Two Christian activists from both sides of the political spectrum are encouraging the body of Christ to become active in politics, contending they have a responsibility to become major influencers in American society by restoring civility to political discourse. On his podcast "Deep End" last week, Christian rapper Lecrae hosted Justin Giboney of the & Campaign, who generally supports the Democratic Party, and Georgia State University executive-in-residence Cory Ruth, who generally supports the Republican Party, in a discussion on the 2024 presidential election and why Christians to engage in politics.
Both activists were asked to respond to a survey released by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, which found that 41 million Christians do not intend to vote in this year's election. Giboney, who responded first, urged believers to consider voting as a matter of "stewardship."
"As someone who has a vote, that means you have influence," he added. "For a Christian, when you have influence, you should try to use that influence to serve your neighbor, to do good.
"When you get an opportunity to help somebody to be able to vote on something that could feed a child or protect a child or something like that, you should do it. You should steward that influence in the right way."
Per The Christian Post, Ruth concurred that it's important for Christians to vote, noting how "a democratic republic relies on its citizens engaging."
"When we take ourselves out of that conversation, then we can't wonder why we feel society may be hostile to our faith," he added.
Ruth quoted 2 Timothy 2:15 when instructing Christians to "study to show yourself approved," implying that believers "should take as a principle, as a people, that we are going to be the most informed people in the American body politic because when you're informed, when you are knowledgeable […] when you have a mastery of the issues, then you can be civil."
He differentiated the approach with the tendency to get "emotional" when discussing politics, explaining that "you can just be calm and speak the truth in love."
"I do think it's important that Christians do study. And I know we're busy, but we have to study to show ourselves approved; we have to vote as unto the Lord," he added.
Ruth asserted that Christians have a "key opportunity" to make a difference, warning that "right now, American politics does not have a lot of clarity."
"There's a lot of clutter of voices out there," he said. "No one knows which source to trust, and if Christians rose up as knowledgeable and civil, we can start to be the major influencers in American politics."
WATCH: Two Christians on Opposing Sides Urge Christians to Engage in American Politics
Photo Credit: ©YouTube/Lecrae
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.