We live in a republic so we ought to vote for those who will represent the way we would vote if we had access to the information that the full-time elected official would.
Likewise, those who belong to Jesus ought to vote for the representative who would vote the way they think Jesus would vote if he were not a carpenter, but an elected official. It is the voter's responsibility to study the records and character and ideology and vision of a representative and make an informed vote. A voter may assess the affiliations, associations and platform of the party to which the candidate belongs.
Once the informed voter has determined that the official shares a sound Biblical worldview, will be competent to make decisions accordingly, will understand the relevant context of future situations and appoint similarly qualified leaders around him or her--only then should other considerations be taken into account. Sometimes the race, gender, origin and other historically significant factors might be considered IF two candidates are equally qualified in all the aforementioned criteria. Such demographic characteristics might somehow be important in diplomatic progress with other nations or domestic ethnic groups who might have been excluded in the past--this should not be prioritized over other eternally significant factors.
The church should therefore be allowed in and not muzzled in the arena of politics, especially since the Biblical worldview should be a consideration in how we select our elected officials. Evaluating the moral quality of entertainment and personal behavior and financial stewardship is important, but is not the only realm of responsibility of a Christian who happens to have the responsibility to demonstrate good active citizenship behavior, both as a citizen of Christ's kingdom AND as citizens of a constitutional republic.
