This is another "please don't get me started" subject. Here are my thoughts in some detail:

In an era of Facebook echo chambers, left and right biased media, fake news, and so on, the political landscape is increasingly polarised; a with-us-or-against-us mentality that shouts down legitimate political discourse. I have long since opted out of discussing anything political online, but what particularly distresses me is when I see my fellow believers yelling at one another from one side of the political fence or the other, telling their brothers and sisters that they can’t call themselves a Christian if they don’t vote a particular way.

There is no specific instruction in the Bible on how believers should vote. Therefore, any such authoritarian demand is nonsense and should be disregarded. As ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, Christians should pray, and vote according to how they feel God would have them personally vote. What they should not do is make a doctrine out of personal revelation; a mindset that has been the bane of my Christian life in many areas, not just the political arena (for example, my frustration with evangelicals who think Christians have no business watching/reading/writing horror).

In the run-up to the recent US election, there were many on the evangelical Christian right who absurdly believe that you can’t be a Christian and vote Democrat. Their propaganda was often backed up by so-called prophets, who claimed the election is the most important ever, and that a Republican loss will bring about the coming of the Antichrist. Having heard this rhetoric multiple times, as far back as I can remember with US elections, it is particularly tiresome and repetitive.

Here in the UK, the issues are different, but there are nonetheless deep divisions. I have seen a dismaying amount of name-calling tribalism from believers during elections, around the Brexit debate, and other matters. But God made us all very differently for a reason. Some are naturally inclined towards more left-wing ideas, some towards more right-wing ideas. A lot of factors are in play. It may be that Christians feel God wants them to vote against their natural political inclinations, or it may be that they vote in line with their natural inclinations. This can be for any number of reasons. For example: God might want one person to vote for a candidate in the winning party, and another person in another area to vote for an opposition candidate, to ensure a good check and balance in Parliament.

On the other hand, God might want another person to vote for a candidate purely because they are Christians, regardless of their political affiliation. Or God might ask someone not to vote for a Christian candidate, because being a Christian doesn’t necessarily make them the best person for the job.

I don’t have an allegiance to any political party. When I vote for my local MP, I look at their voting record and what they stand for, pray, and decide accordingly. In this manner, I have voted for several different parties over the years, across a broad range of the political spectrum. I’m not going to say when and who, as I also take the old- fashioned view that a private ballot should remain private, and that how I vote is between me and God.

Whoever ends up in power, from whatever political party, whether we like them or not, as Christians, we are supposed to pray for them. Paul wrote 1 Timothy chapter 2 at a time when Christians were being fed to lions, so we have no excuse. Just because we don’t like our political leaders, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray for God to give them wisdom to govern wisely.

However, what has greatly irritated me is the way the evangelical right in America smugly told believers they have to pray for Trump regardless, when those same people on the evangelical right had a hissy fit over Obama when he was President. In those days, they weren’t arranging prayer events. They were muttering interminable “not my President” dummy-spitting rants, claiming he was Muslim, the Antichrist, and all sorts of other nonsense. The hypocrisy enrages me, and again, that is why I refuse to give myself the evangelical Christian label, because I do not want to be associated with these people.

I’ll end this long rant by saying in conclusion that I don’t believe in unfriending people for voting differently to me, or for having differing political views. These days I often see messages like “If you’d vote for the Conservatives, please unfriend me” or “If you’d vote Trump, please unfriend me” on Facebook, and frankly they make me despair. I have friends on both sides of these polarised debates, as I’m not interested in echo chambers and constantly want to challenge my ideas. As a Christian, we should be seeking to live in peace and harmony, not tearing ourselves apart through political division. But even if we do bunker ourselves into a position where we think someone who votes differently to us is our enemy, we’re still commanded to love them, as Christ instructed us to in Matthew chapter 5. That thought should always be at the back of our minds before we draw political battle lines.