Very Difficult Times

"The only hope for America is Jesus. The only hope for our country is Him. If we repent of our ways, stand firm, and say: "We need God in America again!"

I've had this old-school Carman song in my head today, thanks to reading a comment on Facebook where a Christian referred to Donald Trump as "our only hope," an eye-rollingly ludicrous, godless, fear-driven statement... and one that has inspired me to write my first political post in about eight years. I know that my current convictions are not popular - not among Democrats or Republicans or even most American Christians, family and friends included. But popularity is often overrated, and my individual voice and convictions still matter. And at this point, I cannot just nod along and stay silent for the sake of pleasing people and not rocking the boat. So here goes...

There are times when I feel as if I'm living in the twilight zone, and this year has definitely been one of them. The fact that Hillary Clinton is morally bankrupt and would be a terrible leader for our nation should go without saying. I am not a liberal feminist or a Clinton supporter, rest assured. Nothing in my Christian value system aligns with her values or her repeated criminal conduct, and anyone who knows me personally should be quite clear on that concept.

Sadly, I feel a similar disconnection with the Republican nominee, which is the focus of this post. It is strange and sad to see what is happening in the Republican party, and particularly frustrating to watch so many Christians rushing to embrace and put their hope in an arrogant, petty, vengeful, bullying, fraudulent narcissist as their new leader. 

The popular phrase I keep hearing is that "you have to vote for the lesser of two evils," but truthfully, you do NOT ever have to violate your conscience or throw your vote of support behind anyone you genuinely believe to be "evil." When the options are to support Jezebel, support the slightly-less-wicked Ahab, or refuse to personally endorse either corrupt leader, I would have to go with option C. And when the options are to align myself and unite with the Republican party or to align myself and unite with Christ, I'm going with Christ every time. HE is our hope, both individually and corporately. Our hope is not in America's greatness - (which only ever existed because of humble men who depended on God's guidance, and cannot be restored by belligerent men who want to play God). Our hope is not in the easily-swayed and rapidly changing Republican party. And our hope is certainly not in Donald J. Trump.

I don't agree with Jon Stewart on much, but I will admit that the irony is laughable when many of the very same people who strongly condemned and attacked then-Senator Obama for his lack of political experience, improbable Christianity, offensive and divisive rhetoric, elitism, authoritarian stances, questionable past connections, hypersensitivity to criticism, teleprompter-aided speeches, and being "a raging narcissist with no grip on reality," are now embracing and justifying those same qualities in Donald Trump, calling us all to unite around him... Regarding that overused "party unity" plea, there have been many times throughout history (and Biblical prophecy states this will continue in the future) where people have rallied and come together and united as one around a corrupt leader, and in the end, (surprise!) they reaped widespread destruction and devastation. I believe that as a nation we're eventually headed there either way, but I want to hold fast to God through it rather than clinging to a candidate or a party that is compromising and spiraling downward... Christians could do so much more to restore our country if they united in repentant prayer rather than proud Trump support. Humility matters. Truth matters. Maturity and honor and character matter. What unifies you matters deeply. When a conservative Christian is booed off the convention stage for honoring his conscience and encouraging others to do the same: "Stand and speak, and vote your conscience. Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution." ...something has gone terribly, terribly wrong. (Matt Walsh articulates my feelings on that pretty perfectly HERE.) 

On the Republican side, there are voters who believe in and fully support Trump's current stances... and from what I see online, many of his biggest supporters also mimic his character - blowing off legitimate questions and criticisms, projecting false bravado as strength/courage, and mocking and belittling all who dare to disagree with them. (I believe their faith is misplaced and that he will let them down if elected, quickly and unapologetically.) ...Then there are the strategic conservative voters who believe they have a duty to do what is best for America by keeping Hillary out of the Oval Office at all costs, and I understand and respect where they're coming from. And finally, there are the voters who believe it is the best course of action to honor their conscience as sacred and refuse to support any leader they believe to be corrupt (even when the ballot is full of them), and right now, I fall into that last category. The more I have read and watched and listened to each of them, the more convinced I am of this: Both are power hungry, boastful, insincere, vindictive, godless, unrepentant for past wrongs, and convinced they are above the law. They lack true kindness and courage and moral virtue and Godly wisdom. At no point does my poor opinion of Trump mean I think Hillary is awesome. And yes, I fully understand that apart from divine intervention, one or the other will become the next leader of our nation... and that in itself is a tragic, embarrassing situation and a clear reflection of the crisis state America has entered as we've pulled further and further away from God's Word and standards. Also, I do not and will not accept the blame and responsibility presented in the twisted logic that "not voting for Trump means you're voting for Hillary." False. You can be firmly against both candidates, (and again, Matt Walsh makes that point better than I ever could HERE.)

As I learned the hard way in 2008, political debates get crazy vicious, and debates in general quickly drain and exhaust me, so this is not a subject I plan to write about regularly (which is why this one post is so very, very long). I have friends who are far more politically informed and articulate than I, and I'm especially thankful to Josh and Jared for faithfully communicating their conservative Christian viewpoint so eloquently. This election is obviously important, and my goal is to trust in Christ and obey Him in my decision, whatever that means. If things change drastically between now and November and I am able to vote for Trump in good conscience, I will do so. 

Following are several quotes and links to posts that further clarify where I stand currently... then a few final thoughts and some applicable verses. 

