If Jesus were voting in November, for whom would he punch his chad? John Kerry—whose faith has “given him values to live by,” or George Bush—of whom Jesus is his favorite philosopher? A recent conference held by the Texas Faith Network attempted to answer this question. As you can imagine, the results were mixed.
In part, the question is as ludicrous as any other “WWJD” question. No human can put himself in the place of God and presume to make his decisions. The best we can do is to observe Jesus’ patterns of behavior in the Bible and put forth an educated guess.
In part, I agree with dogman’s assessment over at The Rough Woodsman blog:
It’s safe to conclude that Jesus wouldn’t be stumping for Bush or Kerry. However, he’d speak out on issues. If He – like Mother Teresa in 1984 – were asked to speak at the national prayer breakfast, He would surely state that, “My Father is the Creator of life, please stop destroying His creation. Also, could I please get a little more of that Italian roast, it’s pretty tasty.”
If Jesus is, after all, the King of Kings, why would he vote for anyone lesser?
Such answers may suffice, but let me offer a different take: Jesus would vote for the winner. Let’s just look at the Sovereign Lord’s track record in the past seven elections:
1976 Jimmy Carter, (W)
1980 Ronald Reagan, (W)
1984 Ronald Reagan, (W)
1988 George H. W. Bush, (W)
1992 William J. Clinton, (W)
1996 William J. Clinton, (W)
2000 George W. Bush, (W)
In the last seven elections, Christ has chosen the winner to be America’s leader. Does this mean that my 1996 vote for Dole was wrong? No. It just means that however this thing turns out, we can be thankful that there’s someone much more adept at the helm than anyone the Democrats or even the Republicans can offer.
What this doesn’t mean, however, is that we can simply shirk responsibility for how we vote.
Add Cyrus the 1st in the 600’s B.C. who, although he did not know God (Isaiah 45:5), was selected by God for God’s purpose (Isaiah 45:1). Oh wait, that wasn’t America.