About 99% of the population identified as Christian during America’s founding. By default, 100% of the early politicians were all Christians. Many of the original thirteen colonies also included in their constitutions that it was required that state officials must be Christians. Seven out of the original thirteen states required them to be protestant Christians and three out of the thirteen required them to be “merely” Christian.

In America now, it is hard to find any true orthodox Christians in politics. Reasons for this include the culture saying Christians should stay out of politics and even Christians themselves saying they should stay away due to the Godlessness in politics. Other reasons include the misinterpreting of the meaning behind the separation of church and state and the over secularization of America’s government. Over time, these issues have caused Christians to become less and less involved in politics.

Should Christians be involved in politics?

If Christians actually care about their fellow Americans, then they should care about the laws and policies that affect them and their livelihoods. Christians should care about the laws put into place that protect everyone’s freedoms and rights. This doesn’t just apply to Christians, but to all American’s.

Here are two key points to understanding God’s definition of loving your neighbor:

The first point deals with how Jesus mentions to love one’s neighbor as your-self. These words from Jesus were actually referencing the words of the Old Testament as can be found in Leviticus 19. In Leviticus 19 it lists all the ways someone should love their neighbor right before it states to love your neighbor as yourself.

One of these ways includes to “rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.”  If a person knowingly lets others continue on hurting other people or themselves, then that is not true love.

Rebuking someone for hurting themselves or others and following God’s commands to properly love others are contrary ideas to what America’s culture believes right now. The culture wants everyone to think that loving their neighbor is letting individuals have complete autonomy and to affirm everything a person believes in because their supposed “truth” is true. In another article I wrote, titled "Should the Christian Morality be Left Out of Politics?" it was discussed that the purpose of laws are to find the balance of giving people as much freedom as possible while also protecting people from having their freedoms and rights taken by others.

If a Christian wants to properly love someone, then they should rebuke others that are doing wrong. This coincides with the purpose of laws in protecting people. The only way people can actually be protected is if they can objectively define the wrong that they are needing protecting from, which can be found in God’s commands. These commands should be used as a foundation for laws to be put in place and those laws let people know when they are doing wrong.

It is a Christian’s duty to love people by following God’s commands and to protect others from harm. Loving others properly should be applied to all aspects of life and shouldn’t be compartmentalized to only certain areas. Below are some ways that Christians can love their neighbor by being involved in politics and the law-making process.

Three Ways Christians Should Be Involved in Politics:

1. Vote in Candidates that Will Best Apply the Biblical Worldview

First of all, Christians should just actually vote. In the last few Presidential elections only about 60% of the voting population actually votes. These election turnout numbers drop off significantly when it comes to state and local elections. State and local elections are often forgotten and actually have more of a direct impact on an individual’s community.

It is quite understandable that people are confused over what election is going on or who to vote for. Discernment is challenging with the constant bombardment of T.V. commercials, political ads in the mail, and the overwhelming world of social media. My word of advice is just ignoring all of them. It is all propaganda where they take an ounce of truth about their opponent and stretch them to ridiculous lies. Even if a person is identifying as a Christian doesn’t mean a Christian should vote for them. That term is now often used as a political ploy to get Christian voters to vote for them.

This is when it actually takes an act of love for one’s neighbor as time and effort are needed to discern who is the best candidate or how to vote on certain laws. Some great sources that can assist in breaking down who the politicians are and the positions they hold are:

• https://ivoterguide.com/

• https://christianvoterguide.com/

2. Running and Supporting Other Christians for Office

If someone feels there are no good candidates for local, state, or federal office, then they should run or find someone who would be a good candidate and support them. Many of the local elections are easy to get a foot in the door and make a big difference. For instance, if someone is concerned about the direction that the schools in their area are going, then they should make a difference and run for school board.

Ignoring or running away from the problems won’t fix them. Instead, Christians should be addressing these areas as the new mission fields and should be supporting other Christians who have it on their hearts to get in there and make a difference in these areas of society.

3. Read the Bible

The main textbook used by the Founding Fathers for learning was the Bible. A large percentage of the founding fathers also went to what would be described today as “Bible Colleges.” This doesn’t mean that all the founding fathers accepted Jesus as their lord and savior, but they were all well versed in understanding God’s word.

Today America is dealing with the most biblically illiterate generation. Christians have become subject to just listening to pastors instead of reading their own Bibles. Unbeknownst, many pastors are now putting their own political agendas and ideas first as they address their congregations about the Bible, who Jesus is, and how they think Christians should love others. They do this without even opening their Bibles and are willingly conforming to the norms of culture. These pastors are preying on the respect that people have for them, the authority of the Bible, and the biblical ignorance of their congregation.

Christians that actually read their Bible’s should be able to quickly realize they are being taught a different Gospel. Christians need to read the Bible to better understand the below foundational issues that often become pertinent in understanding how laws and policies will affect others.

1.       God’s design for mankind and how much he values everyone equally.

2.       God’s objective moral standard for what is right and wrong and understanding how societies that turn from God's goodness always end in detriment to its people.

3.       The understanding that mankind is inherently sinful and knowing the difference between a Christian’s role of forgiveness and a government’s role in protecting its people from man-kind’s sinful nature.

Final Words

Many pastors and Christians think that Christians should just share the gospel and stay out of politics.

Following God’s commands are how everyone can properly love one another and society will flourish as God’s goodness is applied to the foundation of its laws.

People wrongfully like to associate that if something is legal, then it must be morally right. If there are bad laws or no laws in place, then it makes it easier for people to deny and mask their wrong doing. 

An easy way to navigate a conversation into sharing the gospel is by addressing moral issues with someone. Having good laws with a biblical foundation will help people realize how imperfect they really are and that they do indeed need a savior.