Adam Carrington
In his July 4, 1861, address to Congress in special session, President Abraham Lincoln noted Americans had two choices for settling political disputes and thus making political decisions: Bullets or ballots. We either discuss and vote or violently coerce.
Americans had chosen ballots, but a Civil War threatened to upend that choice, returning to the destructive fighting that marked much of human history.
“Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets … Such will be a great lesson of peace,” former President Abraham Lincoln declared.
On Saturday, former President Donald Trump was shot at and wounded by a would-be assassin’s bullet. The attempted murder took place during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, where an attendee and the shooter were both killed.
Regardless of your political leanings, you should be thankful the shots did not kill the former president. Regardless of your partisanship, you should be outraged this shooting occurred. This heinous act betrays our national principles.
As Lincoln noted, we chose the route of discourse and ballot-casting to make political decisions. This route seeks to fulfill our country’s commitment to the principle of human equality and dignity in that equality. Violence reduces the question of right to a contest of physical might. It demands an aristocracy of the powerful, whether that power manifests as more guns or more cunning.
For believers in this country, violence runs contrary to how Scripture has mandated we work out our faith as citizens. We are to pray for our political leaders. This requirement certainly applies most to sitting officeholders. But it also includes those seeking those positions. We should pray for their good and that they would seek good if elected.
And yet, since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, humans have sought to be like God, to replace Him in authority. Political violence displays a desire for god-like control. On one level, any attempt to murder another human being exhibits this sin. All men are made in God’s image. Yes, persons may defend themselves even to the point of using lethal force. Yes, God has entrusted governments with power over life and death to accomplish the purposes God set out for political communities. However, this assassination attempt fits into none of the above. That a private person believes he can make determinations about who deserves to live or die betrays a disdain for God in disdaining what He created.
On another level, this shooting shows the desire for god-like control not just over a particular human being but over an entire nation. Not content with the peaceful role of persuasion and voting, persons perpetrating such acts wish to exercise a veto power over the electoral process. They wish to deny their fellow citizens the power, inherent to them in a republic, to weigh and decide who should serve in elected office. And, connecting both points, they wish to determine the outcome in a way God has not ordained. If David, the anointed future king, would not kill the current king, Saul, then any claim to right made here seems laughable. We must obey God’s authority over human political history and recognize the small role of our own human contribution to the same.
Finally, this assassination attempts to participate in an all-encompassing view of politics. Politics has become the religion of many. Policy views are dogmas. Candidates are saints or demons. Political communities stand in as either heavens or hells. Thus, we justify the unjustifiable to follow the “true” faith, to gain adherence to right theology, to destroy evil, and to uphold good. In this view, we deny the present reality of God’s Kingdom. We thus fail to acknowledge that God is King and is bringing His purposes to completion even in the midst of tragedy and hardship.
Let us pray for Trump that he might recover from any injuries. Let us pray that this action does not drive others to desperate acts of evil. Let ballots decide, not bullets. And let us remember that God remains on the throne. He is sovereign. That truth should destroy any desire for political violence from our midst.
Adam Carrington is an associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College.
