Can you be Christian and still vote for Trump? Yes.

The election is tomorrow, and everyone wants you to vote a certain way, and that’s fine. That’s how politics works. What I have found interesting is how certain people are trying to sway your vote. While some will offer arguments for their preferred candidates, others will argue — sometimes solely — against a candidate. While it’s probably true of both major candidates this year, in my experience* that this is much more prevalent in the case against Donald Trump. Specifically, “you can’t claim to be a Christian and still vote from Trump”. I think that claim is nonsense.

The argument is basically this: Donald Trump is a terrible person. He’s hateful and vindictive. He says means things about immigrants. He’s a “serial sexual assaulter”. He’s arrogant. He’s a convicted felon. He doesn’t pay campaign debts. And on and on. To be sure, there are some parts of these critiques that are accurate (and others that are fabricated or exaggerated), and there is definitely more than just smoke here. Given that, since “he repudiates everything Jesus stood for”, how can you claim to be Christian and still support him?

For starters, let’s look at our options. We have Trump on one side, and Harris on the other. Harris has been pilloried for years for using a romantic relationship to get ahead in local California politics. She has repeatedly made claims that are known to be untrue (e.g., the “decent people” hoax, Trump wanting to put Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad, etc). She has no discernible political acumen beyond being “a person of color” and a woman. More seriously, she supports a woman’s right to kill her unborn child up to the moment of birth, and sees no reason to make any concessions on that point. She is also fully on board with the transgender movement, supporting the chemical and surgical alteration of children’s bodies in support of the movement’s dogma, and she is in favor of tax-payer funded “gender reassignment” surgeries for incarcerated felons. There are millions of Bible-believing Christians who think these things are supremely evil, so the choice between is not a black-and-white comparison.

Thoughtful Christians, then, are presented with two morally compromised candidates and must choose between them. Some will say one is better than the other and vote accordingly. Personally, while I am against vilifying people, sexual assault, etc., I do find those to be lesser evils than killing or mutilating children. So if I have to choose, I’ll choose the lesser of two evils.

But! Do you have to choose? There are those who will say that you don’t. Some Christians, for example, will point out they’re both morally disqualified from leadership and won’t vote for either. Some secularists/atheists will point out, as noted above, that Trump is morally repugnant (while ignoring Harris’ issues, most likely because they don’t find them to be issues), so thoughtful, careful Christians who truly care about living out their faith just shouldn’t vote. I find both of these arguments unconvincing.

As far as the atheist approach goes, I don’t think the argument is made (no pun intended) in good faith. I don’t think they really care about how closely we follow our faith. If they did, they would want us, say, voting no on gay marriage, abortion, no fault divorce, and a whole host of other moral issues. In this case, I think the goal, in general, is to suppress support for a candidate who is not theirs. Their goal is not to make us better followers of Christ, but to remove opposing voters from the pool.

Though I’m much more sympathetic towards the Christian argument against Trump, it also misses the mark (again, no pun intended) for this reason: we are called to be “the salt of the earth”. Salt flavors, but it also preserves. I see my civic duty to vote as an opportunity to be a small grain in the overall attempt to preserve good in this world. In voting for one flawed candidate over another (in my view) more seriously flawed candidate, I have done what little I can to slow the rotting of this country. Taken alone, my vote is pretty insignificant, but, taken with millions of others, perhaps we can avoid greater or faster moral decline. I think, then, that voting for “the lesser of two evils” is easily justifiable. Additionally, each for vote for Trump counters a vote Harris, thus helping impede, if not prevent, the success of a candidacy I find supremely repugnant.

I know there will be loads of people who disagree. There are probably some people I go to church with who will disagree and either fall into the ‘vote for the “compassionate” Harris ticket’, or ‘don’t vote for either ticket’ camps, and that’s OK. Despite how some people frame it, I don’t think there is clear Biblical guidance on this. A Believer’s involvement in the running of a nation’s government could not have been more foreign to many Believers in the early church, and is certainly not addressed by any of the Apostles. What we are left with, then, is the conscience of each Believer. Much like eating meat sacrificed to idols, each follower of Christ is going to need to look at options presented to us, pray earnestly, and then make a decision one way or another. Clearly, I know how I am going to vote, and I can tell you how I think you should vote, but there is no clear Biblical doctrine by which I — or anyone else, Believer or otherwise — can bind the conscience of another Christian. Go, therefore, and vote how you feel led, and do so with a clear conscience.