Christian Candidacy

As I prepare to campaign, I've been thinking about what a Christian campaign looks like. This is something we all need to be thinking about, especially with a primary on August 3rd. Now, with the indirect help of Overisel Reformed's stellar Pastor Scott Lokers, I've reached some conclusions I'd like to share with you.

Before beginning, I have to clear a few things up. To those of you concerned about the "separation of church and state" (especially the one or two violent secular fanatics who read this): we do have a separation of our churches and our governments, yes, but no such separation exists between faith and politics. Second, conflict between Christians is not necessarily non-Christian. Fighting becomes non-Christian when it is not done constructively and not done virtuous, God-glorifying solutions.

In the electoral pursuit of these solutions, Christian Candidates (CCs) must have the intellectual humility to accept that our democracy and our God use conflict to find better ideas for the People (Eph 4: 15-16). It is through popular sovereignty that we see our Sovereign (Col 2:18-19). Therefore, a CC must have the humility and honor to propose ideas to voters and, then, focus on contrasting their ideas' predictable risks, rewards, and secondary effects with those of their opponents (Prov 18:12-13; James 1:19-20, 5:16). It goes both ways as well: CCs have to keep their egos small enough to accept that their proposals will always have flaws (Gen 4:12) and that acting in a positive way on these flaws (fixing or scrapping them) can and will restore all of us toward Jesus Christ (Rom 2:1-4, 14:3; Gal 5:22-25; Col 3:13-15). It points to a profound commitment of non-partisanship in thought: CCs are men and women who have ideas while they themselves are owned by Jesus, and loyal to Him only (Phil 2:7-8). A CC has to prayerfully analyze each and every piece of policy for themselves and not automatically side with their party or a certain interest group (1 Thess 2:2-3; James 1:19-20; Gal 5:23; Rom 15:1-6; Prov 18:13; Mt 10:16).

In actually running a campaign to communicate ideas, CCs must discipline those who work for them to adhere to the correct principles. Toward the opponent, Christian campaigns are respectful, truthful, non-judgmental and have an open dialog about the virtues of those running (Rom 14, 15:1-6; Phil 4:5; Col 3:13-15). False or half-truthful disparaging remarks made for quick political gain are forbidden in Christian tradition (Phil 2:1-11; Acts 15; Gal 6:1-6). All Christians are sheep among wolves: we have to conduct ourselves a positive, inclusive manner free of the fleshy negativity of our politics today (1 Cor 6:1-6; Rom 2:1-4). Like all of us, CCs have to stay focused on glorifying Him in thought, act, and life if He is to bless their works (Isa 37: 34-35). We Christians are just like the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem: it might look to us like we're getting a lot of attention, but that praise is really for the One we lift up!

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