Tune in to Fox News every night and you will notice that Christian Republicans are quick to identify sin in secular society. Christians have long been a source of constructive cultural criticism, but we have increasingly – and alarmingly – turned our criticism into demands for change and called on the government for help. This trend is particularly evident in Christian support for Donald Trump, who ironically does not appear to be a Christian himself but promises us government power in exchange for votes.

Instead of chasing political power, I propose a path that aligns with both Christianity and conservative principles: vote to preserve democratic freedom and loosen our grip on efforts to entrench religious beliefs in the law and culture.

Now, bear with me, because the term “liberty” is thrown around so often that it is easy to overlook the profound implications it has in our system of government. Freedom is the conversion factor that takes our exclusive religious views and gives them a place in secular society. It is the means by which we publicly express our beliefs without fear of persecution. It is the language of the social contract in which we coexist constructively with the secular world, satisfying both our civil and religious commitments. And because Christianity should be each individual’s choice, freedom is also the best environment in which to practice and share our faith.

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Freedom unfolds primarily through the preservation of our country’s long-standing institutions. These include respecting the rule of law, protecting First Amendment rights, recognizing the legitimacy of election results, and firmly overseeing the peaceful transfer of power, to name a few. a few.

Therefore, freedom – and policies that maximize it – should be the centerpiece of our political platforms and the prism through which we evaluate candidates. This approach prevents us from making every cultural issue a religious litmus test for right or wrong. This means we do not have to support candidates who conform to our faith or turn away from those whose lifestyle differs from ours.

Applying this to the 2024 election frees Christian Republicans from any obligation to support Trump. Nothing in our Christian faith suggests that we need a candidate who promises us legislative victories in exchange for looking at the glaring failures of our character. We don’t need a cultural defender against the left. We need a candidate with enough integrity to respect American institutions that guarantee freedom of faith for all.

As things stand, we have put ourselves between a rock and a hard place. For example, when we excuse Trump’s antics, like the conspiratorial accusations that Haitian immigrants eat everyone’s pets, but denounce Vice President Harris for her LGBTQ+ views, we are simply choosing a sin over another, which is not biblical (James 2:10). This is where we must realize that Christianity does not give us a political ultimatum for either party. The Bible, which represents the pure Truth, cannot logically support a party as if that party also embodied the full Truth. So we find ourselves in a position with asymmetric options. If we can’t recognize that, we’ll end up backing ourselves into a corner, saying things like, “It’s just locker room talk” or “Jan. The 6th was a day of love.

Our political tactics exist on a completely separate plane from our role in the Church. Instead of trying to discern degrees of evil, we should ask ourselves: “Which candidate is most likely to ensure that our institutional freedom flourishes, so that I can use my words and actions, not the power of the government, to influence others? This approach rightly relegates government and politics to a subordinate position, below our faith, so that we do not have to fight in the trenches of the political culture war. This frees Christians from the mental gymnastics required to pretend that Trump is somehow good for Christianity or conservatism. We don’t need to tie up our integrity to justify his bullying tactics and irreverent antics.

As Thomas Jefferson, one of the principal architects of religious freedom in America, wisely said: “The lawful powers of government extend only to actions, not to opinions.” » I fully support courageously defending our beliefs, but it is not our role to cleanse sin from culture. Christians are indeed called to address the question of morality, but only within the Church and not outside it. We do God or others no favors by insisting that non-Christians pretend to embrace the same exclusive moral code without a change of heart. Relying on a program to maximize freedom is not perfect. In fact, it can be quite complicated to have to tolerate the choices of our neighbors that we may personally reject. But this is the mission field into which Jesus sent us.

Christians surely have higher aspirations than simply treating the symptoms of a fallen world rather than the disease. Or have we lost confidence in the power of the Gospel to change hearts to the point where we must emphasize the power of the state?

No candidate is perfect. But there is certainly a stable option with sufficient moral character to guarantee freedom through the protection of our institutions. This election, let’s choose freedom over control. Let us not feel obligated to vote for our party’s candidate and instead trust in our system’s ability to defend freedom by supporting a different, perhaps unlikely, candidate.

Clay Lightfoot lives in Oklahoma City and works in the oil and gas industry. He previously worked for the late U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK).

This article was originally published on Oklahoman: Opinion: Christians excuse Trump’s antics but denounce Harris’ views