When Did Character Stop Mattering?
If Character Matters When the Other Side Is in Power, It Must Still Matter When Your Side Is in Power
I always lose followers when I post writings like these. However, John 8:44, James 2:19, and 1 Timothy 4:1 remind us of an uncomfortable biblical truth: not every spirit is comfortable when confronted with the truth of God’s Word.
Sometimes people are not simply reacting to the message, the spirit influencing them may be reacting to the Truth behind the message.
For years, many conservative evangelicals have argued that character, morality, honesty, sexual conduct, and personal integrity matter in political leadership. That principle raises a legitimate question for Christians of every political persuasion:
Did the biblical standard change, or did political loyalty change?
Donald Trump’s public record includes the 2005 Access Hollywood recording, in which he made vulgar comments about women and later apologized; a New York criminal jury’s 2024 guilty verdict on 34 felony counts; and civil judgments involving E. Jean Carroll, including an $83.3 million defamation judgment that a federal appeals court upheld.
Those facts do not dictate how a Christian must vote. Christians can disagree about candidates, policies, courts, parties, and which issues should carry the greatest political weight.
What Scripture does not permit us to do is rewrite righteousness according to whose name appears on the ballot.
Exodus 20:3 (AMPC) “You shall have no other gods before or besides Me.”
A politician is not your Messiah.
A political party is not the Kingdom of God.
The White House is not the throne of Christ.
And Donald Trump does not have to save Christianity, Christianity already has a Savior, Jesus Christ.
The danger comes whenever devotion to any political leader becomes so strong that conduct we once condemned suddenly receives excuses, defenses, rationalizations, or silence because that leader advances policies we support.
That warning applies to Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, independents, and every believer who names the Name of Christ.
We are not called to reshape Scripture around our politics.
We are called to bring our politics under the authority of Scripture.
A Christian may support a politician's policies without declaring that politician righteous. A Christian may oppose another politician's policies without pretending that wrongdoing by someone on "our side" suddenly becomes acceptable.
The standard cannot move because the candidate changed.
Political power is temporary.
Presidents come and go.
Parties rise and fall.
Governments change.
Jesus Christ remains Lord.
So examine yourself before examining somebody else's ballot.
If you demanded character from leaders you opposed, do you still demand character from leaders you support?
If dishonesty offended you when the other party practiced it, does dishonesty still offend you when your party benefits from it?
If sexual immorality mattered before, does it matter now?
If corruption mattered before, does it matter now?
If truth mattered before, does truth still matter when truth becomes politically inconvenient?
Because the moment we begin changing our moral standard to protect our political champion, the politician is no longer being measured by our convictions, our convictions are being remodeled around the politician.
And the Church must never surrender the authority of Christ for access to political power.
Question For Today
If you have to excuse in your preferred political leader what you would condemn in his opponent, are you defending biblical righteousness, or have you allowed political loyalty to become an idol that Scripture is no longer permitted to confront?
If You Have Ears To Hear, Then Hear It!\
I pray for you each and every day.
All God's Best!
Karl McKinnie
If you enjoy and learn from us, we have over 700 Bible-based narratives available at www.buymeacoffee.com/drministries/posts. As always, every narrative is completely FREE. The voluntary support option simply helps us continue sharing God's Word around the world.
Dominion Renaissance Ministries - www.dominionrenaissanceministries.church