I’m an American citizen. I vote. I’m also a Christian who votes.

I know a distressing number of fellow Christians who have voted for, or are willing to vote for, Donald Trump as President of the United States.

I do not understand this; to me, something’s horribly broken in their reasoning.

It’s not that Trump is not a man in need of salvation just like any other – and from all appearances, he remains in need of salvation.

See Trump believes in God, but hasn’t sought forgiveness – accepting Christ as propitiation for our sin is a pretty fundamental part of being saved, and here we have Trump directly repudiating any guilt on his part. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” — emphasis mine.

His denial of his own sins before God means one of two things.

1. He doesn’t think he has sinned. The Bible says that all have sinned; he’s either elevated himself to Jesus’ stature (and therefore blasphemes) or doesn’t recognize sin for what it is, and therefore has not accepted Jesus. Not a Christian in this case.
2. He is lying to us about his state before God. In this case, he knows he’s sinned, and he’s accepted Christ, and he’s a Christian – but he’s also lying to people about it, and is ashamed of the Gospel somehow. Would be a Christian, by my understanding, but would also be unworthy as a candidate, since he’d be misrepresenting himself and the Gospel.

But the state of his soul is not what confuses me – I’ve voted for nonchristians before, because I felt that they were the best candidates. I could point to them and say “I think Candidate Smith has the best policy for education,” or what-have-you.

Being a Christian is important to me, as a voter, but it’s not the litmus test for my vote.

The thing is, I don’t know what the litmus test is for Christians who want to vote for Trump.

Is it ethics? It can’t be – almost every candidate offered during this election season has shown better ethics than Trump, with the sole possible exception of Hillary Clinton herself. When your campaign point is reduced to catcalls and exhortations of violence and mentions of “little Marco,” you don’t have ethics on your side.

Is it policy? It can’t be – Trump’s response to questions on policy almost invariably come down to vague answers about how he will have a policy, it’ll be great, it’ll be huge, we’re going to love it.

Is it business sense? It can’t be – he’s had businesses flame out that shouldn’t have done so, and he’s been happy to proclaim his manipulation of the system for his own benefit. You can’t say “This system is broken” and be happy to abuse the system, while expecting voters to think you’re willing to change the system.

More than anything else, it’s attention – I think people think Trump has name recognition, and that’s enough.

Name recognition is not enough. Stalin has name recognition – and nobody should be willing to consider voting for Stalin.

If you’re a Christian and you’re willing to vote for Trump, I’d love to see your explanation of “why.” I’d exhort you to reconsider prayerfully – and look at the Bible’s guidelines for leaders as well as your own personal morals. Would you want your sons acting like Trump? At all? Ever? Would you want your daughters to date such a man? Would you want to be like him at all?

If not, then please – reconsider your vote. Vote for anyone else – anyone else would be better.