The following is a guest post by my friend Riley J. Hood. The subject of voting for the lessor of two evils has been a constant theme since I began to be politically active in the 1990s. Riley addresses the matter well, so I will post his comments as representing my own views on the matter.

The Lesser of Two Evils

“Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.” I Chronicles 21:10

By Riley J. Hood

I was watching a DVD made by Christians in 2016. They had a question-and-answer session, where a poorly worded question about choosing the lesser of two evils was read. “As a Christian, my conscience is deeply conflicted in this election. I don’t feel right voting for the lesser of two evils. How do I participate in the election without violating my Christian conscience?” I don’t know of any real person who makes that argument in such airy-fairy terms. The question is an obvious straw man.

It was answered by Dr. Ben Carson, “It is a very appropriate question for me, because I’m a brain surgeon, and the reason God gave us a brain is so that we could make decisions. You know every day when you get out of bed and you get dressed and you walk out that door, until that time you get back in that bed you are making choices between the lesser of evils because we live in an evil world. If you are unable to do that then you really can’t exist. So that’s a cop-out quite frankly.” He continued his answer by comparing choosing a paper cut versus having both your legs amputated. Then he appeals to the audience to be concerned about the nation. His argument has some truths in it, such as living in a fallen world, and God giving us a brain.

But quite frankly the cop-out is “choosing the lesser of two evils,” if and when you didn’t have to. What Dr. Carson leaves out is that a healthy person doesn’t have to give himself a paper cut, because he is more afraid of amputation. It is kind of like a person with a crummy job thinking his only two choices are being worked to death for substandard pay, or to break his pinky with a ball-peen hammer so he can collect disability. All the while ignoring his options to find a better company to work for.

What this means is voting GOP, even when the GOP man is a Tommy Thompson or a Robin Vos or an Arlen Specter or a Christy Todd Whitman or a John McCain or a Liz Cheney et al. And yes, I realize that every Democrat is an enemy of God. Increasingly, crummy options are all you are left with, because once you start down this path the lesser evil gets worse and worse.

Now, I am not a brain surgeon, and in my nearly 60 years of existence, no one thought I was worth a scholarship. But I know someone even smarter than Dr. Carson, and that is God the Omniscient. I’m quite certain that Christians will admit the supremacy of the Bible as God’s Word. So, let’s take a look at what it says, regarding this issue.

Nowhere in the Bible is there a commendation of the lesser evil regarding men in office. Exodus 18:21 reads, “Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:” and Proverbs 29:2 states, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”

The classic choice among evils scripture is, “And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it. And Joab answered, The Lord make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword. But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab. And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel. And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. And the Lord spake unto Gad, David’s seer, saying, Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the Lord , I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord , Choose thee Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the Lord , even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.” I Chronicles 21:1-14

As you can plainly read, David violated God’s command and was given the choice between three evils. It was not a goal, or a principle, but a curse and a punishment. Here in America, we had a Christian nation that has been squandered away by Pietism on the righthand and a godless pragmatism on the lefthand. When we were a healthy body-politic, we started choosing the lesser evil, when we didn’t have to.

More often than not these days life is a series of painful, lousy choices: but that is the Judgment of God on our nation. Let us recognize the lesser evil as the curse that it is. When there is a righteous man on the ballot, vote for him. America has been destroyed, like a garment whose fabric, namely moral fabric has been worn out. Even if we have a revival, America has a painful future ahead of her. The longer Christians continue making excuses, like John McArthur does, the hope drains away from our country’s continued existence. What is going to stop the Democrats isn’t more fear, cowardice and quailing, but fierce opposition. The wicked man’s arrogance must be met with answerable courage.