--- id: 20160201_choosing_a_president title: BLOG - Choosing a President category: Biblical Life Counsel predicted_narrative_arc: civic-discernment-for-believers sentiment: Convictional emotions: - Discerning - Pastoral - Challenging keypoints: - Dean shares his son Ryan Rush's essay as expressing his own election-cycle thoughts - Christians are not voting for a church leader but for a national leader - God has used non-believers such as Cyrus; Romans 13 frames civic right and wrong - Believers are salt of the earth — preserve what is good among neighbors - Character, conviction, and protection of the unborn guide Ryan's voting criteria summary: > Dean Rush republishes his son Ryan's reflection on whether Christians may vote for a non-Christian president. Ryan argues voters choose a national leader not a pastor, notes biblical precedent for God using non-believers, cites Romans 13 and Matthew 5 on salt-and-light influence, and weighs character, conviction, and defense of the unborn — urging citizens to vote their convictions rather than waste the privilege. tags: - blog - human-resources - elections - voting - ryan-rush - character - salt-and-light - romans-13 - unborn - dean-rush sycophancy: 0 truth_score: 8 entropy: 4 sample: false consent: owner_approved agent: blog created: '2016-02-01' updated: '2026-09-09T00:00:00Z' vault_stage: 07_CODEX headwaters: BLOG prefix: BLOG enrich_status: ok enrich_blockers: [] enrich_method: manual pipeline_filename: BLOG_2016-02-01_choosing-a-president.md source_kind: blog_article proposed_topic: Wisdom lane: Wisdom voice: desk active_voice: desk voices: - desk routing_source: carbon corpus_topic: Wisdom content_status: active date: '2016-02-01' share_url: https://deanrush.net/blog/choosing-a-president source_url: https://deanrush.net/blog/choosing-a-president site_category: Human Resources archive_month: 2016-02 description: > Dean curates Ryan Rush's counsel that Christians vote for civic character and the common good — not a pastor-in-chief — as salt preserving what matters to God. --- # Choosing a President **Author:** Dean Rush **Original post:** [deanrush.net/blog/choosing-a-president](https://deanrush.net/blog/choosing-a-president) **Archive month:** February 2016 · **Site category:** Human Resources > Voice note: Everything under **Dean's article** is the text as published on deanrush.net (lightly cleaned of HTML/image artifacts and tracking redirect URLs only). Dean's own framing is the brief opening; the remainder is Ryan Rush's essay he chose to share. Sections marked **Biblical foundations**, **Scholar sidebar**, **Takeaways**, and **First-time learner** are enrichment for Asker / first readers — not Dean speaking. --- ## Biblical foundations (preface) Dean puts his son's civic-discernment essay in front of readers — how Christians vote when no candidate is a clear Christ-follower pastor. The enrichment below does not replace Ryan's argument or Dean's decision to share it; it shows the wider biblical frame for a first-time reader. | Claim in the post | Scriptural undercarriage | | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Government is not the church; gospel mission stays with the church | Render to Caesar and to God (Matthew 22:21); the church proclaims the gospel (Matthew 28:18–20) | | God can use rulers who do not know Him | Cyrus as God's anointed instrument (Isaiah 45:1–4); Nebuchadnezzar humbled (Daniel 4) | | Civic authority concerns right, wrong, and the innocent | Governing authority and the sword (Romans 13:1–4); defend the rights of the poor and needy (Proverbs 31:8–9) | | Believers preserve good as salt | Salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13–16); seek the city's welfare (Jeremiah 29:7) | | Character and care for the voiceless matter | Desire a good name (Proverbs 22:1); speak for those who cannot speak (Proverbs 31:8) | --- ## Dean's article ### Dean's introduction ![USA imagery from Dean's original post](https://deanrush.net/Portals/0/images/article/usa-806576__340.jpg) I found an article that expresses my thoughts most profoundly in this election cycle. I should have known it would be similar to my evaluation process because it is written by my son. I thought I would share it here: > **Scholar sidebar — Curating a son's counsel** > Dean's contribution is pastoral curation and endorsement: he names alignment with Ryan's evaluation process and puts that essay before his audience. Biblical precedent includes heeding wise counsel (Proverbs 11:14; 15:22) and fathers and sons in shared faith conversation (cf. Deuteronomy 6:6–7). Sharing Ryan is Dean choosing which civic discernment to amplify — not inventing a separate Dean policy platform in this post. ### Ryan Rush — Should Christians Willingly Vote for a Non-Christian to be President? There's a question I've been asked 100 times in the past two weeks: should Christians willingly vote for a non-Christian to be President? Let's be honest: there is nothing to indicate that Donald Trump is a Christ Follower. He seems to have "adopted our faith" only recently for the convenience of an election. That's not to disparage my Trump-supporting friends; it's just the fact to which all evidence points. So my two cents' has to be couched in two parts, with the understanding that these are not necessarily the opinions of the great church I get to pastor: **First of all, we're not voting for someone to lead the Church.** We're voting for someone to lead the country. We had the same question four years ago when a Mormon was the Republican candidate. Mormonism clearly isn't part of orthodox, historical Christianity. But it would have hardly been the first leader who was not. And it is not without precedent in the Scripture, either. The Bible includes multiple stories of how God uses non-believers for His good. Among them is Persian King Cyrus, who allowed the Jews to return to Israel following their captivity. Dr. Russell Moore, whom I have spoken with at forums on a number of occasions, put it this way during the last election: "So many evangelicals want to go back and claim Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln and John Adams as orthodox, evangelical Christians," Moore said. "The problem with that [is that] Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were great men who did fantastic things for our country, but once you start claiming them as orthodox evangelical Christians, you're not elevating those men, you're downgrading the Gospel into something