November 11, 2024
A week ago, Bobby Harrington wrote in a pre-election article for RENEW.org that an election is a reflection. He wrote, “More than anything, this election will tell us Americans where our nation is spiritually and morally.”[1] If an election functions as a reflection for us to ponder as much as a route for us to pick, then now that we’re on the other side of the ’24 Trump-Harris presidential election, let’s reflect.
What can we observe about our American cultural moment from last Tuesday’s win of former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris? And how can these observations fine-tune our strategies as church leaders? Here are seven strategic observations about the election for thoughtful church leaders. We hope they are helpful.
1. Widen the conversation.
On October 23, Vice President Kamala Harris’s town hall event with CNN’s Anderson Cooper went an hour and fifteen minutes and drew a respectable number of viewers: 3.33 million. Meanwhile, President Trump’s October 26 sit-down conversation with podcaster Joe Rogan went three hours and has drawn over 45 million YouTube views and over 25 million audio listens.
People are typically bored with prepackaged and predictable, and that’s what you can anticipate when the Democrat candidate appears on CNN. But who knew what Rogan would ask or how Trump would answer over three unedited hours of curious conversation?
Here’s a takeaway for us: As disciples of Jesus, we need to be unafraid of widening our conversations beyond what’s predictable and pursuing interactions of genuine, mutual curiosity.
“As disciples of Jesus, we need to be unafraid of widening our conversations beyond what’s predictable and pursuing interactions of genuine, mutual curiosity.”
2. Be an oasis of moral sanity.
Inflation has become both a fiscal reality and a metaphor for how the country seems to be spiraling out of control. In 2020, current-President Joe Biden won against then-President Donald Trump, postponing his bid for a second term. The year 2020 was a year of pandemic quarantines, racial trauma, and fiery frustration, and Biden was elected on promising a return to normalcy.
But the Biden-Harris years have felt to voters as out of control as ever, whether wars heating up overseas, a perilously porous Southern border, rising anti-Semitism on elite college campuses, or biological men dominating women’s sports. There’s been a growing desire for a return to moral normalcy—even if the person supposed to be delivering it (Trump) has had his own share of morality mutations. The sense seems to be that at least Trump loves America and wants to keep its citizens safe.
What’s the takeaway for us? As disciples of Jesus, let’s be aware that millions are longing for leaders who can discern up from down. They may know that it’s wrong for men to be in women’s locker rooms or that anti-Semitic demonstrations are wrong, but it’s Christianity that plausibly explains why right and wrong are real and not just social constructs. Let’s help ethical seekers trace their desires for justice and righteousness to their source.
“Let’s help ethical seekers trace their desires for justice and righteousness to their source.”
3. Don’t squander the reprieve.
For decades, secular progressives have been effectively discipling the minds of our young through a long march through the institutions of American society. On the one hand, the ’24 election shows a backlash against Biden’s and Harris’s progressive policies and those of President Obama before them. Prior to Trump’s first presidency, President Barack Obama won two terms by bringing together a diverse coalition of groups, and it’s significant that sizable percentages from Obama’s coalition jumped ship to Trump in ’24. This understandably terrifies many leftists as they ponder future elections in which they can’t bank on the usual voting blocs.
On the other hand, however, a single election can’t send a decades-long march backward in reverse. Secular progressivism continues to dominate most elite institutions (e.g., universities and legacy media). If Christians have been granted a reprieve in this election, perhaps through courtroom buffers for religious freedom or through having an evangelical voice at the table in Trump’s new coalition, remember that it’s only a reprieve.
Trump’s new coalition is decades removed from being the “Religious Right” or the “Christian Coalition,” so don’t lazily assume this is the return of “Christian America.” For one thing, Aaron Renn is still correct to locate evangelicals in the “negative world,” not the “positive” or “neutral” one.[2] And for another, evangelicals who feel at home on Trump’s new winning team will face the same old temptations to backpedal biblical convictions in order to play better with new teammates to keep “winning.”
“Evangelicals who feel at home on Trump’s new winning team will face the same old temptations to backpedal biblical convictions in order to play better with new teammates to keep ‘winning.'”
If this is to be a reprieve, how are we to spend it wisely? Let’s pray earnestly for revival. We need to remember that making disciples using the undiluted teachings of Jesus is still the way Jesus’ forever Kingdom wins, now as always. No one becomes part of God’s kingdom via overlapping political postures on a Venn diagram. Still, the trend away from secular progressivism could mean increased openness to the gospel. Pastor Josh Howerton has suggested that unbelievers on the right are increasingly the “unsaved God-fearers,”[3] and if their numbers are increasing, then that likely means more open doors to reach people open to Jesus.
4. Be unafraid of nasty names.
Sadly, propaganda often works. People are eager to believe the worst about others, either because it’s sensational or it’s self-validating. But over time, name-calling can lose its power, as seemed to happen in the ’24 election. People grew tired of being called nasty names like “sexist” for not supporting Harris or “fascist” for supporting Trump. Or they were “racist” for not supporting DEI initiatives, “transphobic” for wanting to protect women’s sports from biological males, and “misogynist” for being anti-abortion. Having such names screamed at you enough times, when you know the label doesn’t apply, can become the new monotone. Eventually, “Trump is a fascist” had no effect.
