Why I am voting for Biden
As a believer and as one who does not support abortion, I have been asked how I could possibly vote Biden in this election. A good question deserves an answer. For some, that answer won’t be enough. For others, who are still debating their final choice, this may be helpful.
First — my decision is driven by a central belief in how God’s kingdom is advanced on earth. I believe it is advanced through love and good works in an environment of peace and it is actually harmed when advanced through coercion or control (Matthew 26:52). For this reason, I am not inclined toward a candidate motivated to enforce select moral views through law, but more inclined to support a candidate who I believe can bring people together and bring peace so that the great change agents of dialogue and ideas in a context of free will can foster more lasting changes of heart and habit.
Second — my decision is driven by an understanding that the greatest danger to any society or culture is arrogance and not other seemingly large moral issues. I am much more alarmed by our current President’s arrogance and pride than by any other allowance the other party may make for a moral dilemma.
Third — when it comes to abortion, if I truly believed that eradicating abortion would occur through legislation and that the primary issue driving abortion was moral I might be tempted to consider another course, but I don’t believe reality points in this direction. I believe that few, if any, really see abortion as a primary answer for pregnancy and, from dialoguing with many from every walk and belief system, I can truly say I have never met anyone who thought of abortion as a primary desirable outcome or one that should be anything other than rare and only in the most necessary of circumstances.
There are, however, statistical indications that our largest declines in national abortion rates have come during recent democratic presidencies — perhaps as a result of policies addressing poverty, birth control, and gender equality that serve to make abortion less desirable and necessary. Abortion (worse yet, Infanticide) has been around for millennia, and, if history teaches us anything, it teaches us that abortions have a much greater link to poverty and oppression than to moral irreverence. I believe, and I would die on this hill, that the greatest way to save the greatest amount of children from peril (not only the peril of death, but the greater peril of a life of poverty, oppression, and abuse) is to focus on making the world a better, more healthy, and economically viable place for those most affected by issues like abortion (consider this article). This places me once again in a place where I believe that Biden is the best choice to move that world forward on this front.
Transcending the “ism”
Finally — many in the “Christian” or “Conservative” camps like to throw around the idea that Biden is a step toward Communism or at least a more rigorous socialism. I must admit that I am not in favor of any “ism” that I have met or studied, including capitalism. Isms are generally ideas turned into cults that are ultimately damaging to all. As a lover of Jesus, I am more concerned with attempting to look at the world through a different lens. If the second greatest command of the Bible is to love one’s neighbor as oneself, surely there are indications there of what a just society should look like. Taking into account the fact that the historical narrative of the Bible reveals God interacting with people emerging from ancient and often barbaric cultures and customs, there are still some significant indications of how God views and judges cultures. I have included just a few below.
1. His desire is that a just society result in zero poverty (Deuteronomy 15:4. Acts 4:34)
2. His judgment on a society results from arrogance resulting in that society’s mistreatment of the poor, the widow, the oppressed, the fatherless, and the stranger (immigrant) (Ezekiel 16:48–50 and hundreds of other passages).
3. He instituted a special tax on the wealthy (landowners in ancient times were wealthy) where they were required to allow the poor into their fields to glean and gather for themselves during harvest (Leviticus 23:32) (not exactly a capitalist ideal).
4. He instituted advanced financial reform in ancient Israel. Debts could only be held for 7 years and then were required to be forgiven if not yet paid (Deuteronomy 15) and any land lost by an individual (for whatever reason) was required to be returned to the original owner every 50 years (Leviticus 25) to give the next generation a chance to succeed where a previous had failed.
5. Finally, the whole pale of Scripture is centered on unwarranted and special generosity and hospitality. The first and greatest evidence of true Christianity is the expression of that hospitality and generosity to all but especially to the fatherless and widow (James 1:27) and by implication the stranger ( and the greatest compliment given to the early church was that they refused to lay claim to their right to exclusively enjoy their own wealth but held possessions and resources in common and for the common good, distributing to “every man as they had need” (Acts 2:32–37).
Do I really want to get “what I deserve”?
I certainly do not want to live in a society where I truly get “what I deserve”. I want to live in a society where mercy triumphs over justice and where forgiveness and new beginnings are enshrined in law. I believe it is arrogant and misinformed to think that a child of poverty is getting what he or she deserves just as much as it is to believe that I am getting what I deserve because I have a decent income and a good life. Tweak our parents, location of birth, and any number of circumstances not controlled by either of us and we would swap places on society’s scale.
God said as much to ancient Israel when he told them that they were not getting the land because of their own goodness or deserving nature (Deuteronomy 9:4–6), but because the previous owners had so perverted justice and he warned them that if they perverted justice he would take it from them and give it to others (Deuteronomy 31). None of us have what we have because we deserve it, and the surest way to lose what we have is to cling to arrogance and to fail to champion the causes of justice among us.
Who really will save us?
Finally, let me note this; No president from any party can save us from ourselves or is the answer to our societal ills. Ultimately, the difference between Biden and Trump is rather slight in the overall pale of history and neither is particularly impressive to me in either policy or even behavior. The responsibility for changing the face of our nation lies squarely with you and me — the individual citizens. We do it by speaking the truth, living loved and loving, giving generously, and forgiving freely — by this means we change hearts and not laws. We attract others, not to political reform but to and through loving relationships that reflect the Father’s heart and intention for us (John 15–17).
Whatever the choice dictated by your conscience in this coming election, I urge you to not “put trust in princes” but to actively become the change you hope to see, to live out Isaiah 58 and bring the poor to your own house, clothe the naked with your own clothes, and feed the hungry out of your own larder. This is what the love of Christ does in the true believer — we have nothing to fear and we don’t look for a city down here (America or otherwise). Instead, we press toward a future ideal where peace will be the rule (the lion will lay down with the lamb) and death, dying, and sorrow will be a thing of the past. This will only be achieved through radical love flowing from the radical love we have been shown in the gift of Jesus Christ to us.
If you are not a believer and are turned off by the bad behavior and untoward attitudes of many who claim to be — I am sorry. Please consider that Christianity (as with all beliefs and practices) can be exercised with ignorance and out of a desire to gain power and control — neither of which may have been intended by the founder. There are many of us who want to work together with people of other faiths and even non-faiths to build and preserve a more just society for all people. Let’s do it together!
