Yesterday I wrote about my caution with receiving Tulsi Gabbard into the Republican Party. On the one hand I welcome her. She’s intelligent, authentic, and seems like a genuinely nice person who’s guided by common sense. On the other hand, she’s been a Democrat for 20 years and an Independent for two, and she has a terrible record on abortion, gun rights, and fiscal policy. Time will tell exactly what she brings to the party (see what I did there?).
Today I have a similar caution with respect to the recent kerfluffle over pro-Jesus comments being shouted in a Harris and in a Trump event and how the two handled it.
First, Harris: “Oh you guys are at the wrong rally.”
Here’s the same moment filmed from a different angle, where you can see the person who yells about Jesus being Lord and Christ being King being kicked out of the rally.
Note that Kamala mocks the students—a “sick burn” if you will—and the crowd immediately laughs and applauds her one-liners. Setting aside the fact that shouting while someone is speaking is rude and disruptive, Dr. Ben Carson made the point that Kamala didn’t have time to prepare an answer … she just said what was on her heart.
A day or so later, JD Vance was speaking at a Trump/Vance rally, and again, someone shouted “Jesus is King!” Here’s how Vance handled it:
A stark contrast to Kamala’s response, no? And then, Donald Trump weighed in on the exchanges: “In our movement, we love Christians, we welcome believers, and we embrace followers of Jesus.”
It’s heartening to hear that the MAGA movement embraces believers; as Christians, we should always count it a blessing when those in authority—and in the culture at large—have favorable attitudes towards us. But here’s where I think we should be cautious about being embraced by either political party.
We owe our allegiance to only one Man, Jesus Christ, and it is too easy to get caught up in putting our trust in a political leader or a political party to do the work of reforming a culture’s moral makeup. It cannot and will not be done through laws or other political means.
We certainly can vote for politicians who support policies that align with Christian principles and obedience. But as we’ve seen, politics follows culture and as the culture decays, Christians are at risk of being demonized (ironically) as what’s holding the culture back.
But once we surrender any of our dependence on God to a political party, we can be played by that party. Be thankful for the support we have from a major political party but maintain your independence as a Christian so that you don’t allow yourself to be lulled into a false sense of security just because a political party embraces your faith.
Keep God first. Then family and country.