Should We Vote for the Lesser Evil of Donald Trump to Avoid the Greater Evil of Hillary Clinton?

When it comes to elections, people, especially Christians, more often than not, vote for the candidate who most represents their character, principles and values.

Now that the field of presidential candidates has been reduced to two likely choices representing each of their parties, many Christians are now promoting Trump in order to stop Hillary. This includes those whom Trump was not their first choice. They call it voting for the lesser of two evils.

Here’s an example of the rallying cry these Christians are making for Trump:

They say President Barack Obama has brought our nation literally to the edge of death and destruction, which is true. They say that if Hillary Clinton is allowed by the American people to follow him, she will double down. They say if there is a Hillary presidency, there will be full-blown socialistic fascism in America within the next several years—we’re talking Hitler-Mussolini style fascism.

Here are some of their talking points:

1. Hillary will come after our guns as she said she would, even with executive orders if necessary.

2. Christians will be persecuted and prosecuted for standing and speaking their convictions, period.

3. The IRS, Homeland Security, and the Health and Family Services will become the American Gestapo (to a great degree they already are—the clerk in Kentucky going to jail is just the beginning).

4. The LGBT is already materialistic, but they will be more emboldened under Hillary. They have a completely galvanized and streamlined strategy to bring wholesale perversion to and through the school system.

5. Democratic socialism will continue to transition into full-blown communism.

6. The Muslim brotherhood will entrench deeper into Washington, D.C., and across the entire USA.

7. Our southern border will be completely open and unrestrained.

8. Our national debt will continue to skyrocket.

9. Our military will continue to be degraded, demoralized and incapacitated.

Here is a direct quote from one of them:

“With another round of Democratic ‘leadership’ in the White House you will not even know what country you are in. It simply cannot happen. That’s why those saying ‘Never Trump’ are not using sound judgment or reasoning.”

“Oh really?”

We who disagree with this supposed logic might as well put a gun to our own heads, right?

Pretty convincing argument, though, isn’t it? Personally, I’m not buying any of it.

Many Christians made their bed hard already by not voting for any of the principled leaders that represented the Republican party. They refused to vote the way the Bible tells us to vote.

“Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens” (Ex. 18:21).

Now they want true conservatives to vote for the lesser of two evils. Ha! The lesser of two evils is still evil! How can anyone in good conscience vote for evil? I’ve made that mistake before, and I refuse to make it again.     

This is what the evangelicals have done election after election with the Republican Party. Though we do not condone its sins, we keep enabling them with our votes, much like unwise parents enable their children to get away with disobedience and rebellion until it becomes a monster in their teenage years that is most difficult to slay.

Here is what a new and upcoming young Christian conservative voice recently articulated so well, which I believe is worthy of prayerful consideration.  

“In the same way, we criticize this sort of behavior on the left when black voters voted for Obama in mass because of the fear and guilt of betraying their party line; we are guilty on the right of the same situational ethic, the same enabling of evil and compromise, and bad behavior. We argue and scream: ‘You have to vote for Trump to stop Hillary!’

“The reality is that we enabled the problem when we got in line behind John McCain, who after becoming the Republican candidate, laid aside his ‘conservative’ credentials and adopted Democratic Party talking points all the way to the end of his failed candidacy. Four years later, we enabled the problem again when we got in line behind Mitt Romney, who after becoming the Republican candidate, demonstrated his ‘etch-a-sketch’ flip-flopping skills as he ran even further left than McCain, even running pro-choice ads in the general election. Guess what? He failed as a candidate as well.

“Today we face an election with the binary option of choosing between two progressives: Hillary or Trump. Has there ever been a worse Republican candidate? Have we ever so utterly abandoned conservatism to be on the winning team choosing between two scandalously awful candidates? Have we ever so utterly abandoned the Bible, the Constitution, right-and-wrong, etc., to win an election? It is a disgrace! A disgrace we enabled and created with our lesser-of-two-evils voting logic.

“Today there is no candidate in the two major parties who represents Christians, (or even conservatism, the biblical application of a Christian worldview). Why? We have enabled sin and tolerated evil in our political parties, instead of drawing a line in the sand and saying ‘No more!!!’

“The journey we have been on illustrates this political as well as spiritual reality: Nothing will make America great again short of the full conversion of its people. Some pastors are waking up to the reality that our churches are full of unconverted people because we have tolerated sin to boost church attendance. Now our churches are so biblically illiterate, if the pastor were to reverse course and stand for righteousness, he loses his seat at the table of his full-blown pagan congregation of idolaters. The mob has taken over and the pastor is just a hireling.

“In the political world, we have pet the demons within our party instead of exposing them and casting them out. We have adopted and constantly chant the mantra of: ‘We aren’t electing a pastor-in-chief’; because we are foolish enough to compartmentalize our faith, believing that we convert people politically in a different manner than what the Bible prescribes for conversion in general.

“In this election, the reason I am not voting Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is simple: I will not enable America’s destruction. I care more about converting its people to Christ and true conservatism, character and principle than abandoning my core convictions to join with evil. There may be short-term pain as a consequence for my decision, but I’m not going to stare at my feet this election cycle. There is a bigger picture and a more long-term turn-around process that is required and it has to begin with a righteous standard.

“Christians, we have already failed this election season. It’s time to stop playing the enabling-game. It’s time to say no to both evils and take our stand.” –Rev. Chace Gordon (paraphrased)