Title: Before You Vote:
Seven Questions Every Christian Should Ask
Author: David Platt
Genre: Theology/Politics
Pages: 120
Rating: 5 of 5

If you are Christian who claims to live by the principles of God’s Word, you need to read this book. All too often, professing Christians act as if certain biblical principles are somehow suspended during election season. Getting “the right candidate” elected takes on a higher priority than love for our neighbor, unity in the church, or the pursuit of holiness. This should not be!

In this short book, David Platt uses seven questions to help Christians keep a proper focus and God-honoring mindset while deciding how to vote and while interacting with those who decide differently. This is a non-partisan book, and not like the “non-partisan voting guides” that carefully curate their questions to push you toward a certain candidate or party. Platt recognizes that different Christians who have the same commitment to biblical truth may weigh issues differently and arrive at different decisions on who they should vote for in good conscience. He interacts with biblical principles, not party platforms. His seven questions are:

1. Does God call me to vote?
2. Who has my heart?
3. What does my neighbor need?
4. What is the Christian position?
5. How do I weigh the issues?
6. Am I eager to maintain unity in the church?
7. So how do I vote?

Question seven is kind of the odd one out. Rather than focusing on a biblical principle, it fleshes out Platt’s personal system for weighing issues (using two hypothetical examples rather than his own personal position). This provides a method for organizing thoughts prompted by questions 1-6, but is not necessarily the only way to do so.

My one (very) minor quibble with the book is an omission that I found surprising. When Platt discusses voting options, he speaks of the three options for “stewarding your vote” as: voting for the Democratic candidate, voting for the Republican candidate, or “convictional inaction” (choosing to deliberately refrain from voting in a specific race if you cannot in good conscience vote for either major party candidate). Missing is the option of voting for a “third party” candidate. While very similar to “convictional inaction,” it is different enough (you are expressing your conviction in a way that will be tabulated) that I think it should have been mentioned.

Overall, this is one of the best books I have read on Christian engagement with the political process (see also How the Nations Rage by Jonathan Leeman). It is a much needed reminder that we may disagree on issues of conscience, but such disagreement should not cause us to lay aside love for our neighbors and unity of the body of Christ. To borrow a few phrases from Romans 14 (where varying convictions about food have become a divisive issue in the church): Let us each be “fully convinced in his own mind” because “everything that does not come from faith is sin,” and “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food” or, in this case, votes.