Refusing to vote on biblical grounds

A Texas elector has decided to resign rather than vote for Donald Trump:

A Texas Republican elector from the Electoral College has taken back his pledge to vote for Donald Trump, saying it would be a sin for him to vote for the president elect.

Art Sisneros says he should never have promised to support a candidate that was “biblically” unfit to serve the country as president.

“I believe voting for Trump would bring dishonor to God,” he wrote in his blog, called the “The Blessed Path.”

I appreciate the thought Mr. Sisneros put into his decision, and his conviction to live his life and base his actions on the Bible. It’s also commendable that he’s stepping down rather than choosing the “faithless elector” path by voting for someone other than his party’s nominee.

I would just add this: There has never been a presidential candidate truly fit to serve as president if we apply a strictly “biblical” standard. People willing to subject their friends and family members to withering, merciless media scrutiny are, by definition, out of their minds, megalomaniacs, or desperate to rule over others.  Jesus told us,”You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them. It shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The office of the president requires someone who exercises authority. And the deals one has to make to even win a party’s nomination precludes most of the Christians I know. We’re just not willing to bend that far.

So why did Mr. Sisneros get involved in this process in the first place? Did he not realize the game is played in a way that makes it nigh impossible for true Christians to win? Who did he expect to be voting for December 19th?

Was the prophet Daniel wrong for serving the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar? Was Joseph wrong for serving the Egyptian king (who probably worshiped Ba`al)?

I just wonder if we Christians apply a biblical standard to a secular office when we should be looking for a competent administrator who’ll stay out of our way while we carry out the Great Commission.

We’re supposed to work to reshape the world, but Jesus never said anything about doing so through politics.

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