Election Lamentations

When it became clear that the Republican candidate won the election, I turned my Facebook cover and profile picture black to express my deep lament over the choice the American people had made.  Many people misunderstand the many reasons for my lament and to be honest, I am writing them down as much to help me understand my own emotions as to explain them to others.  I lament because it seems the voters made one or more of the following reason as a basis of their presidential preference:

1. The cult of personality was chosen rather than leadership.  This became obvious when both candidates were nominated.  It was a much a problem with the Democratic party who seemed to put the desires of the one or few over the desires of the many via "super delegates""  It happened in the Republican party as the many decided to support a personality over someone with skills in diplomacy, any experience in government, and knowledge of the Constitution.
2. People have chosen a savior rather than a leader.  Many people will most likely dispute this point, both Christians who say they already have one and Atheists who say they don't need one, but hear me out:  when we look to any one person as the one person who can solve our problems and difficulties, we place that person as our functional savior.   This is as true for those who think a female president is a solution*  as it is for those who think a billionaire bully is.  And it is especially true for those Christians who mistakenly believe that God's greatness is somehow linked to America's greatness or certain laws being enacted or the "right" Supreme Court Justices being elected.  All this thinking is functional disbelief--not trusting that The God who overcame Pharoh can overcome *insert social issue here* without help from the government.  
3. People have chosen ideology over character.  Some people voted Republican or Democrat because they have always voted that way (Traditiooooon!  Tradition!)  Some people on the Republican side were so focused on the abortion issue and the current and potential Supreme Court vacancies as their reason for voting, that many overlooked the fact that the Republican candidate is  an unrepentant adulterer, a self-proclaimed molester of women, a greedy and unscrupulous businessman, a traitorous tax-evader, and arrogant bully.  This is especially egregious for the Republicans who castigated Bill Clinton for his presidential philandering and derided his supporters' claims that private life doesn't affect public service.  Furthermore, during his campaign, the President-Elect demonstrated an unwillingness to listen to good counsel (slow to listen), quick to speak and quick to become angry at anyone who disagreed with him, often carrying it into an extended Twitter brawl, making a bad situation worse.  And my heart is especially broken over the fact that some of my brothers and sisters in Christ made that decision.  To be sure, the Democratic candidate also has character issues.  My biggest problem with her character was that on several occasions, she lied and tried to cover up wrong-doing, whether it involved a White House intern or emails.  And she didn't seem to learn from the consequences of her first boss, Nixon, that truth is difficult to suppress or cover up.  Her maneuverings in the last four years to set up a nomination system to ensure her as Democratic candidate also seems self-serving.  Her main advantage over the President-elect, however, is that, because of her experience in government, her ideas had some grounding in reality, even if you disagreed with them.
4. People have chosen fantasy over reality.  Sure the President-Elect was on a reality TV show, but we all know that it is merely TV real, not really real.  And his campaign was based on empty promises of greatness at the expense of others.  Furthermore, people were living vicariously through his displays of crass, disrespectful, unkind, nasty rhetoric (I am using the word loosely) because, deep down, we would love to be able to tell off, ridicule, and speak exactly what is on our mind with no repercussions.  Posts and comments I see on Facebook testify that people are living the fantasy.  Unfortunately, folks, the reality is that there are ALWAYS repercussions. God designed life to be that way.  Furthermore, even the President-elect's ideas and the "facts" (also used loosely) he stated during his campaign were mainly un-researched opinions that played well to the masses.  Several sources during the debates put him in the "pants on fire" range for truth.  And, finally, thinking that complex problems can be solved by simple, finger-pointing, sound-biting solutions is also a fantasy. 
5. People have chosen to let fear rule them.  Republicans were afraid about the potential Supreme Court vacancies, ISIS, China, Syrian refugees, Mexican immigrants, not being great, being run by a woman, Bill Clinton in the White House again (okay, I was worried for the women working there), the media, rigged elections, abortions, Russia, Muslims and probably a few more that I forgot.  Hillary focused on one fear--the spectre of President Trump, which was also bad.  The problem with fear is that it replaces rational thinking with knee-jerk responses and will lead a nation to give up its rights in return for its safety. As someone who has been battling fears for decades, I have ample experience with the repercussions of fear-based decisions.  And politicians have used fear in the past to perpetrate all sorts of atrocities.  And as Christians, we are supposed to be fearless, trusting in God to provide what we need.  

* Though there is no one tribe, or gender  that can save us, our country will be its best when all of the cultures, religions, and both genders are represented in Congress, the Supreme Court, and in the White House.

