Dever and Leeman Are Wrong — Christians Can Have No Fellowship with Democrats
It is Necessary for Christians to Be Anti-Democrat
My position is straightforward:
It is a soul-threatening sin to vote for an explicitly pro-abortion political candidate. As of 2019, most or all national-level Democrats are explicitly pro-abortion. The Democratic Party has, in fact, made it a key plank in the party platform. Therefore, in most or all cases it is a soul-threatening sin to vote for a Democrat — meaning it is a sin that, if unrepented, should lead to excommunication from the church.
Christians can have no fellowship with democrats.
I recognize that this position is highly controversial, even among conservative Christians. Before moving on to the remainder of this article, I want to explain why it is necessary to take such a serious position.
Feel the weight of Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:41–46.
Though leftists typically wield this passage as an argument for more government handouts, it is in fact a passage about the choices we make as individuals. When we choose to ignore “the least of these” (the humblest among our Christian brothers and sisters), we ignore Jesus Christ himself.
There is a mysterious unity between the spirit of Christ and the spirit of each Christian (1 Corinthians 6:17) — such that we also have a unity with one another. For this reason, in at least some sense, our treatment of “the least of these” is our treatment of Jesus Christ. It is not adding to the Bible to point out that Jesus’ words apply just as well to murdered infants as to Christians in prison or Christians needing a cup of water:
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
In Jesus’ words we see the frightening truth: There will be false professions of faith.
In the last day, some people will be taken by surprise. They will think they had saving faith; but they will be wrong. Jesus will show them that they were wrong by pointing to the evidence of a heart that has not been changed — a heart capable of looking the other way from those members of the family of God who were hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, or sick.
Is a newborn baby not a human being, made in the image of God? What about the moment before birth? Or the moment the heart first beats? My four-year-old son knows the answer to these questions. It doesn’t matter how small the baby is. A baby is a baby. And every baby should be cherished and loved. My four-year-old son needed no degree in ethics to be able to tell you this. But somehow, by convoluted thinking, otherwise rational adults are able to look the other way — to ignore a hungry, thirsty, naked little stranger created in God’s image.
How can it be that a person will overlook the needs of the unborn child? Or worse — deny his right to life? If that were not already unthinkable, what about those who try to defend a right to kill that innocent human being? What about those who insist that the state should pay for this murder — by taxing you? What about those (Democrats) who take a cut of the blood money as a campaign donation from the bureaucrats holding the paperwork and the forceps?
50 million executions later (by neck-twisting and dismembering), many supposed Christians still vote for abortion-supporting candidates.
The late R.C. Sproul lamented:
“I don’t think they’ve thought about it for 5 minutes! We may be that wicked. But we’re not that stupid.”
We know what is being done in our land. We know who is doing it. I do not believe any adult is unable to know what the Democratic Party stands for today. There is no excuse.
I thought, These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God (Jeremiah 5:4).
Do not make excuses for the sins of the poor or the ignorant. They have agency. Do not insult them further by denying them that.
The Democratic Party is the party of infanticide — explicitly so.
On February 25th, 2019, “Senate Democrats blocked their Republican counterparts from protecting infants born alive after botched abortion procedures.”
The “Born-Alive Baby Bill” showed that the willingness of Democrats to kill the unborn now extends even to the recently born. If the mother does not want the child, the child has no legal right to live. People have always known abortion is murder. But it is now completely clear — even to the most dishonest among us — that the Democratic Party is in rebellion against God.
In a video, my friend AD Robles points out:
“They are willing to support, and incentivize, and pay for, and force you to pay for killing children — killing image bearers of God.“
He continues:
“Any Christian who dares support a party that has that as a primary plank in their party platform ought to be excommunicated. There’s no way to support that level of wickedness and still have the right to call yourself a Christian.”
There is no moral equivalence between the major political parties. While the alternative to the Democratic Party has its own problems, there is only one party that has as a key feature of its platform the murder of the unborn.
I am not the only one coming to such strong conclusions.
Brit Hume tweeted:
“Senate Democrats’ vote against the born-alive protection bill means that they now believe health care is a right for all, except infants who survive an abortion, the most vulnerable creatures imaginable.”
