Parsing Political Parties in an Age of Paganism:  

Nine Theses

 “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”^[1]

“[H]e pours contempt on princes

and makes them wander in trackless wastes”^[2]

“It is better to take refuge in the LORD

than to trust in princes.”^[3]

Introduction

TxC exists to Inform the Public, Equip the Church, and Protect the Future.  These objectives stem from a commitment to a robust creational cosmology, particularly as developed and applied by the Apostle Paul in Romans, et al, and Acts.  Accordingly, it is Christ’s present and comprehensive Lordship over all creation, “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” now and forever^[4] that sets and informs how the faith applies to all reality.  And, this Lordship rules out all sacred/secular dualisms as well as pietistic approaches to living in general and the public square in particular.  

The 2024 election cycle has concluded, but governing remains to be done.  And that requires thinking Christians to think Christianly in the Christian worldview about the public square, including politics at the retail level.^[5]  How then shall we think Christianly about governance while avoiding nasty partisanship?  Let’s get to the gist and explore some foundational matters.

Theses for Guiding Governance and Political Engagement

1. As Christians, our ultimate fidelity is neither to the Donkey, nor to the Elephant, but to the Lion who is the Lamb → meaning that a faithful political act may not always consist of a “binary choice,” even given a Two [major] party system; sometimes abstinence can be a righteous political act

2. A Christian’s foundational confession commences NOT with “God loves me” nor with “Jesus died for me” but rather with this:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth^[6]

3. Accordingly, any confession or ethic, including those instantiated in law or policy, which undermines, negates, or otherwise disavows creational norms, is by definition not a Christian position

4. Creational Norms set forth non-negotiable ontological and ethical commitments, including:

1. Creator/Creature Distinction → meaning

1. Neither Man nor the State can be either Creator or Savior – that is, the Ultimate Originator, the Ultimate Standard, or of Ultimate Import
2. Jurisdiction and Jurisdictional Boundaries exist within society
3. Life is better than non-life
4. Death is unnatural (an enemy to be defeated), even though death in a post-fall world is ubiquitous and occurs “naturally”
5. Man cannot be autonomous, whether in his ontology or his ethics

b. Imago Dei → meaning

1. Human Exceptionalism → a Creational hierarchy exists and must be respected.  We may eat animals; we may not worship them
2. Ontic Valorization of humanity must be affirmed and respected, contra Kinism, tribalism, ethno-nationalism, antisemitism, misogyny.  Yet some today wrongly conclude the opposite purportedly using natural law as their guide.^[7]  Such efforts, even if sprinkled with “Jesus dust” and called something like “Christian Nationalism” must be opposed and rejected^[8]
3. Equality as to dignity and value of each human person exists because they are human, and law and policy must recognize, promote, and protect it

c. Male and Female as Immutable Ontic Categories → meaning

1. Mankind is comprised of immutable sexual dimorphs 
2. Pronoun usage must conform to reality as created and designed.^[9]  The often well-intended notion of using “hospitality pronouns” to welcome those manifesting gender dysphoria is misguided and subverts creational norms and should be avoided in toto
3. There are parents, but there is no “parenting” in the ultimate sense; rather, we must recognize and preserve the essential necessity of both fatheringand mothering – comprised of duties, responsibilities, and rights → disfavoring and de-incentivizing, if not precluding:

1. Single parent fostering by design

2. Single parent adoption by design

3. Single parenting by design

4. The usurping State becoming de facto the primary parent

d. Marriage as consisting of one man and one woman→ meaning marriage

1. Contextualizes the proper channeling and expressionof sexuality
2. Affirms the Legitimacy of Family Governance → generating incipient principles of sphere sovereignty and subsidiarity 
3. Requires Recognition of “the family” as a Separate Status: to be recognized and protected

e. Work/Labor → See David Bahnsen’s treatment of this^[10]

f. Cultural Mandate → implying

1. Liberty to collaborate
2. Communication to be protected and preserved
3. Unencumbered trade
4. Freedom to negotiate and contract  with others as well as consequent legal protections, including enforcement and apt remedies
5. Protection for the fruits of labor
6. Protection and promotion of wealth development contra to environmentalism
7. Protection of reputation

g. Work/Rest/Worship Rhythms → Contra to notions sounding in “work/life balance”

1. Pitting work against one’s life subverts the creational norm, as if work is extrinsic to one’s life and/or a product of the Fall
2. The biblical rhythm instead champions work and rest, which in a creaturely manner. reflects God’s own rhythm

h. “Law above Law” – Cosmology and Situating Authority → meaning

1. Valorizing Special Revelation’s Role, even in the Pre-lapsation Garden
2. Recognizing the Law’s Role to order and organize a liberated people
3. Examples:
   1. The Exodus → Ordering a newly liberated people → Law is necessary to regulate a newly freed society

