How many times in this election cycle have you had Christian friends say to you, “I can’t stand either one of them!” referring to former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris? This statement is usually followed by the assertion that this person is not planning to vote for either one of them for president on November 5th.
Recent polling suggests that tens of millions of people of faith are currently planning to follow this option. In making this decision, such voters are exercising what I have identified as the “Pontius Pilate option” approach to moral decision-making. When confronted with angry mobs demanding the crucifixion of Jesus, the Roman governor called for a basin of water and ritually washed his hands, attempting to absolve himself from moral culpability for the crucifixion (Matt. 27:24).
Concluding that since you find both presidential candidates unacceptable, you are going to forego voting is indeed analogous to Pilate’s attempt to evade moral culpability for the execution of Jesus, whose death warrant he was required to sign for it to take place.
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Unfortunately, in a fallen and sinful world where “the whole creation” groans under the judgment of Adam’s fall (Rom. 8:22), we are quite often, unfortunately, not faced with the luxury of a choice between good and evil, but instead a choice between the greater evil and the lesser evil. And, as the British philosopher Edmund Burke concluded, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
I empathize with my fellow citizens who find themselves disliking both candidates. I don’t like either candidate either. I would not want Donald Trump as a father, brother, nephew, brother-in-law, son-in-law, or pastor. I would not want Kamala Harris as a mother, sister, niece, sister-in-law, or daughter-in-law, or pastor.
But I am not voting for a relative, or friend, or a spiritual advisor. I am voting for a president to lead our government for the next four years and a commander-in-chief of our armed forces in a dangerous and volatile world—as is every American voter.
I have no doubt which candidate is at the very least the lesser evil. President Trump is more conservative in his approach than Vice President Harris across the board.
There is no doubt he is more pro-life, pro-smaller government, and (based on his first term record), he will do far more to grow the economy, especially among lower-income workers. On the economy, we have the luxury of a clear comparison between Mr. Trump’s record in office (2017-2021) and Ms. Harris’s record in the Biden-Harris Administration (2021-2024).
In addition to the life issue (Ms. Harris is the most radical and aggressively pro-abortion candidate to ever head a presidential ticket), Ms. Harris is also strongly in favor of the transgender agenda and will certainly curtail parental rights to protect their children from transgender propaganda, indoctrination, and potential surgery against their parents’ will.
A Harris victory would also guarantee the continued rapid expansion of the administrative state and its suppression of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. A Harris victory would mean the continued virtually unregulated immigration of undocumented people into our country. (A country that does not control its borders will soon no longer be a country.) This does not mean we should close our borders to immigrants who come in legally.
Finally, a Harris victory would virtually guarantee the continuation of a criminally weak foreign policy exemplified by the criminally negligent withdrawal from Afghanistan.
I greatly fear that a Harris administration would offer far more temptation than would-be aggressors and bad actors could withstand. Just as Biden’s abandonment of the Afghan people led Putin to invade Ukraine, the election of Kamala Harris would in all probability lead to the attempted Chinese Communist invasion of Taiwan, thus involving the U.S. in a major and catastrophic war.
Furthermore, I cannot imagine the mullahs in Iran would be deterred in the least in their continued attempts to establish Iranian hegemony in the Middle East and the destruction of Israel if Ms. Harris were commander-in-chief. (And this is not an opinion based on misogyny. My favorite politician in my lifetime is Lady Margaret Thatcher, the greatest British Prime Minister since Winston Churchill and a candidate I would have voted for in any election.)
Make no mistake about it. If you do not vote for Donald Trump as at least the lesser of the two evils, you will become morally culpable for the triumph of evil by, as Mr. Edmund Burke said, “doing nothing.”
And just last week, Ms. Harris, proclaiming her enthusiastic support for the abortion of our unborn children in Wisconsin, was interrupted by two young pro-life advocates who proclaimed, “Christ is King!” and “Christ is Lord!”
The Vice President replied by proclaiming “You guys are at the wrong rally!” As has often been said, “When people tell you who they are, believe them.”
Dr. Richard Land, BA (Princeton, magna cum laude); D.Phil. (Oxford); Th.M (New Orleans Seminary). Dr. Land served as President of Southern Evangelical Seminary from July 2013 until July 2021. Upon his retirement, he was honored as President Emeritus and he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Theology & Ethics. Dr. Land previously served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) where he was also honored as President Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. Land has also served as an Executive Editor and columnist for The Christian Post since 2011.
Dr. Land explores many timely and critical topics in his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” and in his weekly column for CP.
