How the Purists Can Destroy America and the West (and Still Feel Good About Themselves)

This is written and originally posted by: Bill Muehlenberg. Below is his quoted text. Original post found here: http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2012/09/11/how-the-purists-can-destroy-america-and-the-west-and-still-feel-good-about-themsleves/

There is a very easy way in which misguided and mistaken purists (which includes plenty of evangelicals) can destroy America: simply allow Barack Hussein Obama back in. And that may well happen, because so many of these confused and undiscerning believers will in fact act much like the hypocritical Pharisees of old. 

They will do this with a misplaced sense of purity – whether spiritual or theological or political. They will mistakenly think they must remain pure and only vote for a perfect candidate. Otherwise they foolishly think they have become involved in “evil” compromise.
They simply forget that we live in a fallen world, and there is no perfect political party, no perfect politician, no perfect public policy, and no perfect voters. There is nothing perfect in a fallen world, so if they think they can somehow wait around until Jesus Christ finally runs against Obama, they are living in la la land. It just ain’t gonna happen. 

As I have said so often now, Romney is not my preferred candidate – not by a long shot. But he is the only one we have now to face Obama. So we either vote for Romney to displace Obama, or we allow him back in by default – with all the evil which that will entail.
These Christian purists, who think they can just sit this one out, or vote for a third party, will do only one thing: ensure that Obama gets back in to do even more damage. These purists then will have blood on their hands. But they will offer plenty of lame excuses as they push their mistaken notions of purity. Here are four of them: 

One. ‘Romney is a Mormon so I just can’t vote for him.’ But this election is not so much about voting a Mormon in, as voting out the worst president ever. And it is not just about Romney v Obama, but the Republican Party v the Democratic Party. We are not really voting for a Mormon or a Marxist, but one or other of the parties. That must not be lost sight of here.
As Al Mohler rightly argues, we have two different worldviews competing in this election: “The nation’s political polarization is clearly evident in the radical distinctions between the Republican and Democratic platforms. But this polarization is not merely political. It is fundamentally moral and ideological. These two platforms present two contradictory understandings of realities as basic as human life, liberty, and the institution of marriage. Though the two parties have taken opposing positions on many of these issues for years, the radical nature of this current polarization is new.” 

The Democratic worldview is fundamentally different from that of the Republicans. And if Romney gets in, he of course is greatly restricted by his own party, by Congress, and so on. So it is not a theologian-in chief we will be voting for here, but an entire worldview – either a good one or a bad one. But see more on this here:
www.billmuehlenberg.com/2012/05/13/on-mitt-romney-and-americas-future/www.billmuehlenberg.com/2012/05/17/on-mormon-presidents/ 

Two. ‘But Romney has flip flopped on many key issues, is not really fully pro-life, and so on.’ As I said, he is not my preferred candidate and yes he has flip-flopped. But he and his party are light years ahead of Obama and his party on pretty much every issue. So refusing to vote for him because of some misplaced purity will help no one – it will just mean we get more Obama, more abortion, more of the homosexual agenda, more pro-Islam and more anti-Christian agendas. So the purists will have that on their consciences to deal with. But see my links above for more on this. 

Three. ‘God is sovereign so we should just leave this all in his hands – it is not our responsibility.’ Sorry, this is another foolish cop-out. It is our responsibility. There is always cooperation between God and his people. When he commanded us to make disciples of all nations, he expected us to actually do something, not just sit on our butts and talk about God’s sovereignty. It is the same with being salt and light. 

The idea that we should just sit back and do nothing is irresponsible and unbiblical in the extreme. Simply try telling the Christians who languished in concentration camps under Hitler that “God is in charge” and things will sort themselves out. Sorry, it took allied tanks to stop Hitler, in addition to prayers and trust in God. God works through his people, and we all have a role to play. 

Four. ‘But it is evil to choose between the lesser of two evils.’ These purists foolishly insist on perfection or nothing. They want an unblemished candidate, or they want one who is 100% on side with their views on abortion, or whatever. “We can only have a perfect candidate or we are not voting.” This is simply more Pharisaical baloney purity. Such a thing is just not going to happen in a fallen world, and we always have to choose between the lesser of two evils in all areas of life. 

Gary DeMar has just written an excellent piece on this and is worth quoting at length: “You’ve heard anti-Republican critics say, ‘I just can’t vote for the lesser of two evils.’ If this is true, then you can never vote since we’re all evil, although some are more evil than others. I have a number of Calvinist friends who use the ‘lesser of two evils’ argument. If you know anything about Calvinism, then you know the acronym TULIP. The ‘T’ in Tulip stands for Total Depravity. It also goes by the names total inability or total corruption. It’s not that a person is pure depravity but that all his actions and thoughts are tainted by evil. Sin has corrupted every part of our being. 

“This means that any choice of a political candidate is a lesser of two totally depraved people. The people that say they will not vote for the lesser of two evils will get one of the two evils whether they vote or not. In this election, they may get the greater of two evils. And it’s not just the greater evil of one man we may get, but we may get the greater of two evils when it comes to judges, new laws, executive orders, wealth confiscation, and a whole lot more. The past four years should be a wake-up call to the no lesser than two evils crowd. 

“Then there’s the claim that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties. Nonsense. Let’s say that since 1980 all conservatives had followed the ‘I won’t vote for the lesser of two evils candidate.’ Where do you think we would be today?” 

He continues: “What’s so irritating about those pushing a third party is that they never really do it. The presidency is the last political office they should be pursuing. If the no lesser than two evils crowd were really serious, they would be putting up local candidates in elections all across the country. They should have been doing it for 30 years. If you can’t win locally, you’re not going to win nationally. If there is no broad-based national grassroots support and a demonstration of success politically, what do the critics of the ‘Republicrats’ expect to accomplish at the top of the ticket? 

“There’s talk of Ron Paul running as a third-party candidate. What’s it going to prove? Let’s say he gets 10 million votes. He won’t get a single electoral vote. And even if elections were won by majority vote totals and not by electoral votes, he still wouldn’t win anything. The lesser of two evils franchise will say that they will be ‘sending a message.’ Yeah, that they’re idiots.”
Exactly right. There is one person who simply loves all these purists: BHO. He knows he will get back in because all these confused and muddled Christians somehow think they must be pure, and must refrain from voting, or vote for a third party candidate in some misguided protest vote. 

They are doing nothing but this: ensuring that BHO gets back in. That may well spell the end of America as we know it. That may well make the homosexual and abortion tidal waves even greater. That may well mean the end of our religious freedoms. 

But these foolish purists will sit back and pat themselves on the back. They will see America destroyed, but hey, at least they retained their precious and perverted “purity”. Not only will they have to explain their total irresponsibility to their children and grandchildren who will have to suffer through all this, but one day they will have to explain their gross abdication of responsibility and unbiblical actions to God as well. 

Why do the strong words of rebuke Jesus gave to the Pharisees keep coming back to me here?
www.albertmohler.com/2012/09/06/the-great-american-worldview-exercise-the-2012-election/godfatherpolitics.com/6969/a-response-to-the-no-lesser-of-two-evils-crowd/