How should Christians vote?

A Christian approach to politics must start with love

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:8-10

Of course, here in Romans Paul is echoing Jesus' teaching on the same topic, for example in Matthew 22:37-40:

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The command is to us as Christians (and, in context, to Jews as well): when you seek to follow God and obey him, you do this primarily by loving him and loving each other. Of course God gives us more guidance about what this means and how we should do it, but in the context of the command to love, the rest is detail.


How should a Christian vote?
When deciding how to vote there are many factors to consider and there's no easy method for deciding which factors take precedence over another. But the over-arching consideration when making a decision should be:

"When I vote, how can I do so in a way that is loving to God and to my neighbour?"

Answering this question will require us to consider the nature, character and ability of the candidates in our electorate, their policies (which will probably be many and varied), how the party they belong to will behave in Government and maybe other factors as well. And in a relative system, we won't be considering these issues in isolation, but we will be comparing the relative merits of all the candidates standing for election. But in all this consideration we should make a decision on the basis of what we think will be the most loving thing to do. This is not an easy task, but an attitude of love can set the framework for all debate and discussion over Christianity and politics.

On election day, we should each display our love for our neighbour and vote in a way that is loving towards them. Because we love in a fallen, imperfect world this will not ensure that the Government always takes actions that are in line with what we believe to be loving, but we will be fulfilling God's command to us: we will have displayed love to our neighbours.