Why Christians Should Cast Their Votes for Donald J. Trump This November- Part I

In the first part of this multi-part blog post, we’ll dive into why Christians need to get out to vote, while also examining an alarming study recently published by Dr. George Barna on the number of Christians unlikely to vote this November.

On July 27, Donald Trump made headlines as the Fake News media cherry-picked one of his lines from his speech at a Turning Point USA event. As per usual, the corrupt press completely disregarded the context (both implied and understood) for what Trump was saying.

“Christians, get out and vote, just this time! You won’t have to do it anymore — four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed! It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians! I love you, Christians. I’m a Christian! I love you. Get out — you gotta get out and vote!”

To most sensible people, the meaning behind Trump’s wording was obvious. While the left tried to claim that this was a veiled promise by Trump that he would completely do away with any subsequent elections were he to win, it was clear that he was referencing the struggle that every Republican presidential candidate faces: getting evangelicals out to the ballot box. This was his way of saying, “If you just get out and vote, and you vote for me, you won’t have to vote in any future elections because the country will be so much better that you won’t need to.” He made an impassioned plea to Christians in his trademark humour and hyperbole…but because the left doesn’t understand either of those things, the corrupt media ran with dishonest headlines about Trump’s statements the very next day. (They also bizarrely tried to claim that Trump had said, “I’m not Christian,” which would make no sense given the context of not only this speech but also past speeches in which he has said the opposite.)

The nature of Trump’s comments, however, begs a deeper question: why would Christians stay home on Election Day instead of exercising their right to vote? Some would even argue that voting is an obligation for Christians, and I would be one of those people to argue that. I’m sure I would be met with a chorus of, “But this world is not our home!” Fundamentally, that is correct. But practically speaking, that’s a cheap way of excusing yourself from any worldly responsibility. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus gives His disciples the Great Commission, which is to go and make disciples of all nations. Like it or not, the political landscape of the world and of our own nations impacts the scope of our ability to do this. It’s easier to share the Gospel in the United States or Canada than it is in North Korea or China. This is because of politics. Additionally, it is also our own nation of which we are to be making disciples. It is harder to do so under a government that despises Christianity and opposes it at every turn. There will be many Christians who stay home on Election Day but will bemoan themselves when they fall under persecution from their current government…a government that they had the opportunity to avert at the ballot box. As of now, every citizen in Canada and the United States have been allowed the privilege of partaking in the election of our rulers, and it astounds me that many Christians would squander the opportunity that they obviously take for granted.

Let’s get into the numbers of this. Dr. George Barna, founder of the Barna Group (a research organization that exists to analyze the religious stances and behaviours of Americans) and Director of Research for the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, published on October 7, 2024, a staggering study which showed the likely number of “people of faith” who are planning to not vote this November. That number is approximately 104 million, which is 49% of all “people of faith” in the United States. The number for specifically born-again Christians is 41 million. Additionally, 46 million Protestant church-goers and 19-million Catholic Church-goers are also forecasted to stay home on November 5th.

I don’t know about you, but these statistics floored me.

Further investigation by Barna found some of the reasons why such a large number of Christians aren’t going out to vote. 68% cited a lack of interest in politics; 57% admitted their dislike for all the major candidates; 55% said the major candidates did not represent their belief system; 50% said they’re abstaining because the 2024 election had become “too controversial”; 52% believed that their singular vote wouldn’t change anything, displaying an apathetic nature to right they’ve been given.

You can examine the report in its entirety where it was linked above, but so far, the statistics found by Barna are shocking and indicate alarming things about both the American public and the Christian voting bloc.

Unfortunately, besides staying home on Election Day, there is another way that many American evangelicals choose to squander their vote: independent or third-party candidates. The solution is not to abolish the two-party system that the US has; Canada is a prime example of why that doesn’t work. You don’t end up with Christian candidates winning; you end up with a liberal leader who obtained less than 35% of the vote because all the various parties and candidates split the conservative vote. But the reasons that countless professing-Christians either vote independent or stay home is actually the same reason. It’s the idealist’s desire for the perfect candidate.

Pragmatism is a bit of a dirty word nowadays, particularly in Christian circles. Its implication is that you have to throw away all your principles and morals to support a principle-less and amoral candidate, all in the name of “the greater good.”

This is a misunderstanding.

The reality is that there will almost certainly never be “the perfect candidate” for Christians. There will likely never be a candidate who checks all the boxes that idealist Christians want checked. And because they choose not to acknowledge this reality, they sit alone in the butterflies-and-rainbows world that they’ve made for themselves, deludedly believing that, one day, a perfect politician who champions their every belief will arise, while the left conquers more ground right under their noses. It’s ironic that many of the pastors of this type of evangelical probably wouldn’t even align with their every belief. But anyone who has ever looked for a church to attend knows you will never find a perfect church. So why then are you still searching for a perfect politician?

This is where some pragmatic thinking — or rather, realistic thinking — is necessary when engaging in the electoral process. Directly speaking, Trump is not a perfect person. Obviously. He’s also not the epitome of Christianity. But when one looks into his spoken beliefs and his track record while in office, it’s clear that he holds many of the same views that Christians do. Most of what he accomplished in office were very positive things for Christians. These are all things we’ll deeply explore in the following blog post, but when it comes to Donald Trump, the positives (his support for the pro-life movement, his support for religious freedoms, etc.) far outweigh any negatives. And even more importantly, the alternative to Trump is far worse.

There is something I like to say to Christians who shun Trump or the idea of ever voting/supporting him. I tell them that if King David were to be resurrected into 2024 and run for president, he would never be elected by the Christians. They would look at him and say, “He’s a murderer and an adulterer; he’s been married multiple times; he’s a brutal warrior with blood dripping from his hands.” While all these things are true, they obviously pale in comparison to anything bad Trump has done. Trump has never murdered anyone (if he had, the Democrats would have indicted him by now). He definitely wasn’t married as many times as King David. Yet when God looked at David, in all of his sin and filth, He called David a man after His own heart. My analogy isn’t to say that Trump is a Christian as strong as King David is; I can’t definitively comment on his spiritual state. But it seems that many Never-Trump Christians are quick to dismiss any notion that Trump has been, is being, or will continue to be used by God as president to accomplish His will.

So now that I’ve shown why Christians should get out to vote this November, I’ll delve further into the details of why Christians should specifically be voting for Donald J. Trump in the second part of this blog post which you can read right here.