What is a Christian to do?

[Rosie]

In Bible class we talked a little bit about politics and how politicians bear false witness against each other and that is true.  There is a lot of lying in politics and that is anti-Christian.  The 10 commandments are in the old Testament so I think that makes it anti-Jewish to.  It is almost kind of anti-Muslim but not totally.  I do not know.  
On forums and stuff where people lie about who they are sometimes or accuse somebody of not being who they are and stuff is that kind of like bearing false witness?  I think it might be very easy to be guilty of bearing false witness but I do not think you can bear false witness against yourself.  Like Alexandra who wrote me and told me she is not who she said she is did not bear false witness against herself but when she said I am not Rosie then she did bear false witness against me right?  It is so confusing but I am starting to think that it is very easy to sin. 
I am going in all different directions but what I really mean is I will vote for the first time this year and people on both sides have been caught in lies so what is a Christian supposed to do?  I know I will vote the same way as my mom and dad do cause we have talked a lot about it and besides Scarlette would kill me if I voted for her enemy who does not even know her name   but wouldn't it make more sense to have a lot of people to pick from instead of only 2?  I don't know.

[Kim]

Rosie, I suppose you can say politicians bear false witness against each other.  I think it would fall under lying.
What's a Christian to do?  If you seriously want to vote with a Christian perspective, ask yourself WWJD?
How would Jesus treat the poor?
The sick?
The hungry?
The stranger or immigrant?
Now ask yourself, which party best represents what Jesus would do?  It's not brain surgery sweetheart.  You can find the answer to those questions right in the Bible.  Maybe Charity will visit and help you decide what Jesus calls his people to do.

[Vince]

You do like to ask the deep questions!

Take all this from the standpoint of an atheist who studied a lot about Christianity and other religions. 

Here is a quote from the Koran, by the way. It refers to the sin of spreading rumors.

O’ you who have true faith! If one who publicly and openly commits sins brings you any news [concerning another person] then ascertain its truthfulness carefully [before you spread it] lest you harm people through [your own] ignorance [through accepting and following false reports] and then regret what you have done. (49:6).

Similarly, I think if you were to read various studies of Exodus and the Ten Commandments, they would all agree that "bearing false witness against your neighbor" means not only perjuring yourself in a court proceeding to damage the reputation of another person, it means sharing damaging gossip and rumors - because often this is done by a someone in a forum where the person being defamed or accused is not there to defend himself.

Anyway, on the subject of voting, we have a system in most places in the US called "First Past the Post", which means you only get to vote for your top choice and your second, third, or fourth preference isn't considered. The person with the most votes, even if they fail to garner a majority, wins the election. It tends to reduce electoral competition so that you are generally presented with only two major parties. It's not a great system. It sometimes presents you with having to choose "the lesser of two evils". And third parties are often exploited by the two major parties to create a spoiler, where the small party draws votes and seats away from a larger party that it is more similar to, and therefore give an advantage to one it is less similar to (like the 2000 presidential election, where the left-leaning Ralph Nader drew more votes from the left-leaning Al Gore, allowing the Republicans to win the election).

I think your mom has the right answer to your question by asking WWJD. Perhaps neither candidate meets your expectations, but I would also counsel you to not let the "perfect" be the enemy of the "good" - in other words, shouldn't you vote for the candidate who mostly represents the ideals you share, rather than not voting for a candidate who does not perfectly align with your beliefs?

[scarlette]

Since no-one is perfect, you'll never find a candidate who is perfectly honest or perfectly anything.  That would be the case even if there were twenty viable candidates running at the same time.  Mom is right about asking yourself WWJD.

Matthew 25:31-40  “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, “I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

[scarlette]

As for forums and Alexandra.  Rosie when you were accused of not being a 13 year old girl...that was bearing false witness AND it was an adult bullying a kid.  The fact that this person confessed to you...in private after knowing you would never be able to share it with anyone on that forum....that they were role playing and then lied about you goes beyond bearing false witness or maybe it's bearing false witness to the extreme.  

What I know is your 18 now.  That person has had almost 5 years to apologize to you for the hurt she-he caused you but they haven't.  That is not a Christian I would want to emulate.   Actually, a wolf in sheep's clothing comes to mind.  Just let it go.  You believe in a just God so let him handle it.  I wouldn't want to face the source of goodness and love after hurting a child like that person hurt you.  It can't possibly go well. 

Matthew 19:14  Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Now that is enough Bible talk from me for one night or week or month.     Now it is time for me to go back to the documentary I'm watching.  It's about the Zodiac killer.   I'll regret it in the morning but for right now....it's good and it's on Netflix.

[Addy]

I wouldn't try to be too philosophical about it Rosie.  Bearing false witness is like accusing someone of something  you know they're innocent of or you don't know for sure if they're guilty or not. 
Forums.  Your mom started this forum so we would have a place where we don't have to worry about people pretending to be someone they aren't.  
WWJD?  I don't think he'd approve of a lot of things that happen on too many forums.

[quinn]

Rosie you are a thinker but if you're trying to find a Godly politician, you're going to drive yourself crazy.  

I have nothing to hide because I'm fine with people thinking differently than I do so here ya go:  I'm voting for Harris.

My reasoning?  She speaks of a world I would prefer to live in.
A world that has compassionate immigrations reform, strong borders without accusing people of being demons (and Trump may not say demon but rapists, murderers).
A world where we feed the hungry, house the homeless, care for the sick and elderly, lift the poor out of poverty.  Not every human service should be profit based.  Profit is a great motivator for greed, not for compassion.
I don't believe in abortion but I don't believe a woman's health care decisions should be made by the government.  