I have one more reason for my lamentation.  The president-elect spent most of his campaign setting up as scapegoats Mexicans, Chinese, and Muslims living in America, encouraging hatred and disrespect of these people who are equally made in the image of God as I am.  He is willing to sacrifice these people's peace, livelihood, and right to be innocent until proven guilty at the altar of American power.  I have many friends who have experienced racial epitaths and slurs hurled at them thanks to the feckless speeches of the President-elect and who wonder what the future holds for their children in a society that doesn't feel the need for social restraint and that doesn't value them as human beings.  And for those of you who have told me "Its only the illegals who have to worry," I will remind you  that this man questioned President Obama's citizenship for about eight  years even though the President produced it sometime in his first term.  He also proposed to kill not only terrorists, but their families, too, a violation of the Geneva Convention.  So, yes, I can see him creating a posse of thugs who don't care about no stinkin' documentation and throw the (insert racial slur here) out, even possibly getting rich off  the stuff left behind, a la Andrew Jackson.

Yes, I lament for how far my country, which I love wholeheartedly has fallen from ideals of being "the land of the free and the home of the brave," but I am not dismayed.  For one thing, God is on His throne.  He chooses and removes leaders.  God is faithful and good.  God loves and cares for His world and everyone in it.  Therefore, the current president-elect is for our good (and by good, I mean the "good for you" good which is not the same as the "pleasant" good) and for His glory.  And if God can turn Nebuchadnezzer, Naaman and Paul, to name a few bullies, into believers, then He can do the same with the President residing in the White House for the next four years.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.  Joshua 1:9

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  Matthew 6:34

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”  Mark 10:27

When will it be safe?

Three years ago, I was inspired by one national debate and a blogger to write an essay called, "Is It Safe Yet?"  Today I am re-writing it to exclude political leanings because I have so much inspiration from so many sources, it has become clear that the pursuit of safety transcends political boundaries.  I made some other changes, deleting some thoughts that I now realize are irrelevant, adding another thought and tightening up other paragraphs.  This essay is not saying that making reasonable efforts to be safe is bad.  Locking up criminals after they have committed a crime, requiring machinery to be safe, enforcing traffic laws, protecting people from thieves and swindlers, and some measures of gun control are wise and necessary measures.  What I am talking about is pursuing safety as the primary objective of our country. 

A fatal flaw in the philosophy of the pursuit of safety is that no law, no political party, no weapon can make us truly safe because the sin in each of us will cause us to always want what is truly bad for us. Given a choice most of us would date the bad boy or girl, smoke a pack or two of cigarettes a day, drive our car after knocking back a few drinks, sit in totally inactivity for long periods of time to watch inane programs while our brain turns to oatmeal, eat foods chock full of saturated fat and high fructose corn syrup and always unplug an electrical device by pulling on the cord while taking a bath. These are the choices we make when we have been "freed" from self-control and reason.  Furthermore, sin convinces us to wallow in our hurts and grievances, encouraging us to withhold forgiveness until it turns to bitterness and hatred, qualities which make us unsafe towards others.  You can take the person out of danger but you can't take danger out of the person*

An unintended consequence of our desire for safety is that the desire to live in a perfectly safe environment erodes our compassion.  If we are all perfectly safe, then we have no understanding of suffering and cannot offer comfort to those who are suffering because, after all, it must be their fault.  And if something bad happens to me it must be someone else's fault.  Oops, there goes forgiveness out the door also.  So we become a nation of finger-pointing, blame-shifters when trouble comes to us and hard-hearted judges when trouble comes to other people rather than being a nation of people who forgive and are forgiven and who provide comfort and aid to those who are bullied, incapacitated, helpless and/or hopeless. 

ASIDE:  Remember, I wrote the above paragraph three years ago.  Is ANY of this bringing up thoughts on our political narrative at all?  Does this resemble what we have become as a country? 

And yet another consequence that I didn't discuss initially is that, in the interest of our safety, we would take stances that effectively assume someone's guilt until proven innocence, which is happening as people want to pass laws of all kinds to prevent things from happening.  George W. Bush attacked Iraq on the pretense that they 'might' attack us with weapons of mass destruction before any evidence was presented nationally to back him up.  Muslims are locked up in Guantanamo Bay as potential terrorists or accomplices of terrorists without the benefit of a Constitutional-based trial (i.e., where the prosecution must prove the defendant's guilt beyond reasonable doubt).  Those advocating for tougher gun control laws or even an end to the 2nd amendment are effectively saying that we need to assume people will use guns for evil rather than hunting or using it to protect themselves against lunatics with guns, who seem to have a knack for getting them both legally and illegally.  Police seem to assume that black men are out to kill them because there have been so many incidences where police officers have used guns as their first line of defense, shooting to kill and black men believe that police are out to kill them because police are shooting to kill them seemingly as a reflex.  Some Americans advocate tougher immigration policies for certain groups of people or shutting down immigration altogether to prevent potential rapists, thieves, murderers and terrorists from entering the country.  Once again, prevention is impossible and there are times I wonder if we are turning people into paranoid crackpots with all the fear-mongering promoted by our politicians and the media and in our pursuit of this insane level of safety. 

