Biblical Political Principles for Choosing leaders

One of the most consequential elections in America’s history is happening and the voting deadline is Nov. 5. Some people say we should avoid talking about politics and religion, but few topics have more impact on more lives. As a lifelong Christian, Bible teacher/church planter/pastor and university professor for years, I want to encourage you that when God’s people are faithful to His principles they can survive and thrive under any government (the Jews throughout history have demonstrated that and Christianity under communism in Russia, China and other places exploded because when the government abandoned godly morals, it caused a tidal wave of injustice and loss of live among all people, influencing many to realize that faith in God is absolutely essential to preserve safety and freedom as many historians have said.

But choices do have consequences, and the Bible is very clear in Hosea 8:2-4,12 that when people disobeying God’s principles for choosing leaders, then enemies will be allowed to harass even God’s people and this can be seen often in the Bible and the history of the world.

The quick summary of the below is that Trump fails all Biblical tests, his policies defy God, do grievous harm to Christianity, cause harm to children (including the unborn), freedom and civilization. So it’s not possible for someone to follow God’s principles of politics and support him. No party is perfect, but Kamala Harris, Cornell West or Jill Stein are orders of magnitude closer to God’s principles than Trump is on what God says are the top criteria for political choices, esp. in their concern for life, justice and honesty. Nearly all evils, including abortion, greatly increased under Trump in his last term of office because he routinely defies the principles of God and this same thing will happen again if he is elected.

Does God have principles about politics? Yes, He does. He has principles that are valuable for every subject and He had quite a lot to say on politics. The Bible has over 20 principles that directly or indirectly speak of politics and principles for making nations thrive. Godly prophets were repeatedly sent to warn Israel’s kings and leaders about right and wrong ways to lead governments. Christians have often worked to influence politics to abolish slavery, stop infanticide and various other injustices. Long ago Plato put it this way, “If you take no interest in politics, you are doomed to be ruled by fools.” That being said, the Bible does not advocate aligning in political parties and indicates that is not wise with the example of the conservative Pharisees and liberal Sadducees working together to crucify Jesus). It tells us to “test everything that is said” 1 Thess. 5:21 and that we need to always do the best good that we can in our choices for individuals and all people (1 Thess. 5:15).

This will be a short article on some of those principles of the Bible with a little bit of science. But for more in depth version of 8 biblical principles about politics with a lot of references from science and various experts, check this page which is the best one on this site relating to elections: http://blog.truth-is-life.org/politics/politics2/ The fuller list of over 20 Bible principles relating to politics is here (but not much science there yet) blog.truth-is-life.org/politics/politics3

Above all else, it’s extremely important for Christians and moral people to remain united and follow God’s principles of love and justice in our daily lives in communities. This is far more powerful than what politicians do in spreading freedom and the highest quality of life for all as research shows. Don’t worry too much if your candidate doesn’t win. The day to day activities of church are far more powerful in bringing decent lives and justice to people than anything else. The Bible indicates this and research proves it.

So before and after elections, even if you have voted differently, keep loving and working in harmony with those who voted similarly or differently from you and work against the injustices that all see and reduce/eliminate them.

MY BACKGROUND

I’m a lifelong Christian and for decades a Christian teacher/church leader including being a long time Bible/life skills teacher, professor, planting and pastoring churches and much more. I can understand why some people might think Trump is better than other choices for certain issues they think are important. I know how conservative thinking goes since I grew up hearing from many (but notably not my father who was a pastor) that the Republican party was the party Christians supported and the Democrats were compromisers at best, communists and godless baby killers at worst.** There were allegations in the other direction of racism, rejection of marriage equality as well…but much less incendiary. With deeper study of the Bible, I came to understand why so many godly pastors and leaders[1], including my father, a pastor for decades in several states and quite a few pastor relatives and friends have changed in major ways and now can’t reconcile being Christian or ethical with any kind of support for Trump.

As I’ve read the Bible many times and studied research and history, they all very clearly show that it is completely impossible to follow principles God gave for selecting national leaders, to have a stable/thriving nation long term and support Trump at the same time (as well as certain other politicians in various parties) and nothing good long term will come of trying to do so. That includes issues that conservatives care most about such as faith, children and freedom which have all suffered very serious losses under Trump the last time he was president. An example of this is that I was in China in 2017-2018 when Trump was president and almost all missionaries I knew were kicked out/expelled in 2018-19. Not only that, the Chinese government completely banned children in China under 18 from going to church and installed video cameras in many to check. There were several reasons, but a big one was because misguided American Christians were supporting Trump and he falsely blamed China for many of America’s problems (instead of the elite 1% that have stolen trillions from American families in the last few decades according to economists**). So some of China’s leaders considered US Christians a threat. Since they sponsored many missionaries, the Chinese decided to make them leave China. This is tragic since China is such a crucial frontier for Christianity.

