What I Wish Christians Knew About Their Faith In God And Their Presidential Candidate

Can you really follow Jesus and go all-in on Trump, Biden, or whoever becomes the next president?

Photo by: Young Yi

This post is the first post in a series titled, “I Pledge Allegiance”. This series is not confined to a singular week, but will track along the 2024 presidential election here in America, with hopes to guide the Christ follower on how to process and view real-time political happenings this year.

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Have you ever had people tell you to your face they would get up and walk out in the middle of a sermon if they found out who the preacher voted for in the 2020 presidential election? I have.

Have you ever had people tell you to your face you’re either too woke or too conservative (and therefore, a bigot)? I have.

I am not a veteran in the ministry world. I am very much in the beginning years of my pastoral career and yet, I feel I have seen and heard it all, especially over the last 3-4 years, beginning from the COVID lockdowns.

Surprisingly (or not, depending on who you ask), the very people who have either told me this to my face or have said it to another ministry leader I know, were all (wait for it …), Christians.

Entering another presidential election cycle here in America, my mind feels like it’s on high alert all the time. It’s probably some mild form of PTSD from four years ago, but that’s self-diagnosed, so I can’t entirely say that’s true. But man, it’s a real feeling.

However, I’m not here to write about my feelings. At least not in this post.

I’m here to write about how real faith in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, born to the virgin Mary and Joseph, in a sleepy little town called Bethlehem, does not look like what we’ve seen over the last decade or so when it comes to followers of Jesus jumping to either side of the political aisle.

I’m here to write about how real faith in Jesus Christ would put a mirror up in front of self-proclaimed followers of Jesus and ask the very difficult question, “are you sure you follow Jesus Christ of Nazareth with how much stock you’ve put into this or that political candidate?”

Because frankly, I don’t think real faith in Jesus Christ would settle for either political party or candidate we have in America in this current moment.

But first, what is “real faith” anyways?