According to a recent survey[i], 46% of Americans polled said that they will be voting for the “lesser of two evils” this presidential election.  Since it seems to be the most prevalent comment I’ve heard, I’m not surprised in the least.  And while I completely understand the rationale behind the thought, the notion is troubling.  Laying aside all political loyalties, social concern, or even emotional motives, this issue boils down to the simplistic truth that choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.

Let me speak to Christians.  If we hold to God’s Word as all truth, we must admit that “lesser evil” is still “evil”.  We are told in Romans 12:9 to “abhor that which is evil.”  In I Thessalonians 5:22 we are told to “abstain from all appearance of evil.”  Proverbs 8:13 states that “the fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way.”  And Ephesians 5:11 tells us to have no fellowship (or partnership) with the “unfruitful works of darkness.”  Instead believers are to “reprove” (admonish or rebuke) evil.

Voting is a privilege as well as our Christian duty, and I would never tell a person who they should vote for.  But I will exhort my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to prayerfully consider what your vote will stand for.  A fellow blogger made the statement that in 1933 Germany the two most “electable” parties were the Nazis and the Communists.  Then he asks a pointed question.  “For which of these did German Christians have a ‘civic duty’ to vote?”

It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.   I believe that it is foolish to expect different results in our country until God’s people change their ways (repent) and begin to stand firm on truth.  When Christians step away from absolute truth and blend right and wrong with relativism, or try to cover up black and white issues with shades of gray, we are in danger of God’s judgment.  The Bible is filled with antithetical laws: good or evil, black or white, saved or unsaved, right or wrong, heaven or hell, narrow way or broad way, foundation on solid rock or sandy foundation, righteous or unrighteous, God’s children or the children of the devil, etc.    May our faith and practice once again line up with this truth.