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Mental and moral clarity is needed when it comes to Christians and politics.

While my title may not be a perfect case of alliteration, it does contain four important words, especially given some key elections coming up. America has its midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3, and at the end of November Victorians will have their long-awaited state election in which it is hoped Labor is finally kicked out of power. Another term of Labor could spell permanent doom for this state.

Of course there are some differences here. Australian elections are mandatory, and non-voters can be fined for refusing to get involved. But in America voting is optional, so many people can sit things out for various reasons. As I just said in a radio interview yesterday, sadly, many millions of American evangelicals will not vote.

Incumbent parties tend to do less well in midterms, and evangelical Christians might think that they did their bit in 2024, so they can just forget about showing up to vote. And many of these Christians might not be thrilled with either party, or with various candidates, so they will simply opt out.

But as I also said in that interview, the one person that should get all of our votes is not running. Jesus is not on the ballot, and instead we are left with only one sort of candidate: those who are flawed, finite, and fallible. No perfect candidate or party is available, so we have to make do with what is on offer.

Election Purists

But sadly, that biblical way of thinking is anathema to some believers. I call them purists: they want all or nothing. For them it is either a perfect candidate or no candidate. They think that they can just wait until some flawless and impeccable party or candidate comes around. Again, that just ain’t gonna happen in the world we actually live in.

I have written about this often before. See for example these three pieces on the abortion purists:

• “How the Purists Can Destroy America and the West (and Still Feel Good About Themselves)“
• “On Dealing With Abortion“
• “Are You a Pharisee?“

They hate the notion of incrementalism (working bit by bit to stop abortion), and demand that we seek a total ban of all abortion once and for all – or nothing. They cannot see that stopping half or a third of all abortions to begin with is saving millions of lives. Their ‘all or nothing’ approach simply means MORE dead babies, not less. I do not find this to be either wise or moral — nor Christlike.

The Lesser of Two Evils

Closely related to this is the idea that somehow the believer can never choose an evil option. But let me repeat myself: in a fallen world, that is basically the only set of options we have. There are seldom any perfect alternatives available. Certainly in politics, we have to deal with competing goods and evils, and try to get the best outcomes we can in such a situation.

In the case of the Victorian election for example, Ben Carroll, Jess Wilson and Warren Pickering are all imperfect, and in various ways, ‘evil’ candidates. But they are the main three options going, along with even smaller parties like Family First. We have to make do with what is available. Christians need to forget about utopia and get back to the real world.

I have also written much about this. See these articles on political purism:

• “How the Purists Can Destroy America and the West (and Still Feel Good About Themselves)“
• “Pharisaism, Compromise, and the Lesser of Two Evils“
• “Purists, Politics, Presidents, Pharisees – And Dead Babies“

As I wrote in that final piece (again, using abortion as an example):

You can pat yourselves on the back all you like with your self-righteous purity, mumbling about how you did not compromise your principles etc., but when abortion continues just as before, or in fact gets worse, you do not have a lousy thing to be proud of. Indeed you should hang your heads in shame and repent of making things worse.

It all boils down to this: we have a choice between:

• Running with the purists who hate abortion and want to see it all eliminated, but because of their ridiculous all-or-nothing approach, generally end up with abortion as usual, or
• Running with the realists who hate abortion and want to see it all eliminated, but actually will see abortions reduced because they are willing to be sensible and realistic here.

I know which one I will run with, and heaps of saved babies also know which one they prefer. But the self-righteous purists will have none of this: We either have zero abortions today, or we keep on with open slather. So millions of babies keep being slaughtered, but these Pharisees are so very proud of themselves because they did not “contaminate” themselves.

And I spoke to how this worked in the Romney v Obama race back then:

Related to all this is the oft-heard phrase about two evils being both evil, and therefore we should run with neither. This is applied routinely by the purists to political candidates, especially for POTUS. They want a perfect candidate or they will refuse to vote.

Of course refusing to vote when you have a God-given responsibility to do so not only means you are being disobedient to God, but you simply allow the other side – the real bad guys – to get in. Thanks a lot purists. This is exactly what happened at the last election.

The purists refused to vote for Romney because he was not perfect: he was not conservative enough for them or pro-life enough or because he was a Mormon. So they sat on their pure bottoms and did nothing, allowing the fully evil Obama to waltz right back in, resulting in much more evil, plenty more abortions, etc. Yet these guys felt real good about themselves!

Closing Words

What initially spurred me on to write this piece was a pair of posts that I found on the social media this morning. The first one was by Robert A. J. Gagnon on X. He is quite active on Facebook, but I do not see him so much nowadays, having been kicked off Fakebook.

He does not seem to be as active on X, but what he reposted today was a winner. It is from an American pastor that I had not been aware of: Josh Howerton. Josh had posted this:

On “VOTING FOR THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS”

If godly people refuse to vote for the LESSER of 2 evils, godless people will vote to ensure you, your children, and your grandchildren get the GREATER of 2 evils.

NEWSFLASH: You will be voting for a “lesser of two evils” until Jesus returns.

Wise Christians can differentiate between a FALLEN candidate and an EVIL candidate.

FALLEN CANDIDATE: Has personal sin in his / her life.

EVIL CANDIDATE: Leads entire communities, states, and nations to sin.

Great stuff. And needless to say, I immediately followed Josh! He is a clear-thinking pastor, and we need many more like him.

And the second post I saw this morning on X was from Erika Kirk. It said this:

Elections have consequences. There are a lot of people right now trying to convince you that America isn’t worth preserving. Some want you to believe this country was rotten from the beginning, others want you to believe it is too far gone to save, and some are simply just sitting this one out. But as my husband often said, “no black pilling!” Take that to heart. If you sit out an election because you are disappointed with Republicans, you don’t get an empty government for two years. Somebody still wins and then they get to govern and they will use the power you handed them to turn this great country into one that is unrecognisable. You inherited the freedom to vote. Don’t squander it. Make a plan to vote and find your nearest polling location here: http://voteready.com

See the short video of this from when Charlie Kirk was still alive.

Elections have consequences.

There are a lot of people right now trying to convince you that America isn’t worth preserving. Some want you to believe this country was rotten from the beginning, others want you to believe it is too far gone to save, and some are simply just sitting this one out.

But as my husband often said, “no black pilling!”

Take that to heart. If you sit out an election because you are disappointed with Republicans, you don’t get an empty government for two years. Somebody still wins and then they get to govern and they will use the power you handed them to turn this great country into one that is unrecognizable.

You inherited the freedom to vote. Don’t squander it.

Make a plan to vote and find your nearest polling location here: https://t.co/EIUdmFqpab

— Erika Kirk (@MrsErikaKirk) October 30, 2026

Remember, Charlie Kirk cannot vote on Tuesday — or any other day. His life was diabolically snatched by the same hate-filled secular leftists who would readily snatch away your life and mine. So we need to vote because Charlie cannot. Jesus commanded us to be salt and light, and that includes voting responsibly.

Please vote. Vote wisely. Vote prayerfully. Elections matter. And Christians are called to make a difference — even in a fallen world.

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Republished with thanks to CultureWatch. Image via Adobe.