Oct
31
Voting Christianly, part 1: Questions for Evangelicals for Biden
Tonight’s bonus post is the first of two commentaries from Scott Klusendorf, President of Life Training Institute. Though it is pretty much quoted verbatim, I have taken the liberty of adjusting the formatting a little for readability….
“Here’s what I’ve never understood about evangelicals who endorse Biden: Why is Donald Trump’s character an obstacle to evangelism while Joe Biden’s is not?
The latter promotes wholesale the alleged right to intentionally kill innocent human beings. He can’t even bring himself to protect children from grisly late-term procedures. Isn’t that a huge, disqualifying character flaw? But there is more. In 1987, the media torpedoed Biden’s presidential campaign by exposing him as a blatant plagiarist and chronic liar, especially regarding his academic and professional accomplishments. So, why is a candidate with Biden’s character flaws not an obstacle to evangelism but support for Trump is one?
Herein lies the fundamental problem with evangelicals endorsing Biden. At best, they make a case for rejecting both candidates (like Piper does)–not publicly endorsing one sworn to promote a grave moral evil that God hates.
Evangelical friends who support Biden typically reply [that] Conservative politics is a huge obstacle to evangelism, that they don’t want the unconverted to wrongly believe that being born-again means they must become Republicans loyal to Donald Trump. Fair enough, but the sword cuts both ways. What about unconverted conservatives who reject Christianity because many of its leaders affirm a leftist worldview or are otherwise appallingly weak on the key moral issues of our day? Isn’t that an obstacle to the gospel?
Consider Ben Shapiro and Dennis Prager, both non-believers with huge audiences. They speak often of Christian leaders who refuse to take public stands on moral issues. As Prager once noted, “If you say, as a pastor, ‘I personally oppose same-sex marriage, but I won’t take a public stand,’ I have no respect for you. What you are telling me is that you care more what the New York Times thinks than you do what Jesus Christ thinks.”
Finally, I can’t help wonder: If the issue was supporting a party that promotes intentionally killing innocent 5-year-olds, would they argue the same way?”
Ouch! Some very fair yet pull-no-punches questions from Mr. K! I think you’ll want to check out tomorrow’s post, too, which includes and applies many Scriptural references to this topic.
