Winston Churchill once said that Russia was “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” That could well describe the 2016 presidential election.

I offer some observations which are pertinent to all American voters, especially those who are Christian or are possessed of some semblance of a biblical world-view.

(1) Both candidates are significantly flawed in many ways. Some have contended, perhaps cogently, that both are essentially pagan.

(2) Some say that, since that is true, to vote for either party is to compromise their Christian faith and witness; therefore they won’t vote. That, of course, has the effect of the most secular of the candidates benefitting; not to vote is to vote for the stronger defender of the current American godless zeitgeist. (And to vote for a third or fourth party candidate—who, by the way, may not be paragons of virtue either—has the same effect.)

(3) The point is: if one cannot vote for someone who is, in their view, a thorough-going Christian, perhaps one could with a conscience vote for the one who gives evidence of being more loyal to traditional American values than the other. (As an aside: one wonders how many of our former presidents would have been elected if their private lives had been as open to the public as they are today.)

(4) That would mean, “Vote for the platform!” I have read both party platforms (simply go to the web and google them up; each is about fifty pages long, but worth the read) and am stunned at the differences. It is nothing short of amazing that some of it is admitted publicly.

• The DP (Democrat platform) does not make a single reference to God—in 50 pages—except for two encouragements to pursue “God-given potential,” while the RP makes many references to Him. (That, of course, does not guarantee Republican holiness, but it does give patent and unapologetic recognition of God.)
• The DP does not mention the US Constitution a single time, while the RP is a veritable hand-book of rights and values and desired legislation based on the Constitution, and specifically, the Bill of Rights.
• If you choose not to read both platforms, check out “reproduction rights” in them both. (pp 37f for the DP, and pp. 31f—especially p. 37—for the RP). I ask, simply: would voting for a man who has said unconscionably salacious things about women be worse than voting for one who passionately affirms and supports a process—for any woman who wishes to have it done—to have the brains of their baby sucked out during the birth process, funded by American tax-payers? (Democrats believe that women, worldwide, should be guaranteed such “rights.”)

(5) If anyone you know does not know what socialism is, let them read the DP. Often, throughout the document, one sees some of the long and growing list of government programs (over 1,100 exist already), which must be “fully funded” (and other such language) which, translated, means “funded by an America which will have become a thorough-going socialist country.” Think Greece, Italy, Portugal, or one of many South American countries.

(6) Once more, no thinking American can be very happy with either candidate, and either one of them might well be disastrous. Some issues, however, may be of sufficient import to cause the patriotic voter to vote against, if not for, a candidate. What, for instance, about the next president adding surely one, and very probably more, justices to the Supreme Court? The next justice will dramatically affect American life when the two candidates are long gone from Washington, DC. The next Democrat appointee to the court will determine, for instance, for all Americans, whether marriage is between a man and a woman or whatever connubial concoction the new court happens to choose. (Honestly: do you think we’ve heard the final discussion on that specific subject?)

Telling you how to vote? Not on your life! I am simply asking you to investigate instruments, written for all the world to see, as platforms of performance (one supposes!) by Democrats and Republicans themselves. And besides: it is rather difficult to be salt and light while sitting on the sidelines.

A caveat: if God chooses, through this election, to send severe judgment upon America (evil leaders were a sure sign in the Old Testament of God’s wrath on His people), then Christ-followers will (a) not be surprised, (b) will see it as an expression of the truth Abraham Lincoln borrowed from King David, written three thousand years ago: “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” (Psalm 19:9), and (c) will go into a guerilla mode and live out the faith as God gives grace to do so. Thomas More, the Catholic saint, once said, “The times were never so bad that a good man could not find a way to serve God faithfully.”

Bill Anderson
Grapevine, Texas