Today I Dropped My Party Affiliation

It has been a long time since I’ve posted. There has been a lot going on in our lives, and God has had other things for me. I’ve never wanted to post just to “post” or keep up a following. That isn’t what this blog is about. It is a place for me to share things God has shown me, slices of my life, neat moments, etc. I’d hoped my first post “back” would be an upbeat one, and in a sense it is. I feel freer—like I’ve cut one more string with the world. Today I dropped my political party affiliation.

Not that my changing will change anything in the big picture, or that it will change anyone else’s mind, but it was something I needed to do. I changed from Republican, which I have been since I first registered in the 1980s when Reagan was President, to no political party affiliation. It has been a decision long in coming, but which came to a head today. My reasons, for anyone interested (and don't worry about reading if you aren't), are below. This is not a judgment or anything against anyone who feels differently. God speaks to all who will listen and it is not for me to say if another Christian has heard from Him to follow a different path. I have friends I dearly love who believe very differently from what I am about to right and who I know love Jesus. But, here is my path to this point—my path—this is about me, not a condemnation of anyone who feels differently if God has led them to that place . . .

The longer I've been a Christian the more I have been bothered by affiliating with any political party. God tells me my citizenship is in Heaven, and He is my King, and to He alone I have allegiance. But, I am also in this world and part of a country where I’ve served in protecting our right to vote, and the Republican party has, for the most part, seemed to best match my views as a values voter (placing abortion, Christian values, authority of God as the source of right and wrong, etc. over things like the economy or environment). Since I was a Republican since before I was a Christian, I never really thought to change. But, increasingly I have seen the Republican party either cater to Evangelicals, trying to win our votes (at least until the General Election); or evangelicals being the assumed and taken for granted right wing of the Republican party (because even at worst they knew we’d seem them as better than Democrats). It became more about party than Jesus.

But over the last 10-plus years I’ve come to realize that the Republican party no longer represents me (though they still do better than the Democrats, and I can still vote for them if led to in a General Election). For awhile I could say it was “politicians” who didn't represent me, but this most recent election, in which the people of the party are again (and again . . . how many Presidential nominees now?) nominating someone who is not a strong Christian, I have realized it is not just politicians, but the people of the Republican party themselves who as a majority no longer are in a place in which I agree. When I see candidates like Santorum, Huckabee, and other strong Constitutional, Christian, Conservatives losing to others—in the Republican’s own nomination, NOT a General Election—I have to realize the party no longer believes in what I do.

I, personally, believe a candidate’s faith is the most important element in voting for them. I believe it is impossible for a leader to effectively know—and to stand for without compromising—true right and wrong, or to understand things like foreign policy, etc., without a supreme revelation on, and giving primacy to, the authority of God, the inspiration of Scripture, and an understanding of Spiritual warfare and the working of the unseen in places like the Middle East, etc.

I, for one, can not come to support Donald Trump, who is the republican nominee as of today. I’ve written about this before, so I’ll only summarize it here, but as a Christian I can’t justify it. He is proud and God opposes the proud. I can not support a candidate whom God will oppose. That is very scary to me. Mr. Trump is a lover of money. He shows no repentance of his marital “flightyness.” I’ve not read his book, but I understand he boasts of his sexual exploits. Much of his huge revenues comes from gambling—and I’ve been to Atlantic City and Vegas and Reno and seen the brokenness and seediness that comes with that. There is so much more that causes me to ask how any Christian could support him (especially in the Primaries when we had other choices), but probably the one that looms over all is his unashamed financial support of a list of people (Democrats) he has given money to because it benefits him—people who have championed abortion, gay marriage, gun control, etc. To him the end justifies the means, and I can not see how that represents in any way, shape, or form a man who is after God’s heart. It is a yoking with darkness for personal gain, a "selling of one’s soul" if you will. To support that and call Himself a Christian is, to me, to clearly say he is the kind of Sunday Christian that thinks God is for spiritual things, but the rest is “real life.”

I don’t know what I’ll do in the General Election. I’ve heard all the throw away vote arguments, and how a vote for someone other than Trump is a vote for the Democrat, and I understand their reasoning. I also know I’ve lost the right to be a part of future Republican nomination processes. But I had to do what I felt is right. I will not be the assumed supporter of a Republican just because I am a fundamentalist (oh, what a nasty word today) Christian. Last year Franklin Graham did the same thing and it was a reopening for me of the question I’ve wrestled with now and then for over a decade. But, I thought, "Let’s just see what happens in this nomination period. We’ve got strong Christians running (not just those pandering to our vote). Let’s see what our party is made of . . ."

Well, I’ve seen. And I’m walking away. I’ll pray and ask God to guide me. I certainly WON’T vote for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. But I don’t know what I’ll do otherwise. But I’d rather stand for God and trust Him with my worldly condition then give my support to a man who I believe stands against all that I do. A man that funded, albeit indirectly, the murder of babies and the eroding of Christian values because it furthered his business interests and who, to this day, calls that okay because “he’s a businessman.” Well, the love of money is the root of all evil, and he has said he loves money. I know many wealthy people who love God and aren’t corrupted by money, but he’s not one I can see able to handle the two. God says you can’t serve Him and mammon both.