As a Christian, this safety-driven philosophy also flies in the face of the gospel, which is a story of the intense suffering of one man who was executed on the cross for crimes he didn't commit.  Philippians 2:5-11 lists all of the things Jesus suffered so that we, the guilty, sin-festering slobs, could be redeemed from the death penalty we truly deserved:  He suffered to be separated from the Father and Holy Spirit; he suffered to become a helpless baby who grew to be a poor man in a small village; he suffered to become a servant, he suffered a brutal, undeserved death.  John 18:5 says that Jesus knocked down a contingent of soldiers coming to arrest him with mere words.  And yet, he submitted to their arrest, their illegal trial, torture and guilty verdict rather than walking away.  Why?  What was his motivation?  Romans 5:8 says "...God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  God continues to pour out his love for us daily and Jesus calls us to take up our cross daily and love others like he has loved us, i.e., whether they deserve it or not.  His plans for his children might include suffering for His sake or suffering for the sins of others.  In other words, Christians should be the ones pursuing an anti-safety philosophy, encouraging each other to give up the rights we feel we deserve and serve the God who so richly deserves all of our love and respect.  I know that this sounds like absolute foolishness, but I would rather be a fool for Christ than a fool worshipping at the alter of unattainable safety, always unsatisfied until I become an abject coward.

And yet, I confess that I still have fears lurking and trying to control me--fears that my kids will die unnatural deaths, that the economy will collapse, that we are only a few generations away from a tyrannical leader who can take control because Americans have been chipping away at the Constitution over the course of time in the pursuit of safety.  And yet, there are so many Bible verses encouraging us to stop being afraid and to be of good courage.  Romans 5:3-5 says "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."  And this gives me the power to turn away from my fears and to serve God wherever He leads me and encourage my kids and others to do the same because I know that he will either provide his protection in this life or take me/my kids/my fellow Christians to be with him forever, a place of complete, perfect safety.

Below is an afterward I wrote three years ago, but it is even more true today than it was then. 

I would like to add one more thing to this  as an afterward.  God has been making me eat these words and leave my safety/comfort zone in so many ways.  There are times when it has been very hard and frustrating and humbling.  And yet, looking back, I consider myself blessed for the experiences He has given me, the people who I have the privilege to call friends and the awe in how God works so gently and yet so persistently to open my eyes to see His vision of heaven and earth, His vision of me and those around me.  Alleluliah!

* inspired by a Baby Blues cartoon

Tandemingtroll's Guide to Choosing a Candidate--The 2015 guide

It is now summer of 2015 and since the candidates for president of the United States are starting to campaign, I thought I would update this list.  A situation in the news this week has made me realize that my list is incomplete, because apparently, common sense is being replaced with posturing and pride.

When it comes to candidates, to limit how much research to do to pick qualified candidates, I look first at their campaign strategy to see if I can eliminate anyone.  This is my criterion for elimination:

