The plight of the Palestinians in Gaza should make Christians feel politically “homeless”

As conscious Christians, our vote for president—or any other office—should always feel like a compromise. But that does not need to stop us from acting.

I’ve long lamented the descriptor “politically homeless” that many moderate Christians use. Some are “progressive” on social issues such as race, but “conservative” on issues related to sex and marriage. They aspire to be antiracist, perhaps, but they draw the line when it comes to affirming LBGTQIA people. This has led many well-intentioned people to hold on to their bigotry and decry their lack of political options. If being a bigot leaves you politically homeless, I don't have much sympathy.

On the other hand, if your commitment to peace leaves you without a comfortable choice in November, I have deep sympathy. Like many of you, I am distraught at the cruel assault on Gaza—and now on Rafah, specifically—and Joe Biden’s response. The president has not been assertive enough in pressuring Netanyahu, and has recently even tried to discredit the International Criminal Court’s charges against Netanyahu (and Hamas, mind you). It is shameful that he will not simply cut off all support to Israel.

As a result, many people have become disillusioned about voting in the upcoming election. I am also not comfortable voting for Biden, and I wish we had other real options. So, like many others, I am choosing to vote for the better option.

There simply can be no doubt that Trump would be worse than Biden on every single issue—including Gaza. Trump actually bragged about the brutal treatment of both Gazans and of pro-Palestinian protesters to his donors recently. To no one’s surprise, when Arab-Americans met with Trump’s team to discuss Gaza, they felt much worse about how he might respond. Even early on in his presidency, he proposed a Muslim ban–to keep anyone from a long list of predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S.

Biden has problems, but they pale in comparison to Trump’s, who has vowed to be a dictator, for example. As distressing as it may be to vote for Biden, we needn’t act like the choices before us are the same. We can acknowledge their imperfection while seeing that one is clearly and pointedly better than the other. Biden has problems, but also real accomplishments that have lessened suffering and advanced people’s rights in the face of severe opposition.

Despite clearly being the greater evil here, I can understand why voting to keep Trump out of office is not the most exciting or morally satisfying choice.

But that brings me to the reason I write. As Christians who serve Jesus as Lord, who serve no King but Christ, who have a prophetic imagination about what the world can be, I don’t expect that we should ever find full comfort in our earthly rulers. Our participation is a matter of responsibility to minimize harm, but it is not the sum total of our activism. We should never be comfortable voting and always maintain our public protests. In fact I always want it to always feel a little gut-wrenching. If it ceases to feel like that, we may have been manipulated into thinking the options before us are better than they are.

I’m no stranger to being charmed by a presidential candidate. I was very proud to vote for Barack Obama in 2008. I worked at an all-Black high school in Philly and the prospect of voting for the first Black president was thrilling. Watching his inauguration in an auditorium full of Black teachers and students remains one of the most meaningful moments of my life. I was so enchanted by his charisma that his bombing campaigns in Yemen and Somalia, along with his droning of Syria, drew less ire from me than they should have. I’m susceptible to being charmed by a president, and I want to guard against that, while at the same time not giving in to cynicism.

We’re voting for the commander-in-chief, the supreme leader of the military. As pacifists, we should experience serious discomfort. It shouldn’t take a genocide in Gaza to make us question the office of the president. We should become acquainted with the trouble of voting in and of itself, and still do our best to minimize harm.

When we vote, we should feel a little politically homeless, because our “home” is not at all found in politics. It is found in Jesus. And within that context, we should normalize our distress at our choices, and in my view, still make the best one that we can.

We don’t need to relent on our criticism of the president, or any elected official. Our voice is a part of this democratic process, but we also know we won’t find our fullness or our salvation with the choices before us. Their inadequacy, though, is not a reason then not to participate; rather, it helps us know we’ll always feel a little sick about voting for president. And that’s OK. It should never feel too good (because of the nature of the office and the job), but usually there’s one commander who will cause less harm than the other. This should make our choice clear, even if it makes us feel politically homeless.