Steve Deace tweeted:
“5 Democrats currently running for President of the United States voted to murder children who survive abortions. Warren, Sanders, Gillibrand, Harris, Klobuchar.”
Tim Bayly published an article called “No Union with Democrats.” He wrote:
“It’s time to face the truth. The Democrats are in open warfare against our Constitution, Executive Branch of government, their fellow citizens, the rule of law, and God. Straight up. We must recover the honesty and courage to see and name their crimes, then make a decision whether we love this nation and desire for it to survive.”
Tom Buck drew a comparison between how churches respond to sexual abuse and how they respond to abortion:
“I fully support the SBC confronting churches that willfully ignore and/or give cover to those who sexually abuse children. We should also confront churches that willfully ignore and/or give cover for any support of a politician who stands for murdering children.”
I agree. If the Southern Baptist Convention can disown churches for not handling sexual abuse in a biblical way, then what about churches and pastors who do not handle infanticide in a biblical way? It is well past time to draw lines and clean our own house.
Not everyone seems to agree.
Mark Dever of 9 Marks Ministry said on an episode released February 20th:
”If we were in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s I think you just have to be known for opposing the Nazis. I don’t think we’re there, and until we get there, I think it’s better for Christians to be able to disagree on political solutions and still trust each other’s sincere adherence to the gospel.”
What would it take to change Dever’s opinion? Where is the line for him?
To those who understand that no amount of convoluted rationalizing can make it right to support the party of murder, it has long been obvious that Democrats have no credible claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. This reality has become more and more obvious since the beginning of Barak Obama’s presidency. But it ought to have been understood much earlier than that.
Whenever the turning point may have been, it is clear that by 2019 the Democratic Party is entirely unacceptable. What other issue can you balance against the fact that Democrats explicitly support infanticide — and want to force you to pay for it?
AD Robles says it so well that I want to quote him at length:
The Democratic Party is the enemy of the church. They say so. We are their enemy. It’s time for us to recognize that they hate our guts, they hate our Lord, and they are going to do absolutely everything they can to erase our Lord’s image from the earth …
Name one thing that counter-balances this abortion thing?
Most people will say, Well they (the Democrats) care for the poor more…
Is there anything in the Republican platform that says we’re against giving money to poor people? … Is there anything in the Republican platform like that? No. All there is, is that Republicans have a lot of respect for private property. So you can do with your money what you please as long as it’s legal.
You can search the Scriptures far and wide and you won’t find anything that says that you can’t do anything you want with your money — and in fact we actually have a right to some of it.
You can’t go to the Scripture and find a place where it says, If you’re not giving enough of your money to the poor, you should be disciplined by the church.
But if you’re a man having sex with men, or if you are abusing children, or killing, we absolutely can go to Scripture and show where this is unacceptable and you are subject to being removed from the church…
There is no moral equivalence between the agendas of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party…
It’s real easy to take a stand against child molesters because everybody’s doing that. Real easy. But when are we going to take a stand and say, if you support this enemy party, this enemy of the church, this party that wants to erase God’s image from the face of the earth and is promoting it and wants you to pay for it, if you support this party, you have no right to claim the name of Christ. Get out of here. Stop what you’re doing or get out of here.
We would do it with Nazis. Why aren’t we doing it with a group and a party that is responsible for even more deaths than the Nazi Party?
Get some courage and let’s start taking some stands… Look, babies are being slaughtered in our country. People are promoting it. Lots of people think it’s A-OK. And it’s probably happening right down the street from where you live. Pastors: start with your sphere of influence: It’s time to start disciplining the people in your flock first.
Too strong? Many alleged Christians seem to think so.
But have they read much from Jesus himself?
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
“Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51).
“…but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).
Jesus didn’t whitewash sin. He didn’t “gently come beside people,” and “meet them where they are at,” and “build trust before talking about the deep things.” He called the lie.
One Twitter user tried to say Christians are going about things the wrong way:
“I believe that self-righteous Christians are a primary reason we do not make more headway in ending abortion. Jesus confronted the religious harshly, but to the woman at the abortion clinic, I mean at the well, he asked questions and was gentle in exposing her sin to her alone.”
