As we approach a pivotal election, the stakes have never been higher for our democracy, with choices that seem to pit us against a backdrop of chaos.
Legendary hip-hop artist KRS-One said politics is full of politricks. In just a few days, American citizens will have made their voices heard about who we want at the helm of our republic—Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.
We are told this year’s election is a choice between America becoming communist or fascist. They tell us that we can either go the way of Mao Zedong or Jim Crow 2.0. To be quite honest, I will be glad when this election cycle is over. And I’m not alone.
The great American experiment of a democratic republic has become a reality television show analogous to The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Quite frankly, it’s embarrassing. America the Great has become the laughingstock of the world stage. And as we argue about who’s despicable, deplorable, or delusional, and who’s Black, Christian, or American, our enemies are hacking our systems, the Middle East is aflame, and our superpower status erodes by the day.[1]
How We Got Here
We live in an age of confusion: religious confusion, identity confusion, ethnic confusion, and human confusion (i.e., what it means to be human). But this age of confusion is no illusion. For as the morals of a nation go, so goes that nation. And decade after decade, America’s morals have sunk further into the abyss.
While we could forcefully argue that America was never a paragon of virtue, considering it kidnapped, enslaved, and murdered Africans, we do recognize that Judeo-Christian values informed the general mores of our country. However, that began to change in the 1960s, inching America toward becoming a post-Christian nation.[2]
During the 1980s, the moral majority sought to retain some semblance of a Christian America by engaging in the electoral process, leading to the elections of Ronald Reagan (1980, 1984), George H. W. Bush (1988), and George W. Bush (2000, 2004).
Following the economic turmoil from the collapse of our financial system due to subprime loans,[3] Barack Obama was elected president in 2008—making history by becoming America’s first Black president.
Obama’s two terms paved the way for a business giant by the name of Donald J. Trump to leverage two groups: (1) racists who despised Obama’s presidency and the unauthorized influx of non-European immigrants and (2) evangelicals who abhorred America becoming a nation that legislated gay marriage and abortion. Thus, Mr. Trump was able to build a coalition of hardcore racists and devout evangelicals, forming what would be labeled White Christian Nationalism.[4]
Donald Trump was narrowly defeated by Joe Biden in 2020, and their rematch was disrupted when President Biden announced he was dropping out of the race in July. This paved the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic Party’s nominee.
Will America Be a Righteous or Unrighteous Nation?
Today, we are at a critical crossroads, leading to two unknown destinations. However, this article is not about the election but about the electorate (us). The Bible teaches us fundamental truths about a nation’s way of life. Key among them is righteousness.
According to Harold Stigers, the word righteous “refers to an ethical, moral standard and of course in the OT that standard is the nature and will of God.”[5] Thus, righteousness is “conformity” to God’s ethical and moral standards as prescribed in the Bible. There are two key principles concerning national righteousness given by the wisest king ever to live that I want to touch on briefly.
1. Righteous Living Brings National Prominence. As I alluded to earlier, despite its troubled past with slavery, America embraced a Christian worldview. It was never a Christian nation because the constitution forbids a national religion, but Christianity’s influence is undeniable. Israel, however, was a country with a legislated national religion, and they, too, failed to follow God’s ethical and moral standards faithfully. Consequently, King Solomon reminded them, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).
Solomon contrasts righteousness with sin and exaltation with disgrace. When a nation’s citizens govern their laws and lives by the principles and precepts of God’s Word, God’s blessings are upon them compared to other countries. However, when a nation openly and obstinately violates God’s standards, shame and humiliation result.
The choice is quite simple: Will America live in the blessings that God has graciously bestowed upon us because of the remnant that has done its best to remind us of the theological principles of blessings and curses found in Deuteronomy 28, or will we continue down the path of shame that has weakened our financial, military, technological, and political standing on the global stage?
2. Righteous Leaders Bring National Pleasure. In a republic, citizens elect their leaders. Every two years, Americans choose the men and women we want to vote in our stead or to serve as the executives of our cities, states, and country. Like the idiom, “You get what you pay for,” we get the life we elect. Solomon teaches us this in Proverbs 29:2, which says, “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules, people groan.”
In this verse, Solomon contrasts righteous people increasing in number with a wicked person ruling and people rejoicing with them groaning. The more people in a nation living in alignment with God’s laws, the more likely they will have righteous leaders. Not only will the pool of potentially righteous leaders be larger, but the more righteous voters there will be to elect candidates who will govern righteously. Such leadership results in a nation experiencing the shalom of God’s peace, prosperity, and security. But, if a country is experiencing hardship and suffering, it is because it has wicked leaders who fail to honor God and His moral principles. And those wicked leaders rise to power because the unrighteous outnumber the righteous, and the former’s voice becomes the loudest.
So instead of trying to change the laws and pack the courts, we need to live godly and evangelize the ungodly. Only then can the righteous outnumber the unrighteous and give us the social influence we desire to impact our communities, cities, country, and world for the good of humanity and the glory of God.
America’s Future Rests upon a Missional Church
A new political term emerged in this year’s election: double haters. These are voters who don’t like the candidates from either party.[6] Double haters aren’t new, but they have been the focus of much attention, given the closeness and divisiveness of this year’s election. Many in both parties are mad at them because they can’t seem to understand how anyone could be unclear about the danger the opposing candidate poses.
Whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins, Jesus Christ is still King of kings and Lord of lords. But that’s not the point. The greatest “threat to democracy” is an unrighteous people who eventually elect unrighteous leaders. If we want God to bless America, then America must once again bless God. And that’s not going to happen unless and until American Christians live out our faith in word and deed, in proclamation and practice, and in evangelism and socially good works.
Dr. Isaac Hayes is an Assistant Pastor at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, Illinois, and author of Men After God’s Heart: 10 Principles of Brotherly Love. He also has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Follow Dr. Hayes on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube at @RevIsaacHayes.
[1] https://journalonworldaffairs.org/2021/02/25/the-us-will-lose-its-hyperpower-status-by-2050-but-china-may-not-be-its-replacement/.
[2] https://www.christianitytoday.com/2023/03/christianity-america-pew-research-statistics-minority/.
[4] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-is-christian-nationalism-and-why-it-raises-concerns-about-threats-to-democracy.
[5] Harold G. Stigers, “1879 צָדֵק,” ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 752.
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