1. Cf., Paradise in the Garden

b. Source of Law:  God → “from Above” – God and the Mt. Sinai cf., John 19

c. Purpose and Content of the Law:

1. Provide Structure for Society

1. Substantive Precepts
2. Coordination Problems
3. Justice interpersonally
   a. Tort Law
   b. Property Law
   c. Boundaries
   d. Animals
   e. Crops

4. Justice Societally

1. Murder
2. Manslaughter
3. Theft
4. Sexual assault

ii.Procedural Precepts

1. Appellant Courts
2. Evidence and Witness Requirements – 9^th Commandment
3. Proportionality – Lex Talionis
   a. Just War Theory

4. Remedies:

1. Restitution
2. Damages
3. Interest for loss of use

5. John 19:  Jesus and Pilate → the locus and source of all authority rests in the Creator, not in the Creation
6. James describing and commending Wisdom “from above”
7. Romans 13 – the State as “God’s servant”

5. There can be no neutrality with respect to God,^[11] nor with respect to His precepts, including His creational norms whether applied privately or publicly – to love him is to obey all His commandments;^[12] to forsake His law is to praise, that is, worship, the wicked^[13]

6. Voting and funding campaigns and candidates are political acts. The politically acting Christian may not politically act to support – in a materially complicit or cooperative manner – any position publicly, including any policy position, which God condemns Scripturally.  To Illustrate: 

1. Providing $100,000 to the GOP to advocate for and expand the state-by-state influence of Log Cabin Republicans^[14]
2. Providing $100,000 to a group whose core mission is lobbying to re-criminalize home education or restricting tuition tax credit programs
3. Voting for and urging others to support a candidate because he holds to and advocates for an unbiblical policy → Trumpeting Evangelicals for Harris because ofher pro-abortion or pro-transsexualism positions and policies

7. All sins are sinful, but not all sins are moral equivalents; accordingly, some sins sounding in policy or party platform may individually – and/or taken as a whole – and some may not individually -– and/or taken as a whole – disqualify or trump a candidate or a party platform

8. Today’s Political Parties: An Assessment – but first a Caveat, an Observation, and a Distinction

1. A CAVEAT: Beware of False Dichotomies or what we might call “Bullying Binaries:”

1. “It’s a Trap!”^[15]  Matt 22: Seeking to catch Jesus, the religious establishment (Pharisees) and other partisans (Herodians) tempted to put Him in a box, forcing Him to commit to a Lose/Lose situation:  Pay taxes and thus alienate the Jews, or Don’t Pay Taxes, and thus alienate the Roman government.  Jesus refused the bait^[16]
2. Karmic Jesus???   John 9:1-3:  Almost like Job’s friends, the disciples employed a reductionistic binary attempting to identify and ascribe blame as to why a certain man was blind; Jesus rejected their pagan-based binary:

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.^[17]

b. An Observation:  The GOP today stands to the Left of Bill Clinton’s implemented policies – not his positions – at significant points

1. RFRA^[18]
2. DOMA^[19]
3. “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”^[20]
4. Abortion: “Safe, Legal, and Rare”^[21]
5. The Hyde Amendment supported and in place^[22]
6. Entitlement reform^[23]

c. A Distinction:  Don’t confuse Positions with ParticularPolicies:

1. Position: the normative perhaps, aspirational endpoint
   1. Example:  The Bible proscribes the taking of innocent life
   2. 13^th Amendment – proscribing involuntary servitude, except for lawful punishment
2. Policy: the negotiated political compromise or settlement, often an incremental step toward the position:
   1. Example:  Banning all abortion except for rape and incest reduces the taking of innocent life → thereby Lessening Evil
   2. The Missouri Compromise → cabined the evil of slavery geographically thereby Lessening Evil
   3. Avoiding Utopian Political Absolutism:  “Unless my actions directly and immediately terminate Hitler, I should not otherwise resist the Nazis or the Japanese by making parts for the Norden bombsite as part of the war effort”
3. Current examples:

1. Suppose two bills limit abortion:  one abolishes it completely, yet has zero chance of advancing out of committee, and the other allows it only in the cases of rape or incest, which in effect would ban the vast majority of abortions,^[24]and would make it out of committee

1. Both lessen evil, but only ONE reflects political feasibility

2. Partial Birth Abortion Bans^[25] → Moved the needle culturally, in part, causing the public discourse to refer to the unborn as “babies” instead of “products of conception”

d. DNC v. GOP: If we are ethical relativists, the GOP is relatively and decisively better than the DNC.  But a thinking Christian cannot finally rest his analysis upon relativism. 

