Franklin Graham stated at a rally in Washington this past week that Christians need to vote in upcoming presidential election, even it means that they “hold their nose” in the process.
“You’re just going to have to ask yourself: which of the two do you think we as Christians will at least have a voice with,” Graham told those gathered at his “Decision America” event in Olympia, according to the Seattle Times.
“You have to make that choice,” he later stated. “This year has been entertaining. I have to tell you. … Now, you might have to hold your nose.”
While expressing that he has “zero faith” in both the Republican and Democratic parties, Graham stated that Christians still need to vote and not opt of choosing a candidate in the election as did an estimated 20 to 30 million evangelicals in 2012 when Mitt Romney ran against Barack Obama.
“I’m not here to tell you who to vote for,” he said. “You can figure that out, but vote!”
“We are at the end here, folks,” Graham also stated to the 5,000 gathered. “This is going to be the most important election of a lifetime.”
After the event, Graham told reporters that he believes the “country is broken” and needs to be shook up.
“It’s not the Republicans that have put us here, and it’s not the Democrats. It’s both of them together,” he said. “We have become so corrupt. Our politicians have been so corrupt.”
“Both parties need to be blown up. I think Bernie Sanders just about blew up Democratic Party and Donald Trump has just about blown up the Republican Party, and they need to be shaken,” Graham stated.
As previously reported, in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) this past March, Graham likewise asserted that Christians must vote, even if it means holding their nose and selecting the “least heathen of the two heathens.”
“There is a left movement within the evangelical community that are telling people, ‘If so-and-so wins or this person wins don’t vote.’ I’m just saying, I don’t care who wins and who’s out there, you have to vote,” he stated.
Graham said that Christians may find themselves having to determine which candidate is less evil than the other.
“And I’m not going to tell people who to vote for. I’m not going to do that. Let God tell you who to vote for,” he stated. “You may have to hold your nose. You may have to decide which is the least heathen of the two heathens.”
While some like Graham believe that Christians must vote despite determining both candidates to be “heathens” who will rule contrary to God’s law, others state that the concept is flawed and unbiblical.
“I think the only righteous thing to do is vote for neither,” Michael Peroutka, 2004 presidential candidate under the Constitution Party, and co-founder of the Institute on the Constitution, told Christian News Network. “I don’t think God requires you to vote for evil.”
He stated that the voting practices of Christians have contributed to the sinking of our nation into the quagmire that it is stuck in today.
“We have voted [for years] for the lesser of two evils, so we get evil,” he said. “And we deserve it because we vote for it.”
Peroutka outlined that he does not believe voting “conservative” or along party lines is the proper biblical mindset.
“I would ask you, even empirically, where has that gotten us?” he declared. “When we’re voting for a conservative, we’re using the wrong standard. [You’re basically voting to] kill one less baby than a liberal.”
Christians are commanded by God to select rulers that are “able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness” (Exodus 18:21), Peroutka noted. He explained that Christians must vote for those who seek to uphold and implement God’s law in our nation, as that is the only righteous standard not based on the opinion of men.
“[For Christians to reject God’s law] is a dangerous and foolish thing to do,” he said. “The lesser of two evils, of course, is evil. And when you choose the lesser of two evils, you [still] choose evil. And when you choose evil and you get evil, you are responsible because you chose it, didn’t you?”
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