The Problem With Voting for Candidates With Biblical Values

If you attend, or have attended, a conservative, evangelical, or fundamentalist church, you have probably been told how important it is to vote for candidates with family values, moral values, traditional values, or biblical values.

Now, I certainly support family values, moral values, traditional values, and biblical values, but I don’t partake of the sacrament of the American civil religion called voting. I have already made known my view of politics and given twenty reasons why I don’t vote so I won’t get into that here. War, Christianity, and... Laurence M. Vance Best Price: $8.95 Buy New $9.95 (as of 09:10 UTC - Details)

So, even though I support family values, moral values, traditional values, and biblical values, there is more often than not a problem with voting for candidates who claim to have, seem to have, or are said to have these values.

In a general election, where voters only have the choice between the blue team or the red team, socialist A or fascist B, the welfare statist or the warfare statist, or Tweedledumb or Tweedledee, voting for biblical values always means simply voting for the Republican candidate. Conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist churches never come out and say that, but that is exactly what they want all of their church members to do. To avoid simply saying “vote Republican,” they preach, sometimes literally, voting for biblical values. Sometimes this is supplemented by publishing or promoting “voter guides” that make Democratic candidates look bad (not that that is hard to do) and Republican candidates look good—leaving the reader no doubt whom he should vote for.

In a primary election, where Christian voters are expected to choose between two or more Republican candidates (it would be a grave sin to be a registered Democrat and vote in the Democratic primary), they are told to vote for the candidate who best embodies or expresses biblical values.

But just what are these biblical values? Never mentioned are things like honesty, integrity, love, generosity, compassion, humility, charity, patience, and temperance. First and foremost is opposition to abortion. Then follows, not in any particular order, opposition to gay marriage, the transgender agenda, and marijuana legalization. Sometimes these “values” are supplemented by promises to fix public education by restoring prayer and Bible reading in public schools, posting the 10 Commandments in public schools, and removing objectionable books from school libraries.

Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with being opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and the transgender agenda—I vehemently oppose all three. Although I am personally opposed to the recreational use of marijuana, this has nothing to do with the question of whether marijuana should be legal (it should). I am an advocate of prayer, Bible reading, the 10 Commandments, and wholesome books, but I am also an advocate of abolishing public education and not trying to fix it by giving it a shot of religion.

So, what is the problem with voting for candidates with biblical values?

Nothing, if that is not all you focus on. The problem is that is all anyone ever focuses on. What a candidate thinks about economic freedom, individual liberty, personal freedom, peace, property rights, and limited government is never even considered.

The typical Republican candidate with biblical values may have no problem with the United States fighting foreign wars, having hundreds of overseas military bases, and stationing hundreds of thousands of troops all over the world.

The typical Republican candidate with biblical values may have no problem with anti-discrimination laws that violate freedom of association, freedom of contract, freedom of assembly, property rights, and freedom of thought.

The typical Republican candidate with biblical values may have no problem with the actions of the NSA, TSA, CIA, FBI, and the various intelligence agencies as long as they are keeping Americans safe from “terrorists.”

The typical Republican candidate with biblical values may have no problem with the government locking people in cages for possessing too much of a plant that the government disapproves of.

The typical Republican candidate with biblical values may have no problem with a militarized local police force that seizes people’s assets in the name of fighting the war on drugs.

The typical Republican candidate with biblical values may have no problem with socialized medicine like Medicare or Medicaid as long as it is not called Obamacare.

The typical Republican candidate with biblical values may have no problem with a reckless, belligerent, and meddling U.S. foreign policy. Rethinking the Good War Laurence M. Vance Buy New $5.95 (as of 12:45 UTC - Details)

The typical Republican candidate with biblical values may have no problem with the vast welfare state in the United States that transfers income and redistributes wealth as long as there are welfare work requirements and time limits for receiving benefits.

The typical Republican candidate with biblical values may have no problem with the U.S. government giving away billions of Americans’ tax dollars in the form of foreign aid, as long as Israel gets the most.

The typical Republican candidate with biblical values talks about the Second Amendment but may have no problem with some federal gun-control laws and supports the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

If I voted, I would rather vote for a pro-choice, queer atheist—who opposed foreign wars, militarism, foreign aid, and welfare and championed economic freedom, individual liberty, personal freedom, peace, property rights, and limited government as long as he left me alone and did not try to impose his unbiblical values on me or the country—than the typical Republican candidate with biblical values.

Biblical values include much more than being pro-life, believing that a marriage is only between a man and a woman, and accepting that there are only two unchangeable genders.