Every election year, I hear people say they feel like they’re choosing between the lesser of evils. Many of them throw their hands in the air and give up trying to choose. In this article, Chuck Colson explains why staying home on election day isn’t an option for Christians:
We live in a democracy, so God entrusts to us the job of choosing leaders he will anoint. (Deuteronomy 1:12-13 shows us that democratic principles go directly back to the Old Testament.) Like Samuel, we are commissioned to choose leaders of competence, virtue, and character. That’s why not voting or rejecting candidates because they are not perfect on some biblical or political score sheet is a dereliction of our trust.
So is voting for a candidate simply because he is a Christian—startling as this may sound. Rather than checking on the candidates’ denomination, we should look for the ablest candidate. Martin Luther famously said he would rather be ruled by a competent Turk—that is, a Muslim—than an incompetent Christian.
In casting a vote, judgment should ultimately be guided by what we perceive to be the common good, a term not often heard in today’s special interest-charged political debates.