Why Evangelicals Disagree on the President

The reason we’re divided, and how we can come together.

All four Gospels describe violence in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus wept alone among the olive trees, praying that the cup of suffering should pass from him. When he returned to his weary disciples, soldiers and religious leaders confronted them. Peter responded with a flash of steel and cut the ear off a man named Malchus. “Put your sword away!” Jesus said as he healed Malchus. “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:11).

Jesus was led to the high priest, and then the Roman governor. “My kingdom is not of this world,” he told Pilate. “If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place” (18:36).

The kingdom of heaven is elusive. It comes not with a sword but a sacrifice, not a crown of iron but a crown of thorns. It arrives not through the powers of the world but through the inverted power of the cross, which is to say the power of powerlessness. Peter swung the blade. Jesus drank the cup.

This story comes to mind as we approach a presidential election with deep divisions among us. Evangelical believers who have long labored in the same fields now find themselves in warring camps. One camp declares they cannot comprehend how men and women who share their faith could possibly support the incumbent. The other camp wonders how anyone nurtured by the Word could reject the incumbent. The camps not only disagree but cannot understand one another. Unable to see reason in the opposing view, each side asserts the other has succumbed to unreason, to prejudice, or to the lust for power or approval.

Our inability to understand the rationality of an opposing viewpoint is more often a failure of imagination ...

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Skip Heitzig on Supporting Donald Trump: Promises Made, Promises Kept

Trump advisory board member Skip Heitizig reflects on the the last four years as he casts his 2020 vote for Donald Trump.

All presidential candidates make promises, but when those promises are kept while in term, the office-bearer deserves both credit and consideration for further service. It is on this basis that I am voting for Trump to have a second term as President of the United States. Whatever you may think of his personality, midnight tweets or debate style, Donald J. Trump has delivered the goods. The singular reason that so many evangelical Christians have voiced their support of this President is that he has promised and produced results on key issues that are near and dear to the heart of the Christian church—principally the right for the unborn to live, and Supreme Court Justices. As a registered Independent I am satisfied that this president has advanced the conservative agenda for both.

In 2016, Trump ran on the promise of Supreme Court appointments and the sanctity of human life, two issues which brought out the evangelical vote in troves. Then he delivered by appointing three conservative Justices to the high court, fulfilling his promise to voters to appoint constitutional Justices. What a scene played out only a few nights ago at the White House when Clarence Thomas, a black Supreme Court Justice, stood face-to-face with the newly appointed Amy Coney Barrett for her swearing in ceremony. The irony of the event lay in the fact that the only ones complaining were Democrats, the supposed party keen to tout racial equality and women’s rights! Both of these SOCTUS Justices are an inspiration to countless Americans, and the Democrat party could only cry foul. Add to that the fact that Trump also appointed nearly 200 judges to lower federal courts with lifetime appointments.

Then there is Trump’s unabashed support ...

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Movement Wants to Make Southern Baptists Conservative Again

A new network of pastors says it’s trying to unite the SBC. But its critics fear the opposite.

A week before the election, Truett McConnell University president Emir Caner told fellow Southern Baptists, “We are in a battle for the soul of our nation and denomination.”

Over 500 people gathered Tuesday night for a religious liberty event at the university’s campus in Cleveland, Georgia, and nearly 9,000 watched online. Speakers criticized political correctness and cancel culture, urging believers to focus on biblical justice over social justice. They prayed for bold, biblical preaching and godly leadership for their churches and the country.

Radio host Todd Starnes characterized the gathering as an attempt “to save the nation’s largest denomination from a radical group of Never Trumpers and woke critical race theorists.”

The group responsible for the event is the Conservative Baptist Network. This newly formed coalition of conservative pastors and leaders worry the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is drifting toward more worldly approaches and away from the convictions of millions of everyday churchgoers in the pews (or, in pandemic times, over the screens)—and they believe now’s the time to do something about it.

Their concerns emerged or accelerated over the past four years when, like the rest of the country, Southern Baptists found themselves in disagreement over Donald Trump’s presidency as well as the appropriate response to rising social unrest nationwide.

‘Heartbeat’ to Stay in the SBC

What began as ad hoc meetings in late 2019 grew into a formal network in February of this year, and now the network has 6,000 members and a 54-person steering council made up of influential Southern Baptists: seminary and university presidents, state convention leaders, ...

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Ballot Initiatives Could Tighten Abortion Laws in Colorado, Louisiana

Plus voters in several other states weigh in on sex ed, armed defense in churches, and more.

Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the US Supreme Court has increased speculation that the right case could overturn Roe v. Wade. But states are not waiting for a high court ruling to pass their own restrictions on abortion.

Two states have ballot questions pertaining to abortion during this election season: Louisiana and Colorado. Though the legal landscape and public sentiment around abortion are vastly different in the two states, pro-life groups in each are hoping to provide further protection for the unborn.

Pro-life advocates in Louisiana aim to strengthen the state’s abortion regulations against further judicial scrutiny while those in Colorado hope voters will approve a move to restrict late-term abortions, a regulation the Democratic legislature has resisted.

