When I was eight years old, our family moved to the US. For the next few years we travelled across the States (my parents were itinerant missionaries) before finally settling in San Francisco, California. When I was 12, we returned to the UK but around 11 years later, I was on my way back to the US and I spent my early 20s working and travelling across 44 different US states, finally returning home with the strangest quasi American/English accent you’ve ever heard.

International travel has always been a big part of my life and I’ve so far been able to visit about 35 countries (not to mention, most of America!). I think there’s something about experiencing different people, countries and cultures that’s given me a wide eyed curiosity about the world.

So it’s probably for all those reasons, I’ve always been fascinated by US politics. Every 4 years as the descent into campaigning madness begins, I geek out on every blog post, opinion or news article I can find and, in this last election cycle particularly, all the podcasts I could clap my ears upon.

Rogan – tick

Call her daddy – tick (don’t recommend this one)

Live presidential and VP debates – tick

Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, The View, Piers Morgan, X Spaces – tick

Politically, I’ve never really been one or the other. I’m interested in policies more than personalities and over the years, I’ve voted at least once for all the mainstream UK parties. I love unity, care for the poor, good funding of public services but I also believe in personal liberty, freedom of speech and lots of other lovely sounding ideals too. At heart, I guess I’m a Libertarian and believe in the simple idea of ‘you do you’. We have each been given free will to live our own lives and speak out as we see fit and as Voltaire once said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

But I also love listening to alternative view points (even the outlandish/conspiracy theory ones), I love trying to understand why people think (and vote) the way they do and I love reading reactions from all sides of the political divide.

Fundamentally as a believer in Jesus, I also believe that humans, each made by an incredible creator God, are truly fascinating…yes, even the ones who see the world differently to me.

This election has been particularly tribalistic. Us humans do enjoy organising ourselves into clubs and societies but this one has felt off the charts. Battle lines were drawn, swords were picked up and Democrat versus Republican organised their troops into toxic camps with missiles being fired from all sides. And now it’s over, the online vitriol has ramped up even further. There’s TikTok meltdowns of under 20s, dry-eyed screaming into their thanks-to-Capitalism smartphones and there’s extreme MAGA gloating and taunting and rehashing sarcastic memes.

Do I have ‘a side’? Most definitely yes but to me at least, it seemed like one major thing was being missed: Two things can be true at the same time.

To me, that means:

I can lean politically in a certain direction but also reject tribalism and the idea that I must uncritically accept everything ‘my side’ says. I can also believe in certain values but acknowledge there is no ‘perfect’ political system. I’m a citizen of the Kingdom of God, not a slave to a political party. Two things can be true at the same time.

I reject the idea that everyone who voted for Trump or for Kamala or ‘the other side’ was thick, stupid or some kind of ‘village idiot’. Each of those voters are people made in God’s image, with their own private anxieties, stresses and complexities. Two things can be true at the same time.

I reject the idea that a leader with a past or with character flaws (and this applies equally to all political sides) cannot be used by God. Pick up a Bible and many major Kings or rulers were disgraced humans, adulterers, murderers or defiers of God. King David was all of those things and yet without him, we would not have the book of Psalms. Two things can be true at the same time.

I also reject the idea that on Nov 5 as millions took to the Polls in the US, that somehow God clocked out and left the world to it. God is sovereign, he changes the hearts of men, he is merciful, and gracious and he wants peace (not war). Ultimately whether you liked the election result or not, God is able to achieve great things through Kings, rulers and governments (yes, even the ones you don’t like).

If I could vote in the US elections, I’m not interested in saying who I’d vote for as I might be organised into a ‘tribe’ and labeled as something or other. The truth is far more nuanced than that.

All I know for sure is that God loves humans so much he died to save us and he is certainly not finished with you, me or the world yet.