How to Choose Between Political Candidates

I struggle with how much to say about my beliefs on political candidates especially on social media.

On one hand I think that the world needs more Christians to verbalize truth. Notice I said truth, not religious dogma, but what the Bible actually says in all its analysis and contexts.

“Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.” Ephesians 4:15 (NLT)

Then on the other hand I am conscious of creating barriers between people. I am also aware that the only way to understand truth is through the Holy Spirit. In that case, sometimes there’s no point.

“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, or, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 (TNIV)

Jesus was perfect at verbalizing truth, poignantly and without excuse, but with compassion and love. He didn’t care what others thought of Him. I strive to be like Him.

There are opinions about all kinds of issues from the economy to foreign affairs to the environment and taxes and healthcare. And then there’s the social issues. You know the ones that really get people’s blood boiling like abortion and gay rights.

Truthfully all of these issues are very important. They all have the potential to affect our lives in one way or another.

But as I synthesize all the views and promises and opinions of the political candidates I keep asking myself one question.

This {issue} may affect our lives now, but will it affect eternity? 

This question has become my litmus test for deciding what is most important and who to vote for. 

Sure, we need to eat. We have to have jobs. We must pay taxes. We want to be safe. We hope to stay healthy. But at the end of the day all of that is going away. Money. Government. Safety. Health. Even the earth. All of these things are temporal.

The only thing that remains, forever, is the soul.

The social issues are the matters of the soul. 

There is not a political candidate who is perfect on all matters of the soul simply because there is not a political candidate who is perfect. This world is corrupted by the here-and-now, not the things that will last, and that goes for all of us who live in it.

However, as I make my final decision of whom to vote for I have to look at the soul issues first. These are the issues that deal with people from the inside.

Then, I have to ask myself what the Bible says about each of these social issues and which political candidate most aligns with that truth. No, not perfectly. There is no perfect. But mostly.

How do you choose who to vote for? What’s your litmus test? 

It’s o.k. Go ahead. Share your opinion in the comments! You’re among opinion conviction speakers!