Passage of Colorado Prop 115 would make it a misdemeanor for medical providers to perform abortions after 22 weeks’ gestation for any reason except to save the life of the mother, with doctors facing fines up to $5,000. The mother would not face criminal penalties.

It’s a long shot in Colorado, but pro-lifers in the reliably blue state have few alternatives for enacting any type of abortion restriction. In 1967, Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion, six years before Roe V. Wade permitted abortions nationwide.

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, acknowledged that a pro-life ballot initiative is an uphill fight in Colorado, especially given the money pouring in from Planned Parenthood and other abortion-rights groups against the measure. But with Democrats controlling the state legislature, ballot initiatives are the best chance to bring change in the Centennial State.

According to Ballotpedia, ...

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John Richards: Here is Why, as a Pro-Life Black Man, I'm Voting for Biden

Speaking for those "who have questioned [the] continued, uncritical support of President Trump over the past four years."

As we stand on the precipice of what many have called the most important presidential election in modern history, Christians have a choice to make. The two presidential candidates both have imperfect agendas and less than stellar political histories. In fact, neither candidate’s platform captures what the whole of Scripture says about the issues most pertinent to the office.

With that said, I’m a Christian, Black man who has decided to vote for Democratic candidate, Joe Biden. Before you check out and assume the previous sentence is a given—since Black Christians trend toward voting Democrat—I will have you know that every year my ballot looks more like a tic-tac-toe board than it does a straight line.

Black People are Not a Monolith

I consider myself an independent who votes for candidates based on the social impact of their platform rather than that party that holds the platform. In the past, I have voted for George Bush and other Republican candidates. Not because they were a certain party’s candidate, but because their approach to governing most aligned with what I felt biblical witness set out in terms of civic leadership and its responsibility to our society and citizens on various issues.

Let me be clear from the outset, I am not writing this article as some delegate sent from the Black Christian community to state a case for voting for Joe Biden. I reject any notion that I speak for every Black Christian in America. For every pro-life, Biden-supporting John Richards there is a pandemic, Republican rally, crowd-surfing Vernon Jones. However, I can speak for a wide swath of men and women who have questioned continued, uncritical support of President Trump over the past four years.

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Your Preaching Is Not God’s Work. You Are God’s Work.

How inner transformation shapes outward proclamation.

Your preaching is not God’s work. You are God’s work. I received this vision in a peculiar way.

As I was minding my own business leading a foundation that helped denominations start new churches, unexpectedly a headhunter came my way seeking my interest in leading Alpha USA. I have always loved the intersection of evangelism, church, and culture. I had great respect for international Alpha leaders, so I sincerely sought discernment before taking on this new role.

As a part of that seeking, I phoned my friend Dallas Willard. Dallas could sense in me an overemphasis on choosing a job. He said: “Todd, your work is not God’s work. You are God’s work. Your work is simply one context in which you apprentice yourself to Jesus.” I’ve come to know that what I learned about a job that day also applies to preaching: Todd, your preaching is not God’s work. You are God’s work. Preaching flows from God’s work within.

Before Proclamation

To proclaim is to shout something out in public. We preachers love proclamation—it is active and energetic. We also tend to be energized by the idea of what God is doing through us. There’s a buzz that comes from being used by God. It’s exciting! This is not in and of itself a problem, as long as we recognize that proclamation requires “preclamation”—the quiet, hidden claiming of our hearts for God so that our core motivation, no matter the size of the crowd, is to preach for an audience of one.

Such preaching is the outward expression of a journey inward. Preaching is unavoidably connected to the preacher’s inner life. One’s interior reality ...

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God’s Call on the Politically Ambivalent Christian

Don’t let partisan extremes and animosities prevent you from entering the arena for the sake of the common good.

Many Christians today are struggling with the question of whether, or to what extent, they should get involved in the messy world of American politics. This is a dilemma we feel most acutely whenever election season rolls around—and especially when the choices on offer appear far from ideal.

If there are disagreements within your church about the wisdom and efficacy of believers involving themselves in politics, then one source of good counsel is the AND Campaign, an organization devoted to a model of Christian civic education that aims to transcend conventional right-versus-left divisions. A new book, Compassion (&) Conviction: The AND Campaign’s Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement, lays out the core themes of the group’s philosophy.

One of the book’s significant strengths is that its clarion call for civic engagement doesn’t come from a set of detached “armchair theoreticians” but instead from three authors who have distinguished themselves at the highest levels of politics. Attorney Justin Giboney, the AND Campaign’s cofounder, has served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Michael Wear, the group’s chief strategist, coordinated faith-based outreach efforts during Barack Obama’s presidency. And the third author, Chris Butler, is an activist in Chicago and senior leader of the Chicago Embassy Church Network.

Earnest Learning

Compassion (&) Conviction is packed with gems of wisdom on effective political engagement informed by Christian faith. Here are some that jumped out at me:

• Value neutrality is a myth. Everyone has a set of value commitments. A proper understanding of the separation of church and state at the institutional level does not preclude any citizen bringing his or her value commitments to bear on discussions of public policy. And everyone needs to be “given a voice” so that a range of viable positions can be heard and discussed.

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