She better represents the kind of world this Christian lady wants to live in.

[charity]

My parents were very reluctant to let me join a forum because there are so many people who use this format to pretend to be whoever they have fantasies about.  I think Rosie saw that with a person pretending to be the Christian mother of a large family who is actually a lonely gay man.  I think we all understand that this person isn't the only one who does that.  I don't think that qualifies as bearing false witness but it is lying.  Something someone once told me is people live in their own realities so someone who is a liar is more likely to see everyone else as being a liar too.  I believe that's what happened to Rosie.  A liar told a bunch of liars that she was a role-player and because that was their reality, they believed that she must be one too.  I'm not sure that can be bearing false witness either.  People don't always see beyond what's going on in their own backyard and that means a liar will see a bunch of liars, even when the person they're looking at is telling the truth.
Politics is even harder than forum behavior.  I think a politician will say anything to get votes.  Trump was always pro-choice until he needed to votes of evangelical Christians.  He's an adulterer many times over.  Those things are important to me and not because I take my moral cues from him.  It's important because it shows me his poor character.  I know my parents struggle with it because we are a pro-life family who believes that abortion is murder and it's hard to balance that belief with not wanting to be one issue voters.  I'm glad I don't have to vote yet.  Maybe by the time I'm voting age, there will be someone out there running who has good character.  I don't think Harris has bad character.  I think she's evolving but my parents have their doubts about that.

[tim]

Those are indeed tough questions, but if I may, I'll make things a bit harder before trying to write something that may actually be helpful: If you ignore third party candidates (because, as Vince explained, they will only draw votes away from the main candidate who is better aligned with them), then you still have three choices. You can vote for one candidate, you can vote for the other, and you can choose to not vote at all.

However, when it comes to winning an election in the two party setup, stopping someone from voting for the other party is just as good as getting an additional vote for your side. And that, combined with the fact that it is much easier to sow doubts than to actually convince someone, gives us <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_campaigning">negative campaigning</a>. It is not about convincing people that your side's ideas and policies are better in some way, it is just about sowing doubts and confusing people to the point where they aren't sure enough to actually vote any more.

Of course there are liars in both parties, all politicians are people and you will find any kind of behaviour in a sufficiently large group of people. But I think pointing this out as though it was a big revelation is exactly what I wrote about earlier - sowing doubt and confusion. It detracts from the questions that should be asked: Who is lying? How important are they and how often do they lie? How bad are their lies? If you ask these questions you'll hopefully find a side that is, at least in this respect, "better" in some sense - not perfect but better. Claiming that this is a black-and-white issue only benefits the side that lies more and worse.

That said, I'm pretty sure that it would not be appreciated if you told your teachers that what they are (intentionally or unintentionally) doing is actually negative campaigning. For a classroom discussion it would be better to find Bible quotes that state that someone who tries to be good and occasionally fails is better than someone who doesn't bother.

[Rosie]

I think it is maybe Germany where they don't got to have or vote for just one party over another but maybe it is not Germany.  

[Ruby]

But we don't live in Germany. You're going to vote for whoever mom and dad vote for so just say that.

[Cathy]

A lot of this is about discernment Rosie.  Take the forums as an example.  As you get older, you'll better discern what's appropriate and what's inappropriate.  A 13 year old girl may have a hard time discerning the difference but I bet that you, as an 18 year old young lady, wouldn't have such a difficult time. 
As for voting, go ahead and ask yourself WWJD but also ask yourself, what parts of life do you believe government should have authority over.  You know your mom and most of us who grew up with her were Republicans.  Do you know why that is?  Because we all believe in small government and hard work.  We don't look for or expect a free ride at the expense of someone else.  Why did most of us stop voting for Republicans?  They stopped being about small government and became intrusive in areas of life they have no business being in.  They've also helped create such huge wage disparity that working hard is no longer the way to achieve the American dream since working hard still means that many people need food stamps and other assistance, assistance that Republicans want to take away.
The Republican party has become the party that puts people between a boulder and a hard place.  Now add to that the hatred towards people who don't look or talk like us and we realized that the Republican party stopped being the party of small government and the American dream.  It's going in the direction of fascism.   Look up fascism and see if I'm not telling you right. 

[Libby]

Raising Christian Girls?  That forum was anything but Christian sweetheart.  Shake their dust from your feet straight away.  Voting is a wonderful honour and a heavy responsibility.  You pick whomever has the policies you come closest to agreeing with.
I won't get into American politics because my opinion doesn't really matter but as far as having more than a two party system, I don't believe that will solve much of anything.  Someone once told me that in order to be a politician, you have to be a bit of a narcissist to think you are best qualified to represent other people whose names and situations you know nothing about so if it's 2 narcissists or 12, there will still be issues.  In my opinion money has to come out of politics so that someone other than the wealthy can run as well.  Sometimes poverty and struggling can make for a very smart or wise person but he or she will never be heard unless they have large sums of money.

[mandy]

I'm glad I never found that forum.  It needed a Kim or a Vince on it.  Us teens aren't supposed to have everything figured out so it's real dirty for an adult to play with our feelings.  If I ever met that Alexandra I would spit at her and I know that's nasty-nasty-nasty but no adult should hurt a kid like that.  She was 13.

[Ruby]

You can spit at her that's really a him and I'll punch it in the throat.