Election day is fast approaching.
Most of you reading this have already made up your mind as to who your presidential choice will be.
I'm writing mainly to the few of you who have not.
In 2016, many of you who are religious, white, and conservative cast your vote for our current president.
At that time, you saw him as the clear choice to implement a conservative agenda.
In fact, over 80 percent of white "born again" evangelicals voted for him, enough to lift him to the presidency (by way of the electoral college).
Many of you made a choice to overlook the current president's personal life while pressing a conservative path.
I'm asking you to please take a second look.
A prominent evangelical pastor recently raised this point: A public figure's personal life does matter. This pastor stated, "if a person lies to their wife, they will lie to you."
Since taking office the current president has:
- lied about Covid-19 (the U.S. has one of the worst rates of Covid-19 infections in the world);
- lied about his wealth (he is over $400 million in debt; those debts are about to become due);
- lied about caring for seniors/other vulnerable people (he has consistently tried to dismantle the Affordable Care Act without any alternative in mind);
- blamed those around him for his mistakes (including the FBI, CIA, several Chiefs of Staff, the Attorney General and the Justice Department);
- shown an affinity for hate groups, so it's no wonder that hate crimes have escalated during his tenure.
I have friends who are professing evangelicals. None of them like the current president.
But all of them are willing to overlook his moral and ethical failings in order to advance the conservative's political plan-of-action.
They are basically stating, by their actions, that personal integrity doesn't matter.
If you happen to be a follower of Jesus, I would ask you to take a look at the life Jesus led. He ministered to those on the fringes of society and was deeply concerned for the "least of us." He was not interested in political or religious power. And Jesus regularly admonished the religious leaders of his day for being hypocrites.
Could you see Jesus encouraging his followers to gather close together during a pandemic, endangering their lives and the lives of their families? Could you see Jesus cheating on his taxes? Could you see Jesus being unfaithful to a spouse?
Could you see anyone following Jesus if there had been a strong disconnect between what Jesus said in public and what he did in private?
How a person acts in their personal, private life has a direct influence on the public decisions they make.
Jesus was remarkably transparent. Once, Jesus was confronted by a Canaanite (non-Jewish) woman, who asked him to heal her daughter. Jesus initially replied that he wouldn't heal her, because he was sent only to "the lost people of Israel." The Canaanite challenged him and Jesus changed the course of his ministry to include everyone. (See Matthew 15:21-28 for details.)
Jesus was concerned about personal relationships, but Jesus was also deeply concerned about society as a whole. He realized that what happens to one of us affects all of us. He would not have been a fan of MAGA, or dictators, or xenophobia borne of fear-mongering.
What I'm saying, dear conservative, (especially evangelical) religious friends is this: Personal integrity is far more important than political power.
If you need some encouragement to think more broadly, beyond one-issue assessments of candidates, take heart. Nicholas Kristof has reported on the Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden. Among those in the forefront of this organization is a granddaughter of Billy Graham, Jerushah Duford.
God, across all religions that believe in God, is chiefly expressed in love. Not power.
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Dishonesty has consequences. Read NYTimes article re. dishonesty being a hallmark of the current president.
For extra credit, here's a recent post by my friend, Ed Cyzewski, on the dangers of lying.
Amen. Well said, Dan.
ReplyDeleteThank you John!
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