Does it Really Matter Who Is President?

Wow, there is a lot of heat being generated in this year’s presidential campaign. We have the strangest approach to campaigning that we have seen in our lifetime. People on every side are calling each other names and spouting populist policy positions. Along with this, there is genuine concern that the next president will institute policy that could take our nation to ruin.

But as a Christian, does it really matter who we select as our next president? We often assert that “God is in control.” If that is really true, why should it matter to us who the president is? Actually, there are two different answers to this concern which operate at different levels.

The first answer is that it really does not matter. No matter who wins, God is on his throne and we can continue to live our lives, and live out our faith, as we move forward.

The second answer is no less important, but relates to our daily living rather than our eternal salvation. In one sense it really does matter who the next president will be because it affects the environment within which we individually live out our faith, raise our families, and conduct our business. This environment either makes it easier or more difficult to serve God in a way that accomplishes his purpose in us.

The people we elect to public office are the ones who are largely responsible for setting the parameters of that environment. They make the laws and regulations we must live by. They interpret the laws and regulations we must live by. They enforce the laws and regulations we must live by. Over the last several decades, we have elected people who have lowered the bar on life, liberty, and property rights. While these things do not directly affect our personal relationship with God, they do affect our ability to express our faith in life. For instance:
* Abortion is now legal, and the result is millions of preborn babies murdered in the womb.
* It has become more difficult (and even illegal in some places) to pray or express one’s Christian faith in public places.
* In some places, it has become illegal to use one’s own property for a religious purpose.
* Our children are being systematically taught in our public school system, based on naturalistic worldview principles, to think in ways that specifically point them away from God.
* Christian business people are being pressured and fined out of business if they don’t compromise their beliefs in the practice of their business.
* Secular Humanism has been allowed to replace America’s previous moral foundation with a new set of morals which favors anti-God morality. The result is seen in rampant immorality in every major institution of American society.
* Our entertainment industry has, literally, flooded our environment with the most vile immorality imaginable, and has helped to normalize that mindset in all of society.
* Our politicians have created an environment where honesty and integrity are no longer even expected.
* Judges have been appointed who value personal ideology over the rule of law – which leads to massive injustice in the legal system.

So, why do these things matter? They matter because in a godless, immoral culture, society breaks down. People become dependent on others rather than working with their own hands to make their way. Our children are influenced to dismiss biblical morality in favor of the moral direction of a godless worldview. Our laws are enforced selectively in ways that favor one class of people over another. And the list could go on.

No, the person who becomes president cannot affect our decision to believe in God on an individual level. But he or she will affect the environment we have to live in. And if the environment continues the way it is currently moving, that will mean greater pressure on Christians to compromise our faith or face persecution.

As Christians, we have a stewardship responsibility before God to be faithful in our citizenship. We need to vote, and we need to do so based on genuine Christian worldview principles.