Alabama Christians make their choice

of sexual harassment of teens and young women by Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore were sufficient to deny him a seat in the Senate.

Others said that maintaining a 52-seat Republican majority was critical to advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda, which includes seating more conservative judges on federal benches.

This, they said, superseded what Moore may or may not have done 40 years ago.

By cleaning house (and the Senate) of their own bad boys, many Democrats think they will gain a previously hidden moral authority to win back the House and impeach Trump for his alleged past (and, they believe, more recent) misdeeds.

The Democrats’ agenda might be true, but for evangelical Christians should either argument matter more than the King and Kingdom they are supposed to serve?

Some biblical wisdom might be instructive. In the Old Testament, Esau sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of soup. He later regretted his decision, but at the time he was hungry and said his birthright meant little to him.

In the ultimate church-state moment where the crowd was forced to choose between demanding that Pilate give the order to crucify Jesus of Nazareth, or let Him go, there was this sobering exchange: Pilate: “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests: “We have no king but Caesar.” (John 19:15)

As then, today’s “chief priests” and church members were asked to make a choice. One choice might give short-term satisfaction, as Esau experienced with his temporarily filled stomach, but it leads to a loss of credibility in the eyes of the world. It demonstrates that for Christians attaining earthly and temporal power is paramount.

Another verse that applied to evangelicals: “Choose this day whom you will serve.” (Joshua 24:15).

Bob Dylan contemporized it this way: “Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”