How does this relate to us? As Christians, we too can be called all sorts of nasty names because of our biblical convictions. The ’24 election can remind us to take courage that such threats don’t need to turn us timid or halt our progress. When they called Jesus “glutton” and “drunkard,” he responded by saying, “Wisdom is proved right by her deeds” (Matthew 11:19, NIV). As the apostle Peter told us in 1 Peter 4:19, disciples of Jesus “should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good” (NIV).
“When they called Jesus ‘glutton’ and ‘drunkard,’ he responded by saying, ‘Wisdom is proved right by her deeds.'”
5. Be unafraid of notable names.
Another observation about the ’24 election was the surprising impotence of some of American society’s biggest names to move the election needle. It’s true that, this time around, Trump amassed some famous fans too, from Elon Musk to Joe Rogan to Dr. Phil. But Harris’s playbook was packed with elite endorsements and rally appearances from the brightest possible stars, whether Oprah or Taylor Swift or Beyonce.
But the ‘24 electorate was decidedly anti-establishment, un-wowed by the elite, and some have suggested that “celebrity endorsements might have hurt Kamala Harris more than they helped.”[4] One observer has called it the “Doug Election,” named after Tom Hanks’s 2016 Saturday Night Live portrayal of a regular Joe MAGA supporter named Doug.[5]
People seem to be wanting the real thing, not the glitzy or steroidal version. They want Trump the McDonald’s worker or Trump the garbage man, two near-perfect publicity stunts Trump pulled off in the campaign’s final weeks.
“People seem to be wanting the real thing, not the glitzy or steroidal version.”
Can we Christians be the real thing and not the local celebrity-savior? Regular folk is certainly our heritage. As Christians, there’s only one name that wows us, the “name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9, NIV). We should be content for it to be said of us, “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth” (1 Corinthians 1:26b, NIV).
6. In a pragmatic age, let’s think through our ethics.
The ’24 election also told us something unsurprising: Christians can be pretty pragmatic, sometimes out of necessity. Millions of evangelicals voted for a man whose bio has some ethically embarrassing episodes. They felt such a vote was ethically necessary, given that the other option would further entrench anti-Christian convictions in American society regarding human life, marriage, and sexuality. Principles collide, and when they do, either option will look like pragmatism.
Reflecting on the ’24 election reminds us that ethical dilemmas arise. And when they arise, we need to make use of the rich ethical resources given to us in the Bible. The Bible guides us to ground our ethics in the character of Christ, move to the commands of Scripture, and then examine how we can live his character and commands out in ways that bring about good consequences. Put another way, we imitate God’s character by obeying God’s commands, and the result is good consequences, either in this life or the next.
“The Bible guides us to ground our ethics in the character of Christ, move to the commands of Scripture, and then examine how we can live his character and commands out in ways that bring about good consequences.”
So, what’s your conviction on abortion? Gender? IVF? War? Sexuality? Physician-assisted suicide? Don’t just go with your gut. Let Scripture guide you into a posture grounded in the character and commands of Jesus. For more on this, check out RENEW.org resource Following Jesus in a Politically Divided World.
7. Don’t assume; engage.
A final observation about the ’24 election is that people change their minds. Groups that Democrats felt were reliably on their side voted for the other side in record numbers. Leftists were left scratching their heads, wondering why the promises they made to each particular group (for example, abortion access to women) hadn’t paid off this time. All the while, people of every group had been feeling similar underlying stresses. Paying high prices at the gas pump. Seeing footage of thousands of unvetted people crossing into their country. Inflation.
How does this observation help disciples of Jesus? Well, we need to be less assumptive when we see people. If vastly different Americans of all types can experience similar needs and come to the same conclusion, why should it surprise us when people of this or that tribe come to the same realization of themselves as sinners in need of God’s grace?
“Why should it surprise us when people of this or that tribe come to the same realization of themselves as sinners in need of God’s grace?”
It won’t be long before nobody will be talking about an Obama coalition or a Trump coalition. What alone will matter is the uncountable multitude made of each tribe before heaven’s throne. So, above all, let’s pray for revival and focus and refocus on making disciples of every nation and tribe and voting bloc and political party, one person at a time.
[1] Bobby Harrington, “What Matters More Than the Election?” RENEW.org, November 3, 2024, https://renew.org/what-matters-more-than-the-election/.
[2] Aaron M. Renn, “The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism,” First Things, February, 2022, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/02/the-three-worlds-of-evangelicalism.
[3] Josh Howerton, “Negative World Missiology,” https://x.com/howertonjosh/status/1844554684431778149.
[4] Adrian Lee, “Celebrity Endorsements Might Have Hurt Kamala Harris More Than They Helped,” The Globe and Mail, November 7, 2024, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/article-taylor-swift-kamala-harris-usa-election/.
[5] Jake Meador, “The Doug Election and America After the Great Dechurching,” Mere Orthodoxy, November 7, 2024, https://mereorthodoxy.com/the-doug-election.
