What "Evangelicals" Want

Journalists and political pundits talk a lot about evangelicals. Their interest in us is as a voting bloc, and we're getting an unusually large helping of attention right now. They want to know how we're going to vote in the upcoming election. They want to know how we make our decisions, on what issues our votes rest. I think I could save them all a lot of time and research dollars. What we want is pretty simple to identify.

First, an editorial note about the paragraphs that follow. I use the collective "we" here not because I believe I speak for everyone who checks an "evangelical" box on a survey. I use it to represent myself and the many other "evangelicals" I know. We don't go around calling ourselves that, by the way, but assuming it means we're whole-hearted followers of Jesus who believe the Bible is God's revelation to all mankind, then that's us. I'm also going to sacrifice good grammar for the sake of convenience. I will use the plural pronoun "their" for a singular person, because "he/she" is such a nuisance. Forgive me, editing friends. Try not to throw up.

What do evangelicals want in a President? We want a leader who starts every day realizing they're in over their head and turning to the One who is not. We want someone who believes daily communication with God is not only possible, but essential. We want a President who believes the Bible is the authoritative Word of God and spends good time reading it and applying it. We want someone who is humble about their successes and honest about their failures. How about just honest, period? We don't expect someone who's never told a lie, but we want someone who knows what to do about it when they do lie. Confess. Repent. Make things right. Move on and learn from it. We want someone who believes there is absolute truth, who knows where to find it, and who lives by it. We want someone who is faithful to their spouse, their children, their country, and their word, and who lives the same way whether the whole world is watching or no one is watching.

We want a leader who acts not out of selfish ambition, but out of humility. Someone who puts others' interests above their own. We want someone who loves their neighbor and their enemy, and when they fail at that (which they will), they confess, repent, make things right, move on, and learn from it. We'd like a President who takes Jesus at His word that He is the one way to the Father but who knows that forced religion was never God's idea or an effective form of evangelism. Someone who knows that every individual is free to make their own religious choices, but who lives out the faith so compellingly that the masses can't resist taking a closer look for themselves.

We want someone who knows that we fight not against flesh and blood but against the dark spiritual forces of evil, and that even if they can't say it out loud for fear of being branded a lunatic, puts on their spiritual armor every single day: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes of peace, and the helmet of salvation, armed with a shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit. We want someone who believes that peacekeepers are blessed and that the most vulnerable need protection from the strong. Yes, this is hard. That's why we need someone who prays. We want someone who knows they need wisdom and knows the only way to get it is to ask God for it, because He gives it generously.

In short, we want someone who knows there is a higher authority, and that it's not them. There is an authority higher than the people of the United States, higher than the U.S. constitution. This person will know that the true authority is the Creator, Ruler, and Judge of the Universe, the One before whom they will stand and give account for their life. We don't expect them to say they lived perfectly or did it all right. They will say what we all will say: "I am a sinner saved by grace, and I tried to follow Jesus with everything I had."

I can hear the cynics now. "The secularists will never go for it." Really? They won't go for someone who values and demonstrates love and kindness and fairness and humility? Because they have so many better options? Others might declare me too idealistic. "This person doesn't exist!" they might say. But that's not true, because I know this person. Actually, I know at least a hundred of them, and I bet you do, too. I know 16-year-old kids and 21-year-old college students who fit this description, not to mention a man who's 103 and a fleet of moms in minivans. I'd vote for any of them in this election.

Yes, you might say, but these people are all smart enough to stay out of politics. Maybe it's time we become less "smart." I have a 9-year-old daughter who wants to be the President. She talks about it all the time, while I try to convince her otherwise: "Honey, be a nurse or a teacher, something where you can really help people." But I'm rethinking this. Sixty years ago, she would have been told she couldn't be President because she's a girl. Now she's told she can't be President because she's too good a person.

We can do better, America. We've got to do better.