1. Compare the parties’ positions as to Creational Norms:

1. Both are increasingly Statist – grow the State and Impose, rather than Incentivize → State as Savior, not Servant

2. Cf. the slogans of the New Right: 

1. The Purpose of Winning Elections is to “reward friends and punish enemies”

b. “Fight Fire with Fire”
c. “Civility be damned” – as if the Fruit of the Spirit has an expiration date

3. Both affirm and favor economic intervention and protectionism

4. Both affirm same-sex “marriage”

5. Both affirm homosexuality as acceptable sexual conduct with no qualms about homosexuals being “out”

6. Both affirm abortion as a right:  the DNC is “pro-abortion” while the GOP is “pro-choice” –“Let the States decide” – That’s a fine rationale regarding (say) State income tax or educational choice, but not so fine regarding, for instance, keeping chattel slavery legal ala John Calhoun and Stephen Douglas (Popular sovereignty as the highest good v. Justice) – however, both Parties are united in opposing a national abortion ban

7. Both affirm IVF as an acceptable means of producing – instead of procreating – children; children become products and commodities under IVF and surrogacy schemes

8. Both seek to restrict free expression, especially on social media:

1. What was once a New Left novelty from the mind of CT Herbert Marcuse – Repressive Tolerance^[26] – 
2. Is NOW the stated policy goal of “conservative” senators, like Josh Hawley

ii. Some differences in kind (as opposed to degree) do exist between these parties:

1. “Transition Care” aka chemical castration and genital mutilation for minors – the DNC supports; the GOP opposes
2. State funding of abortion – the DNC supports; the GOP opposes
3. Religious liberty exemptions for abortion – the DNC opposes; the GOP supports
4. NONE are actually “conservative” in any historic sense of that term as BOTH deemphasize, restrict, if not explicitly oppose
   a. The Virtuous Market and Economic Liberty
   b. A Limited State
   c. Individual Liberty

9. A word on “Character”

Paul tells us that when the truth is exchanged for the Lie, a telltale sign is sexual deviance.  We are currently seeing the “normalizing” of sexual sin in the realm of public service.  It used to be that even an unsubstantiated hint of sexual infidelity sunk a political candidate.  Recall how dashing Gary Hart’s presidential bid crashed following his dalliance with Donna Rice in 1988.^[27]  

Today in contrast, the fact that the DNC Presidential candidate Kamala Harris “slept her way to the top” by cavorting with a married political power-broker 30 years her elder mattered little to her party or to the electorate.^[28] Similarly, in 2024 the electorate voted for a thrice married candidate who has then nominated a number of candidates with low marks in sexual fidelity and marital commitments:  Matt Gaetz, ironically nominated to lead the Justice Department, paid multiple women for sexual favors and allegedly slept with a minor.^[29]  RFKdiarized and documented his 37 extra-marital exploits, pushing his wife to suicide when she read about his lecherous conduct.^[30]  Paul Hegseth collected three wives before age 40, and while cheating on his second wife and impregnating his mistress, he slept with a random married woman while at a GOP conference, later paying her to keep it under wraps.^[31]  Kristi Noem led an open affair with a political consultant.^[32]  Scott Bessent lives openly as a homosexual.^[33] Maybe these folks are qualified to do the job; maybe they are not.  Either way, a thinking Christian cannot relegate a pattern of sexual sin to the political dust bin.  At some level and at some point, personal sexual integrity matters because humans are integrated embodied creatures.  What we do sexually impacts us socially and culturally.^[34]  Siloing sexuality from one’s “work life” fails to produce good things long term because it disintegrates one’s life.  

Sexual deviance is a sign of extant and present divine judgment.  And, that judgment can manifest itself when lawgivers and rulers give us “rules that do not give life.” God sometimes provides a people poor leaders as part of His judgment who then craft unjust laws and policies – so that they will turn to Him and know Him.  Hear the Prophet Ezekiel:

 “And I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols. [19] I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’ But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths.

“Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness. But I withheld my hand and acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries, because they had not obeyed my rules, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their fathers’ idols. Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not have life, and I defiled them through their very gifts in their offering up all their firstborn, that I might devastate them. I did it that they might know that I am the LORD.^[35]

Because the tomb is empty, Christ is making all things new.^[36]  And, part of that renovation project involves the “kingdom of this world” becoming “the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”^[37] We parse political parties in view of this reality – poor leaders, disappointing parties, and bad laws notwithstanding.  Christ is King and He’s not running for re-election, nor will His royal office be term–limited.

