The Ballot Box Is Not a Bible Study

Less than a month from now, this country votes. In Texas, a seat in the United States Senate is a coin flip. The man leading that race stood on the floor of the Texas House and said God is nonbinary, and he has called himself a Christian who hates Christianity. His opponent has a marital scandal, and it is public record. There are Christians looking at those two names who have decided the holy thing to do is stay home. I think that is a mistake, and I took a full episode to say why.

"We will pray for a politician we refuse to vote for, and we call that holiness. It is not holiness. It is salt that never left the shaker." (Marc Little, Episode 75)

Start With the Scoreboard

I don't usually open with polling, but the scoreboard is why this conversation matters. Election Day is November 3. In the RealClearPolitics average, Democrats lead the generic ballot for Congress 51.2 to 42.7. Republicans hold the Senate 53 to 47, and Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take it. The races that decide it run through Texas, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Maine, Alaska and Kansas.

Why are Democrats ahead? They are talking about what it costs to live. In Fox News polling, seven in ten Michigan voters call the cost of living extremely important to their Senate vote, and they back the Democrat by thirteen points. In Texas, those voters favor the Democrat by nineteen. The economy is not working for most Americans right now, and I said so on the show.

Who Is Riding That Wave

In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed leads by one to five points. He was asked on national television whether Iran or Israel is the bigger threat to America. He could not say Iran. He said Iran is a threat because of Israel, and he called it a dumb question. A man who cannot answer that is not just radical. He is dangerous, and he is winning.

There is a larger wave behind that. The Brookings Institution counted 282 candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America this cycle, and 123 of them won their primaries. I am not sweeping every candidate into one pile, but the movement is undeniable, and I call it what it is. Socialism.

Inside that wave is a second fight nobody wants to name. I have deep theological differences with Islam, and every Muslim in America has the right to worship freely. I will defend that right. What I will not defend is political Islam. Hizb ut-Tahrir says in plain words that its goal is a caliphate under Islamic law, and Britain banned it in 2024. Know who you are voting for and what they have said.

Four Things We Used to Agree On

Affordability is real. It is not the only thing on the ballot. Four things this country used to agree on are on it too.

The first is religious liberty. This term the Supreme Court hears two Catholic parishes from Colorado. The state told them they may take part in its universal preschool program only under nondiscrimination rules that collide with what their church teaches. The question is whether a church has to check its doctrine at the door to be treated like everyone else. Who sits in the Senate decides who sits on that Court.

The second is the border. A nation that cannot say who comes in cannot protect the families already here. Securing it is not cruelty. It is the first duty a government owes its own people.

The third is law and order. Romans 13 says the one in authority is God's servant for your good, and that he does not bear the sword for no reason. A prosecutor who will not prosecute has laid that sword down, and the poor neighborhood pays for it first.

The fourth is women. A girl who trains for ten years should not lose her race, her scholarship, or her locker room to a male body. On these four, there is one clear answer.

Salt and Light Do Nothing From a Distance

Jesus said this to His followers, not to a government.

"You are the salt of the earth." (Matthew 5:13, NIV)

"You are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:14, NIV)

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16, NIV)

Salt kept meat from rotting, and it only works when it touches the meat. A Christian who will not vote has pulled the salt out of the one place this country hands him real power, and then he wonders why the culture is spoiling. For a believer, voting is not an afterthought. It is a duty.

The Imperfect Candidate

Praying for a politician is the easy part. Scripture commands it.

"I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." (1 Timothy 2:1-2, NIV)

The harder step is the one after the prayer. Can I knock on a door for him? Can I put his sign in my yard? Can I mark a ballot for a man whose private life I would preach against on Sunday?

The Bible sets a high bar for leaders. Jethro told Moses what kind of men to put over Israel.

"But select capable men from all the people, men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain, and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens." (Exodus 18:21, NIV)

That is the standard. Now go find that man.

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23, NIV)

Paul tells the Ephesians we are saved by grace, through faith, so that no one can boast. Every name on every ballot in this country falls short. So does every hand that marks one. If I wait for a candidate without sin, I will never vote again, and neither will you.