that fits whatever they happen to hold. And you wind up with [modern-day] politicians who learn the language of evangelical faith in order to use it, in order to manipulate people into supporting them." Note that government has never been called to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus. That's the church's job! So it goes back to Romans 13: in every office for which we have a vote, who are the candidates who comprehend the difference between what is clearly seen as right and wrong, the difference between being an enabler and being compassionate, the difference between freedom and protecting the rights of the innocent? > **Scholar sidebar — Church vs. state, Cyrus, and Romans 13** > Ryan's first move is category clarity: ballot ≠ ordination. Matthew 22:21 and the Great Commission keep gospel mission with the church. Isaiah 45:1–4 shows God naming Cyrus — a pagan emperor — as His instrument for Israel's return. Romans 13:1–4 frames rulers as accountable for rewarding good and restraining evil, not for preaching sermons. Russell Moore's warning against baptizing founders as evangelicals protects the gospel from political capture — a concern Scripture shares whenever religion becomes a tool (cf. Matthew 23:5–7). Enrichment supports that frame without turning the 2016 candidate landscape into a new endorsement beyond what Ryan wrote. ### Christians are called to exercise influence for good Which brings me to my second point: the Christian is called to exercise his or her influence for good. Jesus reminded us that we are "the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet." (Matthew 5:13-14) What is salt used for? In biblical times especially, and even today, salt was the best preserving agent available. Jesus is saying that even those who don't believe who live among us should be blessed because we help preserve what is good. So my decision should be deeper than asking, "Who is the professing Christian?" Even more, it should be more than asking, "What political party am I beholden to?" It should certainly include asking, "Who has the character to focus on the things that matter to God? Who will uphold the standards of rewarding the diligent, defending the innocents, and promoting what is good?" ### So for me... I want to know who has a record of character. - I want to know who has a record of character. He doesn't have to be perfect, but he should be regretful about the moments in his life in which he's compromised his character. If character suddenly means nothing to many conservatives, they owe Bill Clinton an apology for stating he was unfit to lead. - I want to know who has demonstrated a record of conviction. Every politician has a right to "waffle" if waffling means a thoughtful change of mind over time related to policy and changing cultural climate - on economic issues, for example. But when a man or woman changes from one day to the next based on his or her audience, my baloney meter goes off. - Finally, I must speak on behalf of those who have no voice; and in our culture, there is no more abused minority than the unborn. I wouldn't vote for my mother if she were against the sensitivity to and protection of these innocent lives. In my opinion, to be an American and not to vote is a travesty. What a privilege we have been given! Don't let anyone convince you that you'd be "wasting your vote" to voice your convictions. Move past all of the goofy propaganda videos on Facebook and actually watch videos of the candidates talking for themselves. Find speeches from before they were running for president and get a sense of who they really are. Thanks to the Internet, those are not that difficult to find. > **Scholar sidebar — Salt, character, and the voiceless** > Matthew 5:13–16 casts disciples as preservative presence — neighbors should be better off because believers are near. Proverbs 22:1 values a good name; Proverbs 31:8–9 commands speaking for those who cannot speak. Ryan's triad — character, conviction, protection of the unborn — is an application of that salt calling to a ballot, not a claim that any party owns the kingdom. His refusal of "wasted vote" language treats conscience as stewardship (cf. Romans 14:5–12 on faith before God). Support his biblical categories; do not invent a Dean/Ryan endorsement line the post does not finalize. --- ## Takeaways 1. **Dean curates Ryan.** The post's authority structure is father sharing son's election-cycle discernment as aligned with his own. 2. **Ballot ≠ pastor search.** Christians vote for national leadership, not for someone to lead the church or preach the gospel. 3. **God can use non-believers.** Cyrus and Romans 13 keep civic competence and moral comprehension in view without downgrading orthodoxy. 4. **Salt preserves the good.** Influence aims at character, diligence rewarded, innocents defended — deeper than party label or mere profession. 5. **Vote convictions; protect the voiceless.** Abstaining is treated as wasted privilege; the unborn are named as those who most need a voice. --- ## First-time learner ### What is Dean saying in one sentence? Listen to this: Christians may weigh candidates who are not pastors-in-chief — judging character, conviction, and care for the innocent — because we vote for a country, not a church, as salt that preserves what is good. ### Why share Ryan's piece? Because Dean says it expresses his thoughts most profoundly for that election cycle — curation is the pastoral act of this post. ### Key verses to read with this post - **Matthew 22:21** — Render to Caesar and to God. - **Isaiah 45:1–4** — God uses Cyrus. - **Romans 13:1–4** — Authority, good, and evil. - **Matthew 5:13–16** — Salt and light. - **Proverbs 31:8–9** — Speak for those who cannot speak. - **Proverbs 22:1** — A good name. ### A simple practice (Dean's / Ryan's challenge made concrete) Before your next civic choice: (1) refuse to confuse pastor and president, (2) list character / conviction / care for the voiceless as your scorecard, (3) watch primary-source candidate speech — not only viral clips — then vote your convictions without outsourcing your conscience to party or propaganda. ### How this feeds Ask Dean This post is seed material for questions such as: *May Christians vote for a non-Christian? What does Dean share from Ryan about elections? How do salt and Romans 13 shape voting?* Answers should keep Dean's (and Ryan's quoted) voice primary and use the scholar notes only as supporting biblical scaffolding.