I'll be praying. God will lead me. Right now I don't know what God will ask of me in the General Election, but I will certainly be asking Him. I am confused, to be honest. I don't want Hilary or Bernie, and I do guess Trump would be better than them if he actually sticks to his claims of beliefs on issues, but I have to ask God what He wants me to do in the ballot box. May He lead me. But, I do feel more free. If anything, the Republican party will know that they can't assume they've got my vote just because I am registered to them or because I'm a conservative Christian. It is time for some soul searching at every level.

What Are You a Citizen Of?

Albert Mohler posted a blog today (Monday, August 26) called, “It is the Price of Citizenship”?—An Elegy for Religious Liberty in America. It is a commentary on the New Mexico Supreme Court's decision last week against a Christian couple who run a photography business and were sued because they refused to photograph a same sex wedding. Mr. Mohler's post is longer than I can do justice to, and worth reading reflectively, but I want to pause on one aspect of it that should make Christians search deeply in their hearts. (All of the information I will use comes from Mr. Mohler's article, I have not independently verified it, but I trust him.)

Though at least one member of the court recognized the sincerity of the couple's belief and how the photographing and artistic capturing of the ceremony went against their beliefs, his opinion following that acknowledgement moves into the need for compromise, and he says compromise, “. . . is part of the glue that holds us together as a nation, the tolerance that lubricates the moving parts of us as a people.” He also writes, “In short, I would say to the Huguenins, with the utmost respect: it is the price of citizenship.”

Far beyond the issue of gay marriage—which I believe the Bible is absolutely clear is wrong—there is a far bigger issue that has far more reaching effects which I think Christians in American need to start processing now. This is the issue of what happens when our two citizenships collide. We may be citizens, by law, of the United States (or whatever country you might be reading this from/in), but the Bible makes it clear that as Christians we have a different citizenship as well. Paul, writing to the believers in Philippi, says, "Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." (Philippians 3:17–21, ESV).

When we are born again, as new creations in Christ, we have a Father in Heaven, a King in Jesus, a new birth, a new nature, a new identity, a new citizenship. We are taken out of Satan's authority and rule and put into the Kingdom of Jesus—Jesus' domain, dominion, authority (Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,). We are told by the Bible to submit to our earthly leaders and authorities . . . but the Bible also gives us ample precedent for not submitting to them when it brings us into conflict with God's laws and heart—Hebrew midwives, Rahab, preaching despite authorities commands not to, plus the obvious reality that we, today, wouldn't abort a baby or murder an elderly person even if our government told us to, and we'd hopefully have hid Jews from the Nazis, etc., if we were in a position to.


Recently in California our governor signed a law allowing boys or girls who feel like they are the opposite sex from what their body says they are to be able to use the restroom or locker room of their feelings, not organs. Health care laws imposing things on Christian employers that violate their beliefs . . . gay marriage issues challenging churches and businesses . . . the list of laws that have been passed or struck down in the last few years which yank the foundations out of Christian values is accelerating at a mind numbing pace. Truly the time is coming, and has already come for some, when we will face the decision—which citizenship will rule in our allegiance and obedience?

If we are to truly follow God and honor His heart and his Word we will, inevitably, face this decision. We will have to choose between two citizenships, two authorities, two futures, as to which will weigh the most in our minds and choices. One offers "safety" and "comfort" and temporary reprieve here, now. The other offers eternal hope, but a promise of trials here. One serves this world and the other serves our King. The decisions won't be easy, and I can't imagine what our children and their children will face, but I know that God will never leave us and that something far bigger is at work. The lost are still lost and Jesus still died for them and we can show God's love, declare God's truth, rejoice in God's good news, model God's sacrifice, and serve others as Jesus did in times of hardship and trials maybe better than we even can in times of comfort. Right now it is still fairly easy in America to walk with one foot on each side of the fence—enjoying our Christian identity but remaining comfortable in the world and with the world . . . but I don't know that this option is going to be available much longer. I have a sense that the decisions will becoming closer and closer together when we will have to choose to stand on one side of the fence or the other, to declare and stand for truth at earthly cost, or to stand with the world and turn our back on the One who died for us. Praise God that our true citizenship, the one that trumps them all, is eternal and can never be taken from us, and that while this earth will pass away, our citizenship in Heaven is forever! May we have the strength to invest not in the cares of this world and its passing acceptance and pleasure which render us unfruitful, but to invest in the things of eternity, that transcend this fleeting moment we call life. And, may we do so with a joy and a hope and a love and a humility and a service and a confidence that draws everyone watching us past us and to the One in Whom our hope is anchored. God bless all of you. He reigns!