a few who remain undecided—because they are still sorting through the set of competing biblical values, or lack thereof, they want to support—most display no willingness to understand the perspective of Christians who are voting for the opposing candidate.

Who will be elected as our next president is important. Christians should be actively engaged in shaping the public policies of our nation. What I do not like about the nature of Christians and politics today is that we let political beliefs come between us and other Christians.

I fear that just like so many other Americans, Christians have let their political affiliation define their values. And over time, we begin to think our ideology is more Christian and more biblical than the other.

What I prescribe is for us to begin respectfully listening to, and trying to understand the perspective of, Christians who hold different political priorities. We need to do this in order to allow God back into the shaping of our political platforms—on both the right and the left.

We have succumbed to siding with either of two opposing political ideologies based upon their platforms, including a few policies that we have made into trump cards.

The troubling pattern is that when we side with a particular party, we unquestionably adopt the rest of the platform without continuing to challenge our politicians on other important biblical values for society.

Both presidential candidates, McCain and Obama, are professing followers of Jesus Christ. Yet neither candidate offers a political platform that perfectly aligns with God’s politics. God’s values are more comprehensive than either candidate is espousing. Every Christian will have to choose which of the competing platforms reflects the best mix of biblical values God would prescribe for our country.

A lot of close friends will disagree with me on that statement. In their minds the choice for Christians is abundantly clear based upon a few select moral priorities (opposition to abortion on one side, opposition to inhumane torture on the other; reducing the tax burden on families vs. health care for the uninsured).

Do you choose a candidate who emphasizes social justice, merciful social policies to care for children and the poor, and economic responsibility—policies that God clearly expected of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament? Or does one choose the candidate that advocates personal responsibility, the sanctity of life, and works to support traditional family structures—also clear biblical teachings.

Certainly there are other policy differences that influence ones choice for president—many of them based on cultural preferences and historical experience more so than biblical values —and these should be debated in a civil manner for the health of our nation as well. But we should not let our passionate political positions cut us off from fellow Christians, thereby dividing our potential to influence and reshape both Republican and Democratic political policy to be more reflective of God’s values.

I am going to vote a certain way based upon my interpretation of biblical values and cultural preferences, but I also respect that good evangelical Christian friends of mine will vote for another candidate based upon their own hierarchies of values and beliefs.

For examples of comprehensive Bible-based policy platforms, see “For the Health of the Nation” adopted by the National Association of Evangelicals (www.nae.net), or the October 2008 article by Ron Sider in Prism (www.esa-online.org).


Carl Nelson is president of the Greater Minnesota Association of Evangelicals (www.mnevangelicals.org).