The Christian Vote (9)

Good Morning and Welcome to this week’s Gospel and Culture update, by Alan Vink
The Christian Vote (9)
Tuesday 10th October 2023

How Will Christians Vote?

Ten days ago I sent out an email to 40 of my Christian friends and colleagues asking them who they will give their party vote to? I followed a few up by text. As at this morning I received 25 replies. The results are as follows in alphabetical order.

Greens = 4
Labour = 2
National = 12
New Zeal = 4
Te Pati Maori = 1
Prefer not to say = 1
Undecided = 1

A few comments:-

1. Most of the replies were from folks around my age but I did get a good number of replies from 40 year olds. All were Christians.
2. This is merely a ‘snap shot’. I am not pretending to be a professional pollster and neither do I see it as representative of the Christian Vote.
3. This result is quite different (except for the Green’s) to the professional poll results of last week Friday that shows National at around 36%, Labour at 27%, Greens at 12%, Act at 11%, Te Pati Maori at 3% and NZ First at 5.7%. In many ways I am not surprised by this because anecdotally Christians have tended to vote National in the past. Perhaps they still do.
4. When it comes to voting for a Christian Party it is the new comer New Zeal that gets the tick. As one person said “it is a vote for righteousness”.
5. The overall sentiment amongst many Christians is that it’s getting harder and harder for Christians to get a good ‘match’ with their values and the five party’s polling over 5%. For many it seems their vote is “the best of a bad bunch”.

Here are two comments that I think are worth noting:-

The first is from one of my respondents who is voting for the Greens. He said, “In my view they have the best climate policy which is BY FAR the most crucial issue facing the country. But they also have good Tiriti o Waitangi policies, housing policies, and while by far from perfect, at least they have some guts to try to shift the gross inequities of our tax system.
As you have several times noted, pretty much all the electable parties have social policies which are driven by the commitments of our culture - in a very libertarian direction. Politically that horse has long bolted. It is up to faithful Christians to display in our own communities what the life of the kingdom is like first - showing an attractive and plausible alternative on these social issues”.

And finally, Stuart Lange who is National Director of New Zealand Christian Network wrote a column in his newsletter last week titled, ‘How Should Christians Vote’ that I think is another helpful guide. He wrote:-

“Three crucial areas to consider – in no particular order – are ethics, the economy, and the environment. These categories don’t cover everything, but they should all be important for Christian voters…

• Ethics: this applies to a very wide range of issues including laws and policies in relation to marriage, sexuality, gender, sex education, abortion, euthanasia, drugs, freedoms of belief and expression, fair wages, a just tax system, and inter-cultural respect and harmony.
• The economy: sound economic management is always helpful, especially if it enables good public services (e.g. in health and education), lowers the cost of living, facilitates affordable housing for all, and helps everyone in society on an equitable basis.
• The environment: taking better care of God’s creation is God-honouring, and the deepening climate change makes it increasingly urgent”.

And before I go and make a ‘strong’ coffee which I so need about now, here is a question to ponder on. How would Jesus vote? Or put this question another way. What is the will of God as to who the government will be in New Zealand for the next three years? Going by the above results to my informal poll it is difficult to discern that.

What do you think? Email alan.vink@leadershipworx.org.nz

P.S. On Thursday I am writing another Gospel and Culture blog this week on the so called ‘wasted vote’.