Since ‘God Instituted Government,’ Christians Cannot Be Disengaged from Voting, Says Expert

Does one vote really make a difference? Do Christians have a place in politics? What about God? Does He care about any of this political insanity?

It’s easy to feel, especially in times where being politically engaged seems like an invitation to being harassed, that staying at arm’s length (or 10 football fields) away from it all is the best option. But as guest host Jody Hice and President of Summit Ministries Jeff Myers discussed on Tuesday’s episode of “Washington Watch,” Christians not only should be engaged in politics, but have a significant role.

“This question [of whether Christians should avoid politics] is huge,” Myers said. When looking at statistics, “65% of people say, when they think about politics, they feel aggravated or anxious. Fifty-five percent say it makes them feel angry. Only 4% say they feel excited.” However, one of the underlying factors to why Americans are detaching themselves from being politically engaged is that we’ve started “to think of a vote as a like on social media” posts — inconsequential and hardly noticeable. “But a vote is not a like,” Myers urged. “A vote is a hiring decision.”

The truth is, he contended, we have a duty to vote. “You’ve got to vote,” because voting is ultimately what determines who makes the decisions in this country. And to go “a little bit further,” Hice added, “What about the … presumption that God is not concerned about politics?” How do we respond to such a claim? As Myers responded, this is simply a false understanding of who God is and how He operates.

“I’ve always found this fascinating,” he explained, “because people say [that] God only cares about what happens in church on Sunday morning,” but this “just isn’t true.” According to Scripture, Myers contended that “God’s glory covers all of the earth. God cares about everything, everywhere, all the time.” And “it is because of His glory that He chose us to be His image bearers,” which means “we have responsibilities here on earth.”

To elaborate further, Myers noted how “Christian thinkers throughout history have talked about this” role we have in society. As Myers emphasized, prominent Christians throughout the ages have argued that “the important responsibilities of believers is to be citizens of the Kingdom of God and also citizens in the kingdom of man.” He highlighted what Augustine of Hippo, a widely known Christian philosopher, once said, namely, “The citizens in the kingdom of God will always be the best citizens in the kingdom of man, because they have an allegiance to something that is higher than the state.” Ultimately, “If there is no God, then the government is god,” he stated.

And most importantly, Christians are the ones who understand this best. “Who else knows better?” Myers asked. “If Christians don’t get involved, who’s going to bring that perspective to bear?”

But even with the advantage Christians have over the realities of this world, we still tend to fall into common lies and deceptive thinking. “[T]his … came up with me just yesterday in the conversation I was having with someone,” Hice recounted. As he went on to say, the individual he was having a conversation with claimed “that when we go vote, all we’re doing is voting the lesser of two evils, or we’re trying to determine which is the lesser of two evils.” But when this argument is raised, how are we to respond to “that kind of mentality?” Are we really just “choosing the lesser of two evils,” or is there more to it than that?

According to Myers, there is a more helpful way to respond. “I just ask … a couple of simple questions,” he said. First, “Do both candidates for that particular office have a sin nature? And the answer is yes.” Second, “Do we have a sin nature? The answer is yes.” And so, he explained, “We’re not asking the question, ‘How do we choose between the lesser of two evils?’” Rather, “What we should be asking is, ‘How do we use our vote to lessen evil?” At least one way in which we can do this is by going “back the Constitution” to see what it says.

For instance, Myers continued, it says “we cannot deprive people of life, liberty, or property without the due process of law.” Starting with life, it’s “critically important” to understand “it is always wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being,” which can be applied “all throughout life from the very beginning, even in the womb.” Next, Myers noted, this same way of thinking is used “with the question of liberty. Does this elected official understand that we do not work for them [but] that they work for us?” Do they know “that the whole point of government is not to take away our liberty” but “to secure the rights that have been given to us by God”? While Myers emphasized many of these conversations and questions have a controversial nature, at the end of the day, it’s “very straightforward.”

Ultimately, “The government does not give you your rights. According to the Declaration of Independence, our rights are given to us by God and [then] secured by the government.” Hice interjected, “And that’s one reason it’s very concerning that we now have two parties, neither of which has a platform that acknowledges what” has been talked about. It seems, he speculated, that “any mention of God is just an adjective form, rather than declaration that He is the author of our rights.” And being vague on this matter causes a lot of people to believe “that politics really isn’t even all that important.”

Myers agreed, and he stated, “[H]ere’s how I process this as a Christian.” Specifically referring to people who claim to be Christians and believers in God, he pointed to John 8:31b-32 where Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Myers went on to point out how, “in the original language, that word ‘truth’ is ‘reality.’” As such, “Jesus is not saying, ‘Follow My teachings and you will know your truth” or that “you’ll feel better about yourself.’” No, “He said, ‘Follow My teachings and reality itself will open up to you. So, if Christians really do believe that Jesus opens up truth for us,” then we can only conclude that “people who deny Jesus don’t understand the full truth.”

Myers then contended that for Christians to “withdraw from the process” means “what we’re saying is, ‘By my not being involved, I want unreality or fantasy to prevail rather than reality.’”

Hice concurred, adding, “[B]y definition, it is impossible to be salt and light if you’re disengaged.” Not to mention, “we need to keep in mind that God instituted government. This is not a man-made thing. It’s one of the institutions that God created.” So, “for us to be absent of it is really to live in disobedience,” at least “when it comes to being salt and light in the world in which we live.”

“There’s no question,” Myers agreed. “[I]t’s amazing to me,” he concluded. “We need to think about how much every single vote in an election matters. This current election cycle, at every level, is going to be decided, in most cases by 1 to 2% of the people. That is about a thousand people in each of America’s 1,300 counties. We’re not talking about” how “our vote doesn’t really matter in the bigger scheme of things. It matters, absolutely, at every level.”