Some Thoughts for Free Citizens

Christians in the United States and other participatory democracies have the opportunity to influence the governance of their communities for good. Voting for public officials is one way in which Christians can love their neighbors and "seek the shalom of the city" (Jer 29:7) where God has planted us, while we wait for "the eternal city that God has planned and built." (Heb 11:10).

Here are a few thoughts about the civic environment (and these are purely purely personal reflections),

<!-- wp:more --> <!--more--> <!-- /wp:more -->

  1. Voting is not your civic duty. Informed, responsible voting is your civic duty. If you don't have a clue, don't vote.
  2. Voting is not the totality of your civic duty; it's only a tiny slice of your civic duty. Being a good person, a good family member, a good neighbor and a good employee are all much more important. You owe your community more than the 15 minutes it takes to stand in line and vote.
  3. Voting doesn't turn a bad citizen into a good citizen. A drug-dealer or slum-lord who votes has not done his civic duty. To a lesser degree, neither has the voter whose yard looks like a trash dump, or the voter who drives recklessly down the highway.
  4. To create good for the community, there are appropriate roles for the federal, state and local governments. Local is better when local is sufficient.
  5. There are even more important roles for businesses, volunteer organizations, neighbors and families.
  6. There are no laws written in nature about how a society should organize itself, except at the most basic level of the natural family.
  7. The size of an efficient organization depends on what is being done.
  8. There is no pie sitting on a shelf waiting to be divided. Wealth exists because humans continue to labor, create and take risks.
  9. You get more of the behaviors you subsidize and fewer of the behaviors you penalize.
  10. There are second and third order consequences to every decision. Understanding them takes a lot of work.
  11. Law is always coercive.
  12. The judicious use of power is necessary for the common good.
  13. Governance requires accounting for human nature as it exists, not as you would wish it to be.
  14. People have the capacity for evil. Power exacerbates the problem.
  15. Corruption, dishonesty and maliciousness are never acceptable means to a good end.
  16. Every institution seeks to enlarge its power, and to hold on to its power. The same goes for most people.
  17. No elected leader is the messiah. If you find one who thinks he is, or if his followers think he is, run.
  18. Bad decisions hurt people and waste resources. Bad decisions are inevitable.
  19. Dreams of perfection can drive the community forward, or they can keep a community from making the best practical decision in the present circumstances. In that way, the perfect can become an enemy of the good.
  20. Participatory politics is ugly and there's not much good to say about it, except that it's better than autocracy.
  21. Keep your perspective. Elections are important, but not all-important.
  22. Keep your expectations modest about what politics can accomplish and you will experience less disappointment.
  23. Abstain from political mud-wrestling. Exhibit respect, good faith and honesty.
  24. With great freedom comes great responsibility.

The political process will not usher in the kingdom of God, but it can make a positive difference in the lives of others. The state is not the church, however, and it is not the eternal hope of humankind. Whatever happens in the political realm, God still reigns, and the church still has its mission to accomplish.

Popular posts from this blog

If My People

Performative civil religion was on full display this week during the America Reads the Bible series of public Bible readings. The performance is supposed to commemorate the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence. During the event, a series of politicians, MAGA supporters, and other ostensibly notable figures will read aloud the entire Protestant Bible in piecemeal fashion. The readers are using the King James Easy Read Bible, one of many obscure revisions of the KJV. The live readings take place at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Tickets are $50. You can also register to watch a live stream. I cannot understood why anyone thinks merely reading the words of the Bible aloud will mean anything to God, have a positive effect on the nation, or draw anyone to Jesus. On Tuesday, President Trump read from Second Chronicle. The organizer's website features a recording of the president's reading on the home page of it's website and declares, As...
Read more

The Problem with Religious Affiliation Codes

Religious preference codes only exist to give commanders and chaplains a big, one-over-the-world view of the religious needs of the unit as a whole. They reside in the big Army database of personnel records as useful data points for generalized planning. They are not terribly useful for individual religious support where people don't always fit their labels. There, chaplains need to get to know their soldiers personally.  Soldiers entering the Army are overwhelmed by an avalanche of administrative requirements. It’s a normal human response to proceed through that process without much thought.  I found that Soldiers had often chosen their religious preference codes hastily, and the religion coded in the personnel database did not accurately reflect their religious identities.  The previous list of religious codes was long (5 single spaced pages) and not logically organized. It was a jumble of institutional identities and religious categories, most of which were going to be...
Read more

Is the President Saving Religion?

The president spoke to the National Prayer Breakfast on February 6, 2026. The event is sponsored by a Christian organization, but its official website says that it is open to people of all faiths. It is supposed to bring national leaders of faith together regardless of political affiliation.  As a Christian pastor, I would like to respectfully offer some reflections on the president’s 77 minute speech. This essay is long because the speech was long. What’s In the Speech What was the tone of the speech? Uplifting? Inspiring? Unifying? Spiritual? I would characterize it as political. It’s tone matched the tone of all his speeches, if you know what I mean. Most of it echoed themes and talking points common to every speech he makes. Little of it had any bearing on on the purpose of the assembly, and I can’t begin to address those parts of the speech. Simply put, I found much of it objectionable.  But what about the rest, the parts that talked about religion? In over 12...
Read more