Because of the golden rule, I tried to consider Trump fairly when he first became president. But in several of his first speeches, he blamed Mexico, S. Korea, China and others countries along with “horrible deals” for most of America’s woes, such as the loss of many American factories and millions of lost jobs.[2] But in fact, some of the real and most serious causes of problems are that the top 1% in America have taken over $50 trillion from the middle class, robots and AI have eliminated large numbers of jobs and many Americans, including many Christians, have abandoned many Bible principles as BARNA and others have repeatedly reported. These are the biggest causes by far of economic debt slavery.[3] Trump’s policies, like that of many Republicans, are based on greed and socialism for the rich, giving trillions to the super wealthy who have political power for no work done. This is well named trickle-down economics, because only a tiny trickle comes down from the rich for everyone else, and it destroys democracy, families and many other things.
 
BIBLE POLITICAL PRINCIPLES IN BRIEF
God has given over 20 principles in the Bible that are directly about the traits of government leaders or science/history have shown are relevant. If we compare them to Trump’s policies and character, it’s clear that people will have to reject/ignore in order to support Trump (all verses quotes below are from the NLT translation unless otherwise noted).

The Bible gives examples of God’s government, states principles for earthly governments or gives examples of godly national leaders many times.  Unfortunately, I don’t hear many Christian leaders speaking accurately with a fair overview of these principles that God says were meant for Israel first, but then as a light and blessing to all nations (Genesis 22:18, Deut. 4:5-8; 28:9-10, Is. 42:6-7; 49:6; 51:4). Nor do most media articles mention anything about over 20 crucial political principles in the Bible. These principles in the Bible and many in science clearly indicate that the long term health, welfare and success of nations depends on choosing leaders who have ethical/altruistic characters and make decisions based on that and these principles.

One of these principles is the Bible highest principles of love and truth, and this is especially exemplified in God’s instruction to “always do good to each person and all people.” 1 Thess. 5:15 NLT 

Unfortunately, in a time when our country and world are facing some of the most serious crises of our history, many either don’t know or are disregarding what God has said through both the Bible and science/research is best for societies to thrive in terms of voting/political decisions.

Eight Bible principles in brief are these (explained more below with research support):

  1. LOVE FOR ALL: “always try to do good to each other and to all people.” 1 Thess. 5:15 NLT Love is the foundation of everything good, including government policies.
  2. JUSTICE FOR ALL: “Let true justice prevail, so you may live and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” Deut. 16:20 NLT 
    “When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan.” Proverbs 29:2
    “Those who plant injustice will harvest disaster, and their reign of terror will come to an end.” Proverbs 22:8 NLT (e.g. 1 Kings 10:9, Psalm 72:1-5, 12-15, 89:14, Proverbs 29:14, Numbers 15:15, Amos 5:15, James 1:27).  

    Throughout history, no societies have survived and thrived long term without altruism and real justice for all.
  3. TRUTH: “Truth will set you free.” John 8:32 NLT Many wise people from many cultures say that loss of truth is top way to smash freedom and bring on tyranny since there is no way to judge the morality of leaders.
  4. NO GREED/PROMISCUITY: God said that leaders must not be greedy/promiscuous or ignorant of God’s laws (Deut. 17:21). Why? Because a person who betrays his spouse, family and community in those ways will easily betraying the whole nation or will be easily manipulated by powerful immoral people (as King Darius was in the famous story of Daniel and the lion’s den due to his ignorance of God’s principles.) Trump’s lifelong obsession with greed, power and exploiting/abusing women as many have reported, easily disqualify him based on these standards.
  5. ECONOMIC JUSTICE/NO CORRUPTION:
    “Whoever oppresses the poor to enrich himself and whoever gives gifts to the wealthy will yield only loss.” Prov. 22:16 ISV
    “A ruler with no understanding will oppress his people, but one who hates corruption will have a long life. Proverbs 28:16 (e.g. Hab. 2:12, Jer. 6:28).
  6. NO RACISM/SEXISM/PREJUDICE AGAINST POOR:  “You must not mistreat or oppress foreigners in any way.” Exodus 22:21 (e.g. Ex. 23:9, Zech. 7:10)
    • “Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.” Zechariah 7:10 (see also: Malachi 3:5)
  7. PEACE: ”Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.” Romans 12:18
  8. REPENT OF SINS: Trump says he doesn’t confess sins. But this is a core biblical principle.
    “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” 1 John 1:9

BUT, BUT,  ABORTION…AND..AND….
You may be someone who agrees that Trump is has all sorts of regrettable characteristics, isn’t very Christian and doesn’t match many criteria in the Bible for leaders. But you have a couple serious litmus tests that you think trump (pun intended) all those.  I suggest you rethink that for 3 reasons:
1) IGNORING GOD’S PRINCIPLES LEADS TO NATIONAL RUIN:
God said that disobeying the principles He gave for choosing leaders would bring cause enemies to harass Israel (Hosea 8:2-4,12). You see this all over the OT with disobedience causing Israel to experience many kinds of exploitation and much injustice, to go into captivity, slavery, and to be killed by famines, disease and war/the sword. It’s not a pretty picture.