1. Does the candidate pick a certain group as the source of our nation's problems as the focus of their campaign?  The group can be the opposite political party or a group based ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.  If the candidate is targeting a particular group of people you shouldn't vote for them for several reasons.  First of all, if they start blame-shifting as part of their campaign, what is the likelihood that they will accept responsibility while they are in office?  And if they don't accept responsibility, then they emotional children in the guise of adults and we don't want children running our country, state or city. And if they are targeting one particular group, they are oversimplifying the situation, which means they are incapable of critical thinking and problem solving skills.  Furthermore, if they target one group, what will keep them from targeting your group in the future?  After all, fifteen to twenty years ago,  we were told how horrible coconut oil was for our health and how the evil movie theaters were secretly trying to kill us by cooking popcorn in coconut oil because it was addictively delicious. And now what are all the health experts saying about coconut oil?  Soviets were the evil empire during the Cold War, then they were okay during Glastnost and now they are working themselves into the evil empire again. 
2. Does the candidate spend all of their marketing money attacking their opponent rather than offering solutions?  If all they can do is tear down and attack, they will have a difficult time working with other people because they cannot be trusted.  Also, my experience is that most of the attack ads misrepresent the candidate's position or an incumbent's voting record, which makes them liars, which means we can't trust them, which means we shouldn't vote for them.
3. Does the candidate employ tactics designed to play upon your fears and worries?  Don't vote for that person because they are snake oil salesmen and snake oil salesmen are liars.
4. Have they been in office more than twelve years?  Politics shouldn't be a career path.  It should be a temporary detour to serve your country and should possibly include a vow of poverty.  People who have been in office more than twelve years should step aside and let other people step up and serve, getting income from the private sector, not the public's tax money.   Besides, the longer people stay in office the more used to power they get and we don't need people making laws to serve their own need for power and control.
5. Are they making promises that sounds too good to be true?  Are they spouting off catchphrases and twitterfodder that is devoid of meaning?  Are they responding to a situation in a knee jerk reaction?  Then don't vote for them because they are either making promises they don't intend to keep in order to look good, which makes them liars or they don't have a firm grip on reality, which makes them unstable.  I think we can agree that neither are good attributes for lawmakers. 
6. Does the candidate throw a temper tantrum when criticized for what he or she says and requires retribution equivalent to an arm for an eye when embroiled in conflict of his or her making?  Do we really want someone who acts either like a toddler or bully to have control of our nuclear codes or being the head of our protocol department?  It makes me sad that I even have to write this.  

At this point, you hopefully have at least one or two candidates whom you can research.  If these five qualifiers eliminate all candidates, then maybe remove one (or, if necessary, two) of the five disqualifiers that are least offensive see which candidate is available.  Realize that no one candidate is going to be a perfect fit and they are most likely to make mistakes while in office.  Give them the same grace you want other people to give to you. And please vote in your state's primaries, even if you feel that your candidate doesn't have a chance because not voting becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. 

Happy Voting!(?)

Good Post-Election Prayers and Thoughts

Instead of joining in those who are wailing or celebrating election results, at the local, state and federal levels, I am going to let God do the talking, though I am taking the liberty of highlighting some of His words.

For those that voted against the people who ended up being elected, this is what God told the Isrealites to do after they had been carried away to Babylon in defeat:

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 
Jeremiah 29:  4-7

If God wanted the Isrealites to pray blessings for their "enemies", what do you think He wants us to do for our government representatives who are doing what they feel is for the benefit of our country, even if we don't agree with them on what constitutes a benefit?

A second example is found in Psalm 61:

¹ Hear my cry, O God;
    listen to my prayer.

² From the ends of the earth I call to you,
    I call as my heart grows faint;
    lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
³ For you have been my refuge,
    a strong tower against the foe.

⁴ I long to dwell in your tent forever
    and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. Selah
⁵ For you have heard my vows, O God;
    you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

⁶ Increase the days of the king’s life,
    his years for many generations.
⁷ May he be enthroned in God’s presence forever;    appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him.

⁸ Then will I ever sing praise to your name
    and fulfill my vows day after day.

Several sites offering historical background for this Psalm seem to feel that David wrote it while running away from his own son, Absalom, who had organized an insurrection against his father and was seeking to kill him and all of his followers--a horrible betrayal of the deepest trust and a potential severance of all family ties of love.  Okay, if you have read the story, you know that Absalom and David weren't very close and that David had banished his son for fratricide in an earlier incident.  Still, David prayed for the next king's benefit and blessing, even when the king was seeking his demise.  And in that really hard place, David knew who to turn to for help.

Finally, we have instructions from Jesus, son of God, God-With-Us, King of Kings, The Redeemer and Savior, who WILL one day return to set up his eternal kingdom and end all political turmoil:

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:43-45

As I have said before, Jesus doesn't just talk the talk:  while he is on the cross, he asks God to forgive those who called for his crucifixion.

So here are three distinct walking orders from God to stop moaning and whining about the election results, and calling those in the opposite political camps all sorts of names as if you are stuck in middle-school mentality/maturity level.  Suck it up and show respect to the people that God has put in power over us.  This doesn't mean that we have to be silent when we see abuses of power, lies being presented as truth, injustice or skullduggery.  It also doesn't mean that when someone of the opposite political persuasion repeatedly voices their opinion just to make sure that you know where they stand, you are not allowed to express your opposing opinion.  I would just ask that you do so respectfully, knowing that the other person is also made in the image of God and dearly loved by God.  There will be other elections in which we can work to get the people we want in office.

And for those who are celebrating because your candidate(s) won and ESPECIALLY for those people who were just elected/re-elected, remember this:
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8

May God bless you and keep you!