God has been in Christian Nationalism conversations and Project 2025. If you could read my mind, you might conclude that God is on the ballot this November.
As the election approaches, my anxiety has grown. I have been vigorously writing letters to voters in swing states, with the help of an organization called Vote Forward.
I stop myself and realize that I cannot do anything else but pray, write my letters, and use my one vote. God will not abandon us if I dislike the outcome. After November 5, 2024, God remains.
What Would God Want?
I believe that there are some election outcomes that God would not want.
Immigration
God told the Israelites that they should treat foreigners justly, reminding them that they were once strangers in a foreign land (Egypt).
Unless one is fully Native American, all other American citizens are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. My great-grandfather’s uncle brought him from Ireland on a boat to the United States without telling his family. He became the patriarch of a large Irish family in South Dakota, having worked on the railroad until that point.
While I do not favor open borders, I do not think that God would want the U.S. government to round up immigrants. Would God want the government to put them in camps and send them back to the countries they fled? Listening to some of the anti-immigrant rhetoric, the speakers seem to think that people who were just fine in their own countries or bored of threatening their own people decided they would rather be fine in the United States.
I believe that most immigrants are people fleeing violence, gangs, poverty, hunger, or other life-threatening situations. For Central and South Americans, getting to the southern border is treacherous because of the trail, the weather, and the people who want to take advantage. People do not leave life-long friends and family and then risk their lives just because the USA sounds good. Once I saw a clip of a Syrian refugee throwing her baby over a border fence out of desperation and love.
Authoritarianism
I believe that God loves every person, but I doubt that he prefers them to be dictators. If a new administration discards the Constitution in favor of some other form of government, I do not think that God will be happy.
Jesus died on the cross because of people with close to absolute power: the Jewish high priest and the Roman procurator. For someone who did not promote social unrest, capital punishment was extreme in his case. He did not receive justice.
Project 2025’s The Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise may have helpful suggestions to reduce government redundancy and promote efficiency. I have written about the way I believe this document attempts to erase communities and efforts for Americans to learn about one other. Do some conservatives want to go back to the 1950s because many people thought there were two heterosexual categories: male and female? In the 1950s, under segregation, most blacks would have been too afraid to speak up about DEI and the consequences of slavery, Jim Crow, etc. on their community.
God Remains
No matter who becomes president, which party controls the Senate and House, or who the state governors are, God remains. I need to remember this and pray for detachment. Once I have done everything I can to help the side I prefer, I must let go and remind myself that God is not on the ballot. In every possible outcome, God will be with the American people.
I do lose perspective and get completely caught up with voting and politics. I hope in the future I can write about how I have focused more on God.
Luckily, God remains.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In