At the risk of being labeled a heretic, I need to write
about what I’m feeling about this election, to process all the thoughts I have
swirling around in my head. I keep thinking about the Israelites wanting a
king. They thought a king would solve all their problems. Like us, they thought
that this “king” would pass all the right laws, appoint the right judges, make
their nation strong. They thought a king would make everything right again. But
they forgot. They forgot that God was their King. They put their hope in human
leaders, flawed institutions.
We keep talking as if electing the “right” (no pun intended)
candidate will bring about a new, moral nation. That if we get “our” candidate
to appoint the next Supreme Court judge, all the wrongs of the past 50 years
(that seems to be the limit of The People’s collective memory) will be corrected.
But maybe that’s not the answer. Maybe we can’t legislate morality.
Abortion has been legal for 40 years. Forty years! In all that time,
we’ve been focusing on repealing the law, when maybe we should be looking at
the root causes of abortion. Rather than working to make it illegal, we should ask
ourselves why women choose to get abortions. All the money that pro-life groups
are spending to try to repeal Roe v. Wade could be used to create programs
alleviating poverty, providing resources to pregnant women and offering paid
time off and child care for those who can’t afford it (men AND women). I think
we’ve learned from the “war on drugs” that criminalizing behavior doesn’t make
it go away. It just drives it underground and makes it harder to get treatment.
Marriage equality is also not going away. Rather than fight
a losing battle that leaves wounded souls in its wake, we need to find a way to
reach out to those we have hurt in the past, recognizing that they are also
made in God’s image. Even if they don’t live according to our interpretation of
God’s law, that doesn’t make them any less precious in His sight.
And bathrooms. Don’t get me started on bathrooms. We never
had to have laws before about who could use what bathroom. Why now? Why not let
everyone use the bathroom they’re most comfortable in? They have been already.
You’ve probably shared a public restroom with a transgender person and didn’t
even know it. If I were a man, biologically, dressed as a woman, I would feel
unsafe going into a men’s restroom. And yes, pedophiles and sex offenders have
probably hidden out in both men’s and women’s restrooms before, looking for
easy targets. They don’t follow the laws anyway, so these new laws aren’t going
to keep them out of the wrong bathrooms.
But
what about my rights, you say? Jesus was not concerned about His rights--He
gave them up for us. He taught us not to fight for our own rights but for the
rights of the poor, the marginalized and even the “aliens” (i.e., immigrants
and refugees) among us. And we are not to consider ourselves better than others
but to be "last of all."
I
wouldn't put too much hope in one Supreme Court justice appointee, either. The President
of the United States carries too much power for me to support such flawed
candidates for that position. I may only have one vote, but I take that vote
very seriously. I view it as an endorsement, and I can't endorse either of
these people. I have to vote my conscience.
I believe this election has become a distraction. We’re all
worried about who to vote for, who our neighbor is voting for, and who is the more
moral candidate. Rather than spending so much time over this temporal, human
institution, we should really be about our Father’s business. Primarily, that
means the Great Commission. Instead of focusing on our own nation, we should be
working to reach all nations. Instead of arguing with our neighbor about whose
candidate is less odious, we should be modeling what it looks like to love our
neighbor. How can we make disciples when we are slinging mud in either candidate’s
direction?
We keep searching for moral high ground, trying to justify
our vote, all the while we are slogging deeper into the mire of each
candidate’s background, making excuses for behavior that in any other election
cycle would have been a deal breaker. Let me submit that there is no moral high ground. At least not
between these two candidates. Let us instead remember Who our King really is and not put our hope in earthly powers. Let us each pray, sincerely, for the
Holy Spirit’s direction as to how to cast our votes, and leave the rest to Him.
In the words of one of my favorite hymns:
[W]hen all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.
