What it really means to "vote our values"
Some recommended reading, plus a look at my Fall 2024 calendar
Today marks the unofficial beginning of the 2024-25 academic year at John Brown University, with staff and faculty meetings in full swing as we prepare for the Fall 2024 semester. These meetings can be laborious at times, but I always look forward to getting to reconnect with my colleagues and getting to know new folks. Be praying for a shared commitment to our university’s mission for holistic, Christ-centered instruction across various fields of study.
As the semester kicks into gear, so, too, will a few speaking opportunities about Uneasy Citizenship. Here’s what’s currently on my calendar (times and specific locations TBA:
Thursday, September 19: George Fox University (Newberg, Oregon)
Thursday, September 26: J29 Coalition (Chicago, Illinois)
Tuesday, October 8: John Brown University (Siloam Springs, Arkansas)
In addition to these talks, I’ll also be moderating several conversations at JBU over the next few months:
Thursday, September 5: Reimagining Faith and Public Life 2024 (7pm)
Featuring JBU faculty Kim Cornett, Brad Gatlin, Ivan Iglesias, and Trisha Posey
Thursday, September 12: From Blue to Red: The Rise of the GOP in Arkansas (7pm)
Featuring the University of Arkansas’ John C. Davis
Monday, September 23: Venezuela in Crisis (7pm)
Featuring JBU student Carlos Paez
Tuesday, October 22: “Voices of Tomorrow: A Student Panel on the 2024 Election” (7pm)
Featuring several JBU students
If you’re around for any of these events, I hope you’ll reach out — it would be great to meet you in person!
Recommended Readings
“Can’t We ‘Vote Our Values’?” (Paul Miller, The Dispatch)
Christians in a democracy are not called to withdraw and cede the public square to others, nor to take over and resurrect Christendom. We can vote our values, but we should be careful that our values are neither sectarian nor discriminatory; that we don’t overestimate what government is capable of; and that we respect the church’s independence and the state’s boundaries. We are to love our neighbors by working for equal justice and common flourishing—nothing more, and nothing less.
“The Evangelical Diploma Divide” (Daniel Williams, Christianity Today)
Here’s where the position of college-educated evangelicals gets complicated. Most voters who share our educational class are uninterested in or actively hostile to biblical values on life and sexuality. It’s easy for them to wholly embrace the contemporary Democratic Party’s pro-establishment agenda, abortion and LGBTQ activism as much as immigration reform and environmental care.
On the other hand, most voters who share our faith are non-college-educated, anti-establishment Republicans. They find it similarly easy to reject that whole Democratic agenda, and perhaps also to dismiss anyone with any sympathy for any part of it as “woke,” “weak,” or “leftist.”
“Does Going to College Still Matter?” (Daniel Darling, One Little Word)
I often tell my students and my own children that school, whether high school or college, is about more than acquiring a credential. Yes, the credential matters on your resume and for job. However, a student is more than a future worker bot, he or she is more than where they will draw a check. They are future husbands and fathers, wives and mothers, future community and church leaders. A good college experience can shape and form the whole person, opening them up to a comprehensive body of knowledge that will last a lifetime and build in them a lifetime of curiosity about God’s world.
This is why I’m especially bullish on Christian higher education, which is, I believe, recovering the classic mission of education while also preparing young people for meaningful work and influence in the 21st century.
“Why the American Church Can’t Fix Loneliness” (Russell Moore, Christianity Today)
A church that is evangelistic (seeking to share Christ with one’s neighbors and with the nations of the world) relies on bridging social capital. A church that considers its members as brothers and sisters, as one body with many members, counts on bonding social capital.
What we have long seen in the American church—almost without reference to theological distinctives or denominational identity—is a severing of bridging social capital from bonding social capital.