2) JESUS’ EXAMPLE: To vote based on a single issue is disastrous. It is what the Jewish leaders did in rejecting Jesus as the Messiah. They made that decision by mostly looking at 1 factor, that he didn’t conquer the Romans as they expected the Messiah to do. Jesus illustrated that we have to look at most or all of the facts in making decisions in Luke 24:25-27 and this is who godly and wise people make all decisions. This is also a major part of coherence truth, one of the most effective ways to make truth based choices according to many experts in the philosophy of truth**.

3) ABORTION RISES MOST UNDER TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMIC REPUBLICANS: Since Trump now opposes abortion (he didn’t in the past), you may think you should just hold your nose about all Trump’s other highly immoral traits and hope for the best. But research (more at at the end of this article) shows that:

a) First of all, abortion rates are far higher under Trump and republicans who follow economic policies similar to him. Rutgers and Stanford researchers have found they are up to 3 times higher worldwide under Republican administrations and the highest number of abortions ever in US history happened under Trump. This is not an accident because republican policies of greed like trickle-down economics are in direct defiance of God’s instructions and make large numbers of people poor. And poverty is the #1 cause of abortion according to many sources.

Dr. Yana Rodgers from Rutgers analyzed abortion rates under republican administrations which slash funding for women’s health care clinics worldwide and found that this greatly increases abortion worldwide for several reasons (one is that many women lose access to birth control or family planning resources and so there are many more unintended pregnancies).

“Supporters of the global gag rule say defunding abortion providers will reduce abortions. However, researchers from Stanford University in 2011 found that this US policy actually made women in sub-Saharan Africa twice as likely to have an abortion…Analyzing abortion data from 51 developing countries between 2001 and 2008 — which encompassed the reproductive decisions of about 6.3 million women — I found that women in Latin America were three times more likely to have an abortion while the global gag rule was in effect.”

Rodgers, Yana. “Abortions rise worldwide when US cuts funding to women’s health clinics, study finds.” The Conversation. March 4, 2019. https://theworld.org/stories/2019/03/04/abortions-rise-worldwide-when-us-cuts-funding-women-s-health-clinics-study-finds

b) Secondly, republicans like Trump slash funding for women’s health care worldwide resulting in large increases in unintended pregnancies and abortions. This kind of thing will happen again if he is elected a 2nd time because his principles and his character have not changed at all in their direct opposition to the principles of God.   

The very conservative organization “The Heritage Center” acknowledges that the highest number of abortions ever reported in US history happened in 2017-18, which is of course when Trump was president.

“Planned Parenthood [had]  a banner year in providing abortion on demand…The report…states that Planned Parenthood affiliates performed 345,672 abortions from Oct. 1, 2017, to Sept. 30, 2018—the highest number of abortions ever reported in a single year.”

Israel, Melanie. “Planned Parenthood Sets New Record for Abortions in a Single Year”. Jan 9, 2020
https://www.heritage.org/life/commentary/planned-parenthood-sets-new-record-abortions-single-year


These principles are by far the best way to thrive, protect lives (including the unborn), freedom and safety long-term.  Science concurs on this as well. And I’d like to suggest that these are the principles that all who believe in God, and even those who don’t, should follow in their election choices if we want to be successful in facing the myriad of crises that our nation and world are facing. Unfortunately, many of Trump’s positions and character are diametrically opposed to everything God and science have said about how we should select leaders for the nation, or for that matter any leadership position at any level.

I hope that you read these principles below and then take a political quiz with the least bias possible (I Side With is one…but there are a couple others) here and then vote based on all the criteria God has given.
https://www.isidewith.com, https://www.thebipartisanpress.com/opinion/do-political-quizzes-define-you/

REFERENCES

REFERENCES
[1] Global Center for Religious Research (GCRR). “An Open Letter to Evangelicals of Moral Conscience”. January 18, 2020. https://www.gcrr.org/evangelicals-and-trump.

[2] McBride, James and Chatzky, Andrew. “ The U.S. Trade Deficit: How Much Does It Matter?”. March 8, 2019. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-trade-deficit-how-much-does-it-matter; Donald Trump’s Positions. https://www.cfr.org/election2024/candidate-tracker/donald-trump.

[3] Hanauer, Nick. “The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%—And That’s Made the U.S. Less Secure.” September 14, 2020. https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america; Wiseman, Paul. “Mexico taking U.S. factory jobs? Blame robots instead”. Nov 2, 2016. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/factory-jobs-blame-robots.