You can vote for Democrats and be a Christian at the same time

I just want to say that you can vote for Democrats and be a Christian at the same time.

In fact, I'm a Christian who:

• Reads and studies my Bible daily
• Prays and has daily quiet time
• Hears God's voice
• Believes the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds
• Disciples other Christians
• Gives to charity
• Serves my community

and I vote for Democrats. I still feel God's presence; I don't feel God's anger or disappointment. Voting for Democrats has not been a slippery slope that made me walk away from Christianity or belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

I grew up in a religious environment where voting Democrat was tantamount to abandoning Christianity. At church services, we received “non-partisan” voting guides with side-by-side comparisons of the candidates. Inevitably, the Democrat presidential candidate was shown to be against biblical values, such as being anti-military, pro-abortion, and against the Second Amendment, while the Republican candidate supported those supposedly biblical values.

At youth group, we hosted mock debates between conservatives and liberals. I say “mock debates” because there were no liberals there to present their side of the debate. Liberal ideology was decried as being anywhere from merely wrong and misinformed to “evil,” “satanic,” and “antichrist.” Therefore, to vote for a Democrat was to side with the devil, baby killers, or (worst of all) godless socialists, whose goal was to destroy America.

You can imagine my fear as a 21-year-old when I revealed that I had voted for Barack Obama in 2008. To members of my family and my old church, I had voted for a foreign-born, undercover Muslim committed to waging jihad on Christianity. In 2009, I lost a job opportunity due to a hiring committee finding an old blog post that revealed my political views. I learned that voting Democrat and getting hired as a pastor (at least in the circles I was in at the time) were incompatible. I kept my political views close to the chest until 2016 when my conscience could no longer allow me to.

So I understand the fear and hesitation about voting for a Democrat, even when this year a vote for a Republican seems counter to everything you believe and stand for.

But if you're in a culture or environment that says you have to vote for Republicans in order to be a Christian, you don't have to believe it. It's not true. In fact, I bet that you know at least one person whom you respect and admire as a follower of Jesus, and they're planning on voting for a Democrat this year.

I know it can be scary, but I promise you, voting for a Democrat will not damn your soul to hell. It will not mean you've abandoned Jesus or that Jesus will abandon you.

If you have to keep your vote a secret because you're afraid family or church members will get angry, that's okay. You can keep your vote private. We can have the conversation as to why Christian fellowship would break over who you vote for another time.

“A vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and our children, and our prayers are stronger when we pray together.”
– Rev. Raphael Warnock