I trust Mr. Shakespeare from somewhere beyond the grave will not mind me appropriating and paraphrasing his words for the title of this column. After all, if indeed all the world’s a stage, including voters and candidates, and all the men and women merely players, then it is an appropriate usage of that snippet of Hamlet’s soliloquy.

It is another old phrase from a different kind of old writer, though, that has me thinking along these lines. This particular writer was a theologian and famous preacher, namely C.H. Spurgeon, and his famous quote was, “Of two evils, choose neither.” This, in our day, is often lengthened to “When faced with a choice of the lesser of two evils, choose neither,” or some variation of that. And its most common usage in our day seems to be that of an admonition for Bible-believing Christians to abstain from voting since there always seems to be something morally objectionable to one candidate or another.

And in practical terms, that belief utterly neuters what should be the most formidable voting bloc in America. As of 2023, Gallup reported that 68% of Americans regard themselves as Christians, which means that, in theory, if all of them got together and voted, their candidate or candidates would always win. But due in part to the growing and growingly vocal segment of “Choose neither” Christians, that potentially powerful voting bloc is usually about as weak as a giant cotton ball.

The foundational question, though, is not effect (do we win or lose), but logic (are we thinking right to begin with?) In other words, should we be saying “When faced with two evils, choose neither,” or should we instead be saying, “Always choose the lesser of two evils?” If we choose the former, Christians will not fully participate in the election process; if we choose the latter, they will fully participate, so it is indeed a pretty important question.

Let me give you my answer and then explain the rationale behind it. Christians should always vote, and they should always vote for the lesser of two evils.

To begin with, that has forever and always been the only choice we have ever had. Romans 3:10 says that there is none righteous, no, not one, and even when a person gets saved, the same thing will be true of him or her that was true of Paul the Apostle, who said, “In my flesh dwelleth no good thing.” So unless Jesus decides to run for office, literally every election will be between two or more people who are some level of evil. And for anyone who replies, “But wait! Some people are reaallllly evil while others may only be a teensy bit evil!” I say, “Thank you, you have just proven the point; you have just stipulated to the terms that all are evil, and you have just advocated for voting for the lesser of the two. The only way for anyone to be consistent in the belief that we should never vote for the lesser of two evils is to never vote for anyone in any election ever.

And then there is the matter of formed opinion. For instance, you listen to the news and hear the candidate for the Whigs described as “A man who will appeal to evangelicals because he spent three years training for the ministry, a successful money manager, a man who helped nab an infamous criminal, and a man with broad appeal to the common man, having come from a small town.” And then you hear the candidate for the Tory party described as “A religious bigot, a man who once called a woman a dog, and a person in serious trouble with the law.”

I have just given you political spins, in order, of Judas Iscariot and Jesus. By selective framing, carefully choosing what to say and what not to say, and leaving out a whole bunch of incredibly important information, I was able to make a devil in the flesh sound like a saint and the Son of God sound like a devil. And that is much the way our political/media system operates. You only know what you are told – which may not be even close to an accurate picture.

There is also the issue of which way the ship is steered, rather than whether or not the hands on the wheel have eight dirty fingernails or merely two. If my family and I are on a ship, I want the person at the helm steering us away from the deadly hurricane, not into it. The fingernails are of far less importance to me than whether or not my children drown. Every election contributes to the steering of a nation. Wise men and women should choose to vote for people who will steer our country away from ruin rather than toward it.

I will squeeze in one more, though if I had room I could give far more, and that is the matter of testimony and hypocrisy. Here is what I mean. If we are honest, we will have to admit that Christians are every bit as good at complaining as anyone else, especially when it comes to politics and society. We can post and meme and complain and bellyache with the best of the best.

But do you understand how grating it is for people to hear you whine when they know you sat on your pious hands and did not even vote? I would have far more respect for the “Never vote for the lesser of two evils” crowd if they were also a “Never complain about anything that is happening” crowd, but that is definitely not the case.

So vote. Figure out what the best option available to you at the moment is, and vote, lest “We have seen better days” be eventually applied to our fair land.