So how does a believer settle it in his own conscience? I vote the record. I do not vote a man's testimony, because I cannot see his heart. I can see what he did with the office. Did he defend the freedom of the church? Did he guard the border? Did he enforce the law? Did he protect the girls?

The High Horse

Some Christians have climbed onto a very high horse over this. The trouble with a horse that tall is that it puts you too far above your own mirror. God has never had anyone but sinners to work with. He used Moses, who killed a man. He used David, and I covered what David did in Episode 73. He used Paul, who approved a killing. If God can use them, your ballot can survive a flawed name on it.

The New Testament carries two different job descriptions. First Timothy 3 describes the man who may teach you the Word. Above reproach. Faithful to his wife. Self-controlled. Able to teach. Romans 13 describes a ruler. He is there to punish the wrongdoer and commend those who do right. Paul never asks the governor to be able to teach. Different office, different test.

And God has a long history with rulers who did not know Him. Take Cyrus, a pagan king.

"This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of" (Isaiah 45:1, NIV)

"I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me." (Isaiah 45:4, NIV)

Cyrus did not know God, and God called him anointed. In the first chapter of Ezra, that same king sent the exiles home to rebuild the temple. God did not wait for Cyrus to join a small group.

Texas Has That Exact Test

The Fox News poll has James Talarico, the Democrat, at 51, and Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general, at 49. That is inside the margin of error.

I used the word apostasy on the show, and I defined it first. It is not unbelief. An atheist is not an apostate. Apostasy is a departure from the faith by someone who still claims the name.

"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." (1 Timothy 4:1, NIV)

Peter and Jude both warned it would come from among you. From inside the house.

James Talarico tells voters he is a seminarian. In 2021, on the floor of the Texas House, arguing against the bill to keep girls' sports for girls, he said God is nonbinary. That same year, on a podcast, he said, "I always think of myself as a Christian who hates Christianity." He has said the Bible permits abortion. He has said atheists are more Christ-like than some of his Christian colleagues. A man who claims Christ, says he hates Christianity, and remakes God to win an argument over a bill has departed from the faith he claims. That is apostasy.

Someone will say I just told you the ballot box is not a Bible study, and now I am testing his theology. No. He is the one who carried his theology onto the House floor and used it to argue law. He made it his platform. I am reading his platform back to him.

A Sinner With a Record

Now his opponent. Ken Paxton has a marital scandal, and it is public. His wife of thirty-eight years filed for divorce and told the world she did it on biblical grounds. That is immorality, and I would not sit under him in a Bible study.

Now look at the work. When Washington sued to tear the buoys out of the Rio Grande, he fought it, and the buoys stayed. He went to the Supreme Court to keep pornography away from children and won, six to three. He took 1.4 billion dollars from Meta, the largest settlement any single state has ever won. I vote the record. I am not asking you to sit under him. I am asking you who should hold a Senate seat.

And still it is a coin flip. In that same poll, twenty-two percent of Republicans who do not call themselves MAGA are voting for Talarico. The poll does not say how many of them sit in a pew on Sunday. My read is that plenty do. If I am right, it says something hard about the church.

"We will not vote for immorality, and we will seat apostasy. We strain out the sinner and swallow the false teacher." (Marc Little, Episode 75)

The man bringing a Bible study to the ballot box in Texas is not the pastor at the microphone. It is the candidate. And what he teaches in it is a different gospel.

Conclusion

I am not selling you a virtuous Republican Party. There is not one. There is not a virtuous party in this country. In 1 Samuel 8, Israel looked at the nations around it and demanded a king, and God answered Samuel.

"it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king." (1 Samuel 8:7, NIV)

Then He gave them what they asked for. We built this system. We asked for it, we paid for it, and we looked away while it rotted. It is corrupt by our own doing.

So we play the hand we dealt ourselves. We elect the one who stands closest to what we believe, knowing we would never sit under him in a Bible study. The ballot box and a Bible study are two different things. If we understood Matthew 5, voting would never be an afterthought. We would call it what it is. A duty. Share this with someone who has not decided whether to show up, and then listen to the complete episode of The Marc Little Show.