This cheery piece of news came to my inbox a few days ago:

[N]ew research from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, led by Dr. George Barna, indicates that millions of Christians — many of whom traditionally support conservative candidates — are unlikely to vote.

Barna says this election season is marked by a significant drop in voter enthusiasm, particularly among Christian voters who have historically been key players in determining the outcome of presidential races. According to the research, only 51% of “people of faith” are likely to vote this November, a figure that could have dire implications for President Trump’s re-election prospects.

The results also revealed that large numbers of Christian churches have distanced themselves from the election, refusing to even encourage congregants to vote and avoiding teaching related to many of the key social issues on which the election may hinge. …

“In 2020, the gap between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden was just seven million votes. The real story lies in the margins of victory in swing states, where an average of 60,000 votes per state determined nearly 40% of the electoral votes needed to win,” Barna emphasized. “In this context, the 32 million regular churchgoers who won’t vote in 2024 is a gamechanger.”

At this point, the temptation is to give in to anger. Indignation would be righteous, and rightly could be aimed in many directions. The first obvious target is the Trump campaign, which watered down the GOP platform, and adopted a neutral “states’ rights” approach to abortion — humiliating a key part of its own political base without winning over many swing voters. You don’t see the Democrats backing down from open borders, child castration, groomer filth in public school libraries, or massive cash giveaways to the entitled and undeserving — from student loan deadbeats to fake “refugees”— do you?

Why does our side have to make all the compromises? That infuriates me too. It makes me feel weak and small. You know what makes it worse? The grim realization that this GOP capitulation isn’t the disease, but merely the symptom.

Weary of Warmongers and Useful Idiots

Trump isn’t making the pro-life, pro-family movement politically marginal by making these decisions. (Though he surely isn’t helping.) The causation runs the other way around. He’s recognizing the fact that we’re politically marginal, that we haven’t convinced the country, so he’s not giving us the half-loaf we’d hoped for, but merely a slice or two.

It’s not Trump’s fault that, in the wake of the historic overturning of Roe v. Wade which previous RINO candidates promised but never delivered, the pro-life cause lost race after race in state after state. I’m sure that surprised him. Our own movement fumbled the ball by:

• Refusing to spend money fighting referenda like the one in Ohio.
• Lining up with warmonger Lindsey Graham to sabotage the 2022 “red wave” by foolishly proposing a hopeless national abortion ban.
• Continuing to celebrate useful idiots like Mike Pence — whose failure to do his job in January 2021 empowered the theft of the White House by the most pro-abortion political party on Earth.

And how much have pro-lifers gotten involved in other issues that have a huge impact on the battle for the unborn? Do they fight against open borders? Mostly not, because far too many are entangled with Catholic bishops running a $3 billion human trafficking Ponzi scheme — clerics tepid on the life issue, who fought like cornered rats against every measure Trump tried to pass to control the border, then responded to the chaos the feds inflicted on Rust Belt communities in Ohio by accusing the victims of “dehumanizing” Haitians.

Can We Learn from Queers for Palestine?

On the Left, every interest group turns out to support its natural allies. That’s why we have groups like Queers for Palestine, who rally on behalf of Hamas — which would throw them off tall buildings if they actually showed up in “Palestine.” But on the Right, too many groups selfishly, almost autistically, fixate on their single issues, with pro-lifers perhaps the most guilty here. Then they wonder why a unified Left is able to divide and conquer us.

I understand Christians who feel the same sting that I do, who fume and rage and bluster as I do on these subjects. It’s degrading to have to vote for a GOP that’s neutral on abortion, same-sex marriage, and even the transgender madness (except where kids are directly involved). It’s humbling, and we hate that. We know our causes are righteous, that in the long run the country can’t be saved by muttering half-measures and unprincipled compromise.

But when we look at the Democrats, we don’t see fellow citizens with foolish, utopian worldviews. Not anymore, not since 2016 at the very latest. We see a horde possessed by principalities and powers, thundering toward us like the Mongols or Hitler’s panzers. They’re en route to drown in the sea, but they will surely crush us first.

Do we really have any choice? Can we withhold our votes from the shabby, half sold-out GOP without dooming the country we live in? Maybe our pride is so wounded that we decide it’s worth it. We’re willing to burn down our own house in order to punish the squatters we can’t evict. We’ll let it all crash and burn to keep our “dignity” intact. That will teach Donald Trump a lesson, won’t it? When he loses, and is bankrupted and imprisoned along with his family, maybe then he’ll regret selling our people short and failing to grant us the deference we deserved.

That will be some comfort in the Max Max hellscape that America will become. Maybe it will improve the taste of the gruel we eat in prison. We can treasure that righteous memory as 10, 20, or 50 million Third Worlders march right into our country, sign up for welfare, and register to vote. As Mt. Rushmore gets demolished just like all those Confederate monuments have since 2020, and the White House gets painted in the colors of the groomers’ rainbow flag, we can mutter to ourselves: “I stood firm on my principles.”

But when we finally leave this vale of tears, how will the great Judge regard us? How much sympathy does He have for reckless choices made out of wounded pride? Not much, from my reading of Scripture.

There’s a better way forward than that. Disappointed in our choices as we may currently be, we can remember that God never uses perfect people because they don’t exist. And when He chooses someone, He can change their heart — and their policies — in an instant.

We disgruntled Republicans can pray for that, remembering that God actually is not one of us. He’s much bigger — and His heart, will, and agenda for our country outweighs the chess moves of politicians. Let’s pray for that and align not under a flag, but under His banner.

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John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of 14 books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First.