Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm Zach Weihrauch and in today's episode, we're asking the question, are christians cheering for cheating?

This is based on a piece i read by the wall street journal's editorial board recently about Texas and the gerrymandering that is happening there.

Now, gerrymandering is when one party is in power in a particular state and uses that power to redraw up the districts in their state so that the voting will go in their direction.

In other words, you can draw kind of arbitrary lines to make quote unquote communities voting blocks so that you know your party, Republicans or Democrats, will win that particular area as opposed to leaving them where they are even if that means you won't win the vote.

Now, in Texas right now, Republicans are pushing to redraw the state's U.S. House map to make sure that they gain up to five seats for the 2026 midterms.

They are redrawing up the rules to make sure that Republicans stay in power. They are gerrymandering. Now, I don't mean to say this is a Republican problem because blue states like Illinois, New York, California— have done and are threatening to do the very same thing.

The truth is we have more data now than we've ever had, which means if you're a political party in power and you want to draw up all the districts so that just enough Republicans or just enough Democrats will do the voting, you can do that.

You can draw really weird looking shapes on a map that will result in your political party being in power.

But actually, that's directly opposed to the whole concept of Democracy. Democracy is the idea that the people get to choose. If we draw up districts so that our parties stay in power, the people aren't choosing.

We're choosing in the way that we draw them up, particularly in a tribalistic culture where most people don't even entertain the idea of voting for the other party.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board, which again tends to slant conservative, has come out against gerrymandering.

And I think they're right. And I think whether they know it or not, they're being biblical. Here's why. The Bible tells us that justice requires honest scales.

Proverbs 11.1 says a false balance is an abomination to the Lord. Now, of course, the writer of Proverbs has in mind when you would pay for things with gold or you would trade vegetables for something and they would use scales to make sure that the weight was equivalent.

There would be a conversion ratio. And every now and then you'd get a merchant who'd put a weight underneath their scale so that they always came out on top.

And the writer of Proverbs is saying God hates that. But what is gerrymandering besides putting your thumb on the scale of voting districts to engineer an outcome?

It isn't saying, hey, we'll compete in the arena of ideas and let the people decide. It is saying we will decide for the people by putting our thumb on the scale of drawing up voting districts.

Here's another thing the Bible says, power without restraint breeds corruption. Ecclesiastes 5.8 says, do not be amazed that justice and rights are denied.

Look, political parties that can constantly redraw up the maps to stay in power are not political parties that are accountable or actually care about people.

Because if they know they can just redistrict their way into staying in power, the consequence of that will be corruption.

They will do whatever they want. There will be no way of getting rid of them. Democracy ensures accountability. That's what we were taught in high school civics class.

And political officials should not be able to ensure that they are not accountable. By the way, they are accountable, not just to us, but to God.

2 Samuel 23 says this, He who rules justly over men rules in the fear of God. Politicians who cheat their way into power, whether they have a D after their name or an R after their name, will ultimately answer to God.

Any true path forward for our country means a healthy respect of that reality. We are accountable. Our lives are accountable. Right now we have politicians who are not seeking the glory of God or even the good of their neighbor.

They're seeking the glory and good of themselves. And one day they will answer for that. And finally, the church must model integrity. Look, I know if you listen to this, you probably tend to vote for one particular party or the other.

And I know you're probably listening to podcasts and articles that are telling you your party is totally right for gerrymandering.

And they'll turn around in a week and say the other party is totally evil for doing that. Listen, Integrity only counts when it costs you something.

That's when we show what we actually believe. Micah 6.8 says to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly before our God.

Christians should be able to say to their preferred political party, I won't go with you on the path to gerrymandering.

We don't get to put our thumb on the scale. We are meant to be held accountable. And if our ideas and our arguments aren't good enough to win elections, then we need better ideas and arguments, not better drawn districts.

Listen, church, what are we doing? When we join with the cheaters, we deny God. We deny his glory. We deny the good of our neighbors. For what? Why would we do that? Remember this, politics are temporary, but God's kingdom is forever.

It's far more important that we draw a contrast of integrity that calls people to repentance, than it is that we win a single election.

Gerrymandering is cheating. I don't care who does it. And God doesn't care either. He just hates it.

Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

This episode of Wake Up, Look Up was produced by Marcus Cunningham and Hallie Andrews.

Our topic researcher is Shanna Young. This episode was directed by Rima Saleh. Our podcast coordinator is Hallie Andrews. Our production manager and audio wizard is Marcus Cunningham with tech and engineering support from Matthew Adel and Landon Hull.

I'm your host, Zach Weihrauch. Join us for the next episode of Wake Up, Look Up.