Trump said the other day that if Jesus counted the votes, he’d win. Maybe if he multiplied the ballots.
President Biden’s moving trademark coda, “God bless our troops,” is less preposterous but still too exclusive. Some nations use power more honorably than others. But they all ask 18-year-olds, without soliciting their views on foreign policy, to shiver in the cold or roast in the sun and all too often put them in a position where their last conscious thought, as earthly life bleeds out, is imagining the faces of their mothers.
So God bless all troops everywhere, we beseech you, and help us make a world where they all can go home to their families.
That’s what I want as a Christian. I love my country. But I don’t expect God to love it more than the others. God’s love is unconditional, which means God doesn’t cooperate with national exceptionalism. Nor does God set angels above dodgers or blue over red. God invites individuals to love God and their neighbor and to do the best they can with what they have — including their vote.
Among the reasons to pray for a renewal of faith in a secularizing time is that we need mature disciples of all traditions to help make a decent nation. Leaders who govern in the self-sacrificial spirit that animates most faith traditions are entitled to say they feel God’s pleasure without expecting to claim God’s preference.
So as we head into the heart of a fateful campaign season, here’s my four-square voter guide to the kind of leadership on which a Christian, indeed any faithful person, is entitled to insist.
First, leadership that at least wrestles with the eternal truth that the purpose of one’s life is to be lived out for others’ sake.
Secularist thinkers may try to construe this as religious doctrine. I propose that it’s the only thing in life that works. Our closest relationships only thrive when conducted on this basis. If a child or grandchild wants to play right now, you play. If your spouse prefers a different movie or restaurant, you agree. If your friend needs your help, stop what you’re doing and help. If a stranger is in peril, act. If using your phone in the car puts strangers in peril, don’t.
The same goes for leaders. We’re entitled to prefer those who evince an understanding of power’s obligation to others, especially the powerless. World affairs may be too ruthless for pure golden rulers. But when leaders’ first instinct is servanthood rather than insisting on their own way, the people they serve will usually be better off.
Second, leadership that treats all life with respect.
The fetus, and the person with the unwanted pregnancy. The citizen, immigrant worker, and refugee. Both the trans and cis middle school volleyball player. The planet and each endangered species. The tycoon and laborer. Cat ladies and every cat on the kill list at your local animal shelter. Prisoners and crime victims. If God made them, the decent leader finds a way to recognize their sacred purpose.
Plenty of people insist on the tempting binary, zero-sum, either-or outcomes. Vengeance is theirs, they insist. But we citizen disciples know that nothing lies beyond the reach of God’s salvation power.
In a political economy, some will win out over others. Justice and decency require the privileged to give more ground and the guilty to be held accountable. But the shortcut of diminishing, insulting, and demonizing others for the sake of political advantage is not available to the Christian leader. Cynics will say that you can’t run a government by loving everyone. Since it’s never been tried, I’m not sure how the cynics know. Either way, Christian voters should favor candidates who have the capacity to give love their best shot.
Third, leadership devoted to the best interests of the largest number of our people.
In 1995’s “The American President,” screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s first eloquent fictional president, Andrew Shepherd, told reporters, “America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship.” It’s gotten even harder in the 30 years since. We are experiencing the worst centrifugal strains since the Civil War. The world has never known a democracy as large and diverse as the United States. We can’t assume it will persist.
It won’t without people of faith playing their ordained role. In a nation on the brink of fracture, a communitarian ethic couldn’t be more vital. Plenty of people are tempted to give up. Some on the left think racism and capitalism totally pollute our political institutions. On the right, millions have concluded that majority rule in a pluralizing society poses a threat to individual liberty. Our deep divisions tend to encourage candidates to play to their base. In the name of our God in Christ, who vowed to leave no one behind whom he has made, the Christian, instead of voting their narrow personal interests, keeps their lamp lit for candidates who promise to do all they can for all the people of one nation, indivisible.
Fourth, leadership that simultaneously exhibits the Pauline virtues of courage and kindness.
On Wednesday in The Washington Post, columnist Matt Bai wrote that in the upcoming debate, Vice President Harris should talk about her narrative and vision, resist attacking Trump, and let his attacks roll off her shoulders. “In the end,” he wrote, “how you treat your opponent in a debate tells us a lot about how you’ll treat the rest of us.”
In both the Hebrew and New testaments, we read that when we treat our enemies with kindness, it’s like pouring hot coals on their heads. By ignoring Trump, Harris could help herself by making him madder. But by Bai’s lights, it’s not the only reason she should do it. Trump would also gain ground by taking the high road. While the media love candidates in conflict, and their partisans usually eat it up, most voters prefer to hear how a candidate will make their everyday lives better. They also can usually tell if there’s substance behind the ads and talking points.
Some may wax skeptical about whether kindness is compatible with the strength and sometimes ruthlessness required to lead and defend a great nation in a dangerous world. They’re wrong. Without kindness at the highest level, the world is far more dangerous. In the last century as never before, hundreds of millions have been victims of the evil consequences of political and state power unrestrained by empathy and compassion such as genocide, forced famine, rapacious colonialism, and terrorism.
To those insisting that the United States is a Christian nation, which constitutionally it is not, I say that I would at least be open to a debate if it meant that our leaders and our policies would be redolent of the gifts of the spirit (Gal. 5:22-23): Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Citizen disciples, at least, can insist on these virtues in candidates, whatever they’re saying about tax rates and immigration. Remember our founding assumption: The golden rule is not just a religious doctrine but the iron law of the universe. If we’re really wondering what Jesus would do, besides counting our votes and blessing our troops, he’d tell all our pols to act in love and pour themselves for the world — as he did.