Will Christians be the Reason Kamala Gets Elected?

Written by Ecce Verum

A Christian brother recently told me that he was originally planning not to vote in this presidential election. He obviously wasn’t going to vote for Kamala, and given Trump’s support for abortion pill access, he couldn’t bring himself to vote for Trump either.

Abortion is so morally repugnant that he couldn’t see himself supporting a candidate who supported access to even the pills. For him, abortion was a reason to not vote in this election.

Now, I take a stand against abortion no less passionately than my brother does. I’ve written article after article advocating for the unborn and sharply criticizing half–hearted pro-lifers. Because of this, I get where he’s coming from; as I wrote here, my heart hit the floor when I heard Trump say he would not block the abortion pill.

As a quick aside, however, I’ve also already written on why abortion should be a reason to vote in this election.

If Kamala gets elected—and gets her way with her bring-back-Roe agenda—babies of all ages in all states will die. If Trump gets elected—with his pathetic pro-states’-choice stance—at least babies in certain pro-life states that are both too old for the pill will be saved.

The only thing worse than babies dying somewhere is babies dying everywhere. If I can’t save both the California and the Idaho babies, at least I’ll save the Idaho babies. This is why I believe abortion is a reason to vote.

Okay, that aside is over—I just felt like I needed to make that clear one more time.

As it happened, though, my brother was actually snapped out of his inaction by a slightly different argument. Someone posed a question to him: If Trump ended up losing by exactly one vote, would you regret your inaction? (Yes, technically he’d need two more votes to officially win in that situation, but you get the idea.)

When my brother considered it that way, he realized that he’d better gird up his loins and vote.

Sadly, many Christians don’t seem to be thinking this way. A study from Arizona Christian University (ACU) reports that millions of Christians—yes, millions—are not planning on voting in this election. Only 52% of those the study described as “theologically-defined born-again Christians” are estimated to vote.

That’s 41 million estimated non-voters. Even within the smaller group of those who “attend an evangelical church,” only 53% are estimated to vote. That’s 14 million evangelical non-voters (p. 3). The prospect of Trump losing by one vote was enough to prompt my brother to vote. And that was just a thought experiment. What about the prospect of Trump losing by 41 million votes?

All of a sudden, we’re no longer in thought-experiment world.

As the study observes, if its expectations prove true,

“the impact bodes more poorly for President Trump’s prospects for reelection than for Mrs. Harris’s effort to succeed Joe Biden” (p. 1).

And as ACU’s president commented,

“Christians could be the deciding factor in a bunch of federal and state races – and are choosing not to be.”

Not only is that a disturbing prospect, but the reasons for not voting are not persuasive. As I read them, I found myself recalling individual articles that I’ve already written to refute them. Sixty-eight percent of people that the survey interviewed lacked interest in politics. But, if you’re a Christian, realize that politics is inherently tied to religion, and faithful Christianity is inevitably political in today’s world. Fifty-seven percent didn’t like any of the major candidates.

Remember that election day is action day, not statement day.

Fifty-five percent said no candidate represented their most important views. Yet, there’s a literal life-and-death issue that clearly separates the two. Fifty-two percent believed that their individual vote wouldn’t make a difference. Well, would you appreciate it if every other Christian believed what you do?

Even if you aren’t convinced by these points, there’s one last question I hope you consider: Simply put, what’s the alternative?

When David Smith (IFI’s Executive Director) shared that ACU study with me, he remarked on

“the number of Christians who sit on their hands during the election … neglecting God’s gift of self-government, and turning it over to humanists and atheists to decide who is elected.”

I think he’s right. If Christians stop speaking out politically—in votes as well as words—who will do all the talking instead? Those who reject God.

In our individualistic America, I think we tend to focus on living moral lives as individuals, which is good, but we tend to forget that we also should strive for our community to live a moral life collectively. You are part of a community greater than yourself, and when you refuse to contribute to its well-being, you act like that community doesn’t matter. This is something that even the Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote about, 300 years before Christ:

“To secure the good of the city appears to be something greater and more complete: the good of the individual by himself is certainly desirable enough, but that of a nation and of cities is nobler and more divine” (Nicomachean Ethics I.2, trans. Bartlett & Collins).

It’s pretty convicting when the pagans get something right while many Christians keep getting it wrong.

So even if any of the reasons for voting don’t appeal to you, and even if some of the reasons not to vote are indeed compelling, I hope you are swayed to action at least by thinking about what the alternative is. Sure, you may not want to vote.

But if you don’t, who will do all the talking in your community instead? 

Are you going to be content to live a life of individual holiness, and while the world around you crumbles, refuse to do anything to promote community holiness? I know God cares about righteous individuals, but I believe God also cares about righteous communities.

By withdrawing your voice, you are removing your righteous influence from your wicked community and contributing to it becoming—on the whole—that much more wicked.