^[1] Rev. 11:15

^[2] Ps. 107:40

^[3] Ps. 118:9

^[4] Eph. 1:21

^[5] P. Andrew Sandlin, editor, The Sanctified State – Politics in the Christian Worldview (2024)

^[6] Apostles’ Creed, Art. 1, https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/creeds/apostles-creed

^[7] This is the Kinist “blood and soil” cul-de-sac set forth by Christian Nationalist Stephen Wolfe and his minions.  Wolfe’s stated method rejects special revelation and is otherwise a theological dumpster fire.   See, Brian Mattson, A Children’s Crusade – Stephen Wolfe and The Great Restoration.” https://brianmattson.substack.com/p/a-childrens-crusade. For an assessment on natural law’s utility and limitations as applied, see, Jeffery J. Ventrella, Natural [Law] Apologetics, https://truthxchange.com/natural-law-apologetics/

^[8] https://antiochdeclaration.com/

^[9] Jeffery J. Ventrella, https://docsandlin.com/2018/06/02/who-do-you-say-that-i-am-preferred-personal-pronouns-ethics-language-and-the-gospel-by-jeffery-j-ventrella-j-d-ph-d/

^[10] David L. Bahnsen, Full Time:  Work and the Meaning of Life (2024)

^[11] Matt. 12:30

^[12] John 14:15

^[13] Prov. 28:4

^[14] The Log Cabin Republicans is a pro-LGBT group designed to leaven the GOP to affirm and promote “LGBT issues”. https://logcabin.org/about-us/

^[15] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F4qzPbcFiA

^[16] A recent example of this occurred when a reporter attempted to box in the Speaker of the House to say what sex a newly elected trans-representative is.  Speaker Johnson changed the subject, refusing to take the “gotcha” bait.  The next day he affirmed that men would use men’s restrooms and women would use women’s restrooms. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4998002-mike-johnson-sarah-mcbride-transgender-bathroom-nancy-mace/ and https://www.cbsnews.com/video/mike-johnson-bans-transgender-women-from-capitol-womens-restrooms/

^[17] John. 9:1-3

^[18] The Religious Freedom Restoration Act

^[19] The Defense of Marriage Act

^[20] The Defense Department’s policy of tolerating homosexuals so long as their conduct remained unseen and did not overtly interfere with military functions.

^[21] Compare this to President Trump’s seeming boast that if re-elected, his administration would be “great for reproductive rights”. https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-claim-great-reproductive-005531750.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGldRaiQRTynA2olPzwqBEJxwIar3Hrckob8IddjrCR5HOmfZOGCCjzOUYr_pXi0PbsWGTL5EkE96gAzrrP260hvWtRRvQPh2Oc6wG86_pUyz_AqyLpSMHqTpOVpLx9JDxC9ztu3h1WTIzB4aTR3EqUbzIYsS21G41l0LDr4Obg2

^[22] This amendment, which existed for years, prevents federal tax dollars from being used to abort the unborn.

^[23] Clinton famously quipped that the “era of big government is over”. https://www.govexec.com/management/2022/05/that-time-bill-clinton-declared-era-big-government-over/366425/

^[24] https://www.heritage.org/life/commentary/bad-math-bad-research-the-truth-about-abortion-and-rape-related-pregnancy

^[25] This is a barbaric practice, but of course all abortions kill the innocent baby; the point here is that showing what abortion is by exposing this gruesome procedure provides a key predicate – revulsion – to culturally inform the populus as to the reality of what abortion does.

^[26] Herbert Marcuse, Repressive Tolerance (1965), https://www.marcuse.org/herbert/publications/1960s/1965-repressive-tolerance-fulltext.html

^[27] https://www.history.com/news/gary-hart-scandal-front-runner

^[28] https://www.tnonline.com/20240914/letter-to-the-editor-willie-browns-party-girl/

^[29] https://abcnews.go.com/US/gaetz-10k-venmo-payments-2-women-testified-house/story?id=116019367 and https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cew2z48rp70o.  Gaetz withdrew his candidacy for Attorney General November 21, 2024.  https://www.newsweek.com/matt-gaetz-withdraws-attorney-general-consideration-1989662?utm_source=STMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BreakingNews&emh=96853dc406aab9262ec2bb43dd7f2ef6edc46eb7d251eb50bbd4fc583a84bb7b&lctg=6607e523173f497c28016d1e&utm_term=%5BAudience%5D%20-%20BreakingNews.  The President elect then nominated Pam Bondi, a twice-divorced woman. 

^[30] https://nypost.com/2013/09/08/rfk-jr-s-sex-diary-of-adultery/

^[31] https://www.newsweek.com/pete-hegseth-police-report-sexual-assault-trump-defense-secretary-1989373

^[32] https://nypost.com/2023/09/15/kristi-noem-corey-lewandowski-affair-shakes-up-trump-running-mate-stakes/

^[33] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-is-scott-bessent-what-to-know-trump-treasury-secretary-pick/  Bessent would be the “first openly gay Treasury secretary.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/what-to-know-about-scott-bessent-trumps-us-treasury-pick/ar-AA1uB19c

But wait:  if sexuality is irrelevant to job skill and competence, why call out this “first?”  If it is relevant, how so?  

^[34] Lauren F. Winner, Real Sex – The Naked Truth About Chastity (2006)

^[35] Ezek. 18:20-26

^[36] Rev. 21:5

^[37] TxC