To my fellow believers in Christ,

I have been debating on posting this for a week, and after processing and thinking through it, I think this message could be a good reminder for all of us, regardless of how we felt about the election or what “side” we stood on.

For full transparency, I chose to write in a candidate, so I’m trying to approach this as unbiasedly as possible. This is not a stance that I plan to take every election from here on out, but I think this election especially is a good reminder that political parties are man-made institutions.

As believers, we could be reminded at times that we should check our processing of politics to ensure that it comes from a Christ-centered perspective instead of letting our human politics influence our faith walk.

If the foundation of our faith truly guided us to vote for a particular presidential candidate–whether a Democrat, Republican, or third party/write-in–fantastic! I believe that fulfills our civic duty and honors our authority as Christ calls us to do.

However, let us self-examine ourselves to see if we are processing our viewpoints from a Christ-centered perspective or letting our political viewpoints shape how we process our relationship with God.

And it’s not easy; I am trying to discern this as well, and I have honestly fallen short several times listening to content leaning towards both leading political platforms in this country and then making a spiritual judgment from someone’s interpretation as opposed to getting my worldview from the bible, so please don’t see this as an exhortation.

This is not to say that I don’t have convictions that align with specific platforms; I most certainly do. But it has become easy to align ourselves completely with one platform or another before really thinking deeply about how Jesus would approach a particular situation.

I have tried to do this recently: If I am looking for spiritual content to process and ponder, I try to ensure that it is from a) the Bible, most notably, or b) a church or a well-reputable Christian source that cites the Bible (your home church, etc.).

If I am looking for political content, I will try to listen to political podcasts and compare that to my understanding of what I believe the Lord wants from our world.

In other words, I try not to understand (insert political social media pundit here) as a theologian, and I try not to understand (insert pastoral/theologian figure here) as a political pundit.

And no party or political system is perfect and will never be this side of eternity.

Let’s continue to exercise our freedom and privilege of voting (we are a rare generation of people who have had the freedom to choose our leaders during our lifetimes, so thank God for that) and even go as far as being passionate about our politics. However, we must ensure that we utilize our faith as our compass for how we vote and engage in politics, as opposed to processing voting from a “worldly” viewpoint.

Let’s not forget that we should continue to be kind to one another. Show compassion and grace to those who do not see eye to eye with you politically.

God Bless.