A Crisis of Faith in Politics

Last updated on: December 11, 2017 at 7:15 pm by Ericka Andersen

A Crisis of Faith in Politics 2017-12-11T19:15:44-04:00 Ericka Andersen

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I recently wrote an op/ed about the crisis of faith I see in the conservative evangelical voting community regarding support for Roy Moore, as well as Donald Trump. Moore is still a candidate so it’s different but Trump was once a candidate as well. I’m no longer perplexed by the support — I get it. It’s fear -based, fear that the policies people care so deeply about will not get passed if a Republican is not in office.

It’s the opposite of how we should live as Christians. How many stories have you heard of folks who really spent intimate time with God, listened to His voice and did the thing He told them rather than what was expected or seemed “right” at the time? He has a different plan for us, but if we are drowning in our own fears about getting our policies passed RIGHTNOWORELSE, we will make rash decisions and perhaps, elect the wrong leaders to get us to the so-called “right” place.

Here’s an excerpt from the piece:

As a conservative Christian working in Republican politics for many years, I nearly always stood shoulder to shoulder with evangelical voters. We have many of the same policy goals regarding children, families, taxes and healthcare.

In 2015, things began to change with the rise of Donald Trump –not in the issues we cared most about – but in the people we would entrust those issues to.

Trump was so obviously untrustworthy and crooked. His treatment of women, penchant for lying, scams on innocent folks through ventures like Trump University and tasteless discussion of people groups like illegal immigrants, were unbecoming at best and disgustingly immoral at worst.

He’s not the only elected politician bearing such boorish qualities, but he may be the first that evangelicals have stood behind so wholeheartedly. The support appears to be borne mostly out of fear; fear of losing their religious liberty, the battle for unborn human life and other freedoms that Leftist America is intent on paring down.

The rest of us non-Trump, non-Moore supporting conservative Christians have similar fears but the Bible says to “fear not” and that’s what I chose to do when I cast my vote for a third party in 2016—and continue to stand against Moore as the days lead up to his election. I don’t want wayward leaders charging forth on behalf of my issues – but it appears many evangelical voters care little about the messenger so long as the policy gets passed. It doesn’t have to be this way.

You can read the full piece here and I hope you will.

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