The election

Thomas Kidd has some excellent suggestions about what evangelicals should do and should not do as election day approaches:

Do pray for the election. Feel free to echo the words of I Tim. 2:2, which asks that ”supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”

Don’t pray for specific candidates or parties to win, whether by implication or by name. This makes party loyalty a condition of good standing within the fellowship.

Do encourage the congregation to consider voting as an act of good citizenship, a “rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.”

Don’t imply that if Christians don’t vote, they are in sin, or that it is transparently obvious what party they should support if they do vote.

Do speak on issues of particular concern to Christians, certainly including religious liberty (again, I Tim. 2:2) and the value of all human life. .... Others might also emphasize traditional marriage, or Christians’ responsibility to care for the poor, to welcome the stranger, and to be peacemakers.

Don’t imply that those issues of particular concern to Christians lead necessarily to supporting only one party or slate of candidates. Allow congregants to sort this out for themselves. ....

Kidd: Dos and Don’t Evangelicals « Juicy Ecumenism