God is not Republican, says former Fox News producer

President Donald Trump. Creative Commons photo.

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(OPINION) I grew up in a conservative Christian community that seemed confident it had all the answers. From parenting and dating to pop culture and politics, our views were defined by our pastors and directly tied to our faith. The political indoctrination was subtle but effective. A social media post celebrating a Democratic candidate would not have gone over well.

When I moved to New York for college, I started meeting Christian Democrats, and began questioning my assumptions. I also began to wonder where the ties between the Christian faith and the Republican Party came from.  

In the late 1970’s televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr. (father of Jerry Falwell Jr., who was recently ousted as president of Liberty University) created an organization calling Christians to combat the moral degradation of America by engaging in politics. That organization was called the Moral Majority, and it helped form a powerful alliance between the Republican Party and the Christian faith, often called the "religious right."

While the organization dissolved in the ‘80’s, the movement persists today, and it contributes to the pressure many Christians feel to vote for whatever Republican is running for office.

But does our faith really require an allegiance to a modern American political party? 

Jesus said that people should identify His followers by their love, not by their political activism. And Paul encouraged Titus to “avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.”

So why do some Christians believe their faith obligates them to vote for President Trump this election? The two most obvious answers are the social issues of gay marriage and abortion. 

Many Christians, and evangelicals in particular, have moral problems with homosexuality and abortion. Movements like Falwell’s Moral Majority have mobilized them to fight those moral battles through political activism. But there’s more than one path from moral beliefs to political policies, and there are more effective ways to promote conservative morals than voting Republican and demonizing those who don’t in debates on social media. 

For example, whether a homosexual lifestyle is sinful and whether gay marriage should be legal are separate questions. It’s possible to be a Christian and not believe a homosexual lifestyle is sinful. It’s also possible to believe it is sinful but gay marriage should be legal, for two reasons. 

One, turning every Christian moral standard into a law would create a theocracy, not a democratic republic. The Bible teaches us to “open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.” But many of the Religious Right would be outraged by a law that requires them to give a percentage of their income to charity through the government. 

Two, if laws shouldn’t be guided solely by religious moral standards, maybe a better purpose would be to protect the rights of their citizens. Does the legal recognition of homosexual marriages somehow violate the rights of other citizens? It’s hard to see how that would be the case. On face value, legalizing gay marriage looks a lot more like protecting a right than violating one.

That same argument isn’t effective in regard to abortion. To claim that a women’s right to abortion doesn’t violate anyone else’s rights begs the fundamental question of the debate - whether a fetus has rights that should be protected by the law.

For many Christians, the issue of abortion alone is enough to vote Republican. They believe that abortion is murder and are unwilling to vote for someone who disagrees. That’s a legitimate point of view.  

Still, there is such a thing as a pro-life Democrat. There’s also such thing as a pro-choice Christian. Some may disagree with them, but to question their faith on the basis of a single issue or their political party is the epitome of self-righteousness. 

Pro-life Christians have every right to be single-issue voters, but they ought to consider whether promoting the love, compassion, unity, generosity, empathy and self-sacrifice that Jesus taught us in our communities is a more effective way to reduce abortions than fighting to make them illegal. It might also have the added bonus of being known for what they stand for rather than what they stand against. 

To be clear, there are plenty of Christians who vote Republican for reasons other than abortion and gay marriage. A recent survey by LifeWay Research found that only 11% of registered evangelical voters said abortion was the most important factor in deciding how to cast their vote. That priority was third on the list behind the ability to slow the spread of COVID-19 (16%) and the ability to improve the economy (22%). Gay marriage wasn’t listed as an option in the poll.

I’m not arguing that too many Christians are too focused on abortion and gay marriage in deciding who to vote for. I’m arguing that Christians who believe following Jesus and voting Democrat are mutually exclusive are misguided. Not only does that belief oversimplify their own voting decision, it also sends a message of self-righteousness that harms the reputation of Christ in our culture, whose honor and glory is the number one priority of our faith. 

Jake Dinsmore is a writer living near Portland, Oregon. He worked as a segment producer for Fox News and Fox Business Network from 2015 - 2019. His opinions in this piece do not speak for or reflect opinions of Fox News or anyone in the organization.