But another Twitter user replied more wisely:
“Great. Now apply this to rapists and men who slaughter their wives and kids. Jesus was not gentle. He was firm and direct. “You’re a sinner. Repent and follow me.” He didn’t demonize those he called, but didn’t whitewash their sins either.”
Some Objections:
1. Isn’t excommunication something we don’t do anymore?
To our shame.
Most churches do not have a procedure in place for church discipline. Most churches are ignoring the command of Jesus and the clear teaching of the Bible on this topic. Even if members were living in open sexual sin, for instance, if a man and a woman were living together and sleeping together but they were not married, most churches would not have the biblical faithfulness — or frankly the courage — to make an issue of it and to publicly and corporately call the disobedient members to repent and then to expel them from fellowship until they do.
Most churches don’t obey Jesus, and they haven’t obeyed him for 100 years. Many churches would split if something like this were even to be attempted. Pastors know this, and many pastors play the coward and let the situation continue.
2. But what does church discipline look like?
The person who votes for a pro-abortion candidate should be confronted. Someone should tell him that is a sin and he should repent of it. If he does not repent, bring a second person to say the same. If he still does not repent, discuss the topic with the church body as described in Matt 18:15–17:
“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.
But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
Be willing to tell the person: You can no longer be part of our church until you repent as described by Paul:
“Hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord… With such a one you are not even to eat” (1 Corinthians 5:5, 11).
3. Isn’t Excommunication Harsh, Divisive, and Judgmental?
The Pharisees were more righteous than the Democrats in all ways — and yet our Master called them “sons of the devil” (John 8:44). Yet some want to claim that the spiritual state of Democrats is not given to us to judge.
“Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!” (1 Corinthians 6:3)
At this point in history, to bear the name of “Democrat” is as good as bearing the name of Satan himself. To be a Democratic political candidate — or to vote for one — is a sinful act of rebellion against God, on level that church discipline is certainly required — because a soul is at stake.
“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice” (Exodus 23:1–2).
It matters who you side with.
It matters that you do not pervert justice. To vote is a moral action. To vote ignorantly is one of the worst sins a man can do against his fellow man. Those who vote for Democrats vote to support murder on the greatest scale imaginable.
This is an evil to be purged from the church. If Paul were willing to say the following strong words about the sexually immoral person or the greedy, or the swindler, how much more would he say about those who support murder and the rest of the Democratic agenda?
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people —
not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler — not even to eat with such a one.
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you” (1 Corinthians 5:9–13).
A professing Christian who votes for Democrats should be called to repentance. If he will not repent, he should be excommunicated and identified for what he appears to be: very likely an unrepentant sinner headed to hell.
Why? For his own good. And because a little leaven leavens the whole lump (vs. 6). A church expels the immoral man in order to preserve the health of the rest of the body.
4. But aren’t you trying to mix politics and religion?
Do you have a problem with the idea that the moral teachings of Christianity should actually be applied to real life?
It would be inappropriate for a pastor to say Christians must vote for “party X,” because the Bible doesn’t cover that. But it is right and necessary for a pastor to say that a Christian must not vote for a candidate that supports the murder of unborn children by the millions, paid for by your taxes.
Christians do not vote that way. If someone in your church does that, he should be told to stop pretending to be a Christ-follower while ignoring the things Christ cares about.
5. But don’t you know that X% of Black Evangelicals typically vote for Democrats? Are you saying they aren’t even saved?
Of course I am saying that. The majority of “Black Evangelicals” are exactly as lost as the majority of “White Evangelicals.”
It so happens that the sinful ways of some groups (on aggregate) often include voting for Democrats — and thus supporting the most wicked institution in the nation. That’s a sin —and an extremely visible one. If X% of whatever group votes for Democrats, then we have solid reason to believe that X% of that group are people who are lost and headed to hell.
I don’t mind saying it. I am afraid of no fact. Fellow conservatives, you have to choose whether to speak like men or to speak like cowards. The first step is to stop caring if unregenerate men think you are a racist.
Let there be no ambiguity.
- Democrats have become the party of demons.
- There are no Christian Democrats.
- Christians ought to have no fellowship with Democrats.
- It is necessary for a Christian to be anti-Democrat.
- We must “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.”
The world needs men who are quicker to state the obvious and slower to cringe at it being said.
Subscribe to our publication:
For the New Christian Intellectual