• Trump, when asked if he seeks God's forgiveness: “I don’t think so. I think if I do something wrong, I think I just try and make it right. I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t. When I drink my little wine - which is about the only wine I drink - and have my little cracker, I guess that is a form of asking for forgiveness, and I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed. ...I have a great relationship with God. I have a great relationship with the evangelicals. I like to be good. I don’t like to have to ask for forgiveness. And I am good. I don’t do a lot of things that are bad. I try to do nothing that is bad.” (Full Post HERE.)
• "I don’t know Mr. Trump. But I’ve been chagrined at his antics. He ridiculed a war hero. He made a mockery of a reporter’s menstrual cycle. He made fun of a disabled reporter. He referred to the former first lady, Barbara Bush as “mommy,” and belittled Jeb Bush for bringing her on the campaign trail. He routinely calls people “stupid,” and “dummy.”1 One writer catalogued sixty-four occasions that he called someone “loser.”2 These were not off-line, backstage, overheard, not-to-be-repeated comments. They were publicly and intentionally tweeted, recorded, and presented. Such insensitivities wouldn’t be acceptable even for a middle school student body election. But for the Oval Office? And to do so while brandishing a Bible and boasting of his Christian faith? ...We stand against bullying in schools. Shouldn’t we do the same in presidential politics? ...The stock explanation for Mr. Trump’s success is this: he has tapped into the anger of the American people... Anger-fueled reactions have caused trouble ever since Cain was angry at Abel." ~Max Lucado (Full Post Here)
• "A very important message to all Christians who are angry with Ted Cruz for not endorsing Donald Trump: Our Bible is very clear about acting against your conscience... if anyone acts outside their conscience, to them it is a sin. I believe Ted is a genuine Christian. I believe he acted according to his principles and his conscience. I also believe that God is Sovereign and controls the rising of kings and the deposing of them. (Daniel 2:21) So I will not be voting out of fear but out of principle... "The Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men—and gives them to anyone he wishes!" -Daniel 4:32. Fear should never be a deciding factor for Christians." ~C. Piazza
• "When Christians face two clearly immoral options, we cannot rationalize a vote for immorality or injustice just because we deem the alternative to be worse. The Bible tells us we will be held accountable not only for the evil deeds we do but also when we “give approval to those who practice them” (Rom. 1:32)." ~Russell Moore (Full Post Here)
• "Look, it's clear that whoever wrote her speech did in fact plagiarize Michelle Obama... you'd have to be an enormously gullible buffoon to believe that these "similarities" were coincidental. So it's troubling that once again the Trump campaign treats its supporters as enormously gullible buffoons. They could just admit that the speechwriter plagiarized, explain that they didn't know about it (which would be completely believable), and apologize. Issue over. No scandal. We all move on. But instead they are looking us in the eye and telling us that it wasn't plagiarized. They are lying for no reason, just as the speech was plagiarized for no reason. They are taking something that's no big deal and seemingly making it into a bigger deal on purpose by so blatantly lying about it. This is what the Trump campaign does... It lies reflexively even when the truth would be much more helpful and even when everyone with two brain cells to spare knows it's a lie." ~Matt Walsh
• "Trump is very obviously the sort of person that no one who aims to follow Jesus should be publicly associating themselves with — a thrice-married man who boasts about his adultery and has been officially endorsed by the KKK — and yet there’s been a veritable stampede to bow and scrape before him by most of the Religious Right’s old-guard leaders, including Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Dr. James Dobson. The parade of rationalizations for why Christians ought to be voting for Trump has been as extensive as it is comical." -Luke Harrington (Full Post HERE)
• "Most of our country believes this election is a disaster. Unless something changes, America — the greatest experiment in self-government the world has ever known — is going to spend the next four months shouting that the other party’s nominee is the bigger liar. Tragically, everyone knows that neither frontrunner tells the truth... Admitting that everyone is broken and fallen does not mean we stop caring about the character of the person in the Oval Office... It’s one thing to elect someone who ends up lying to us after the fact. (That’s terrible.) But it’s another thing entirely to conclude in advance that they are both liars, and simply shrug and elect them anyway. That does something to the national soul that tears at the fabric of who we are... If we shrug at public dishonesty — if we normalize candidates who think that grabbing power makes it okay to say whatever they need to in the short-term — then we will be changed by it. Given what we now know about them, choosing to vote for these two individuals is in some ways less about them than it is about us. I’m not sure how we come back from that." ~Ben Sasse, (Full Post HERE)
• "Evangelical leaders, motivated by political self-interest, are cozying up to a leader who has placed bigotry and malice at the center of American politics. They are defending the rights of their faith while dishonoring its essence. Genuine social influence will not come by putting Christ back into Christmas; it will come by putting Christ and his priorities back into more Christians." ~Michael Gerson, (Full Post HERE)
• "I have many qualms with Trump. His character, demeanor and carelessness makes my skin crawl. He is mean. He is hurtful. He is a bully, for lack of a better term. And this (CLICK for link). This is when he made fun of a disabled human being. Not to his friends, not to his family, but to the world. He disrespected those who are helpless and proved that he will stop at nothing. And when a man throws another human being around to make them feel worthless, we are supposed to trust this man to run a NATION of people, bring everybody together and make us great again?" ~S. Steele
• "He’s almost certainly lying because he’s spent the majority of his life articulating pro-abortion views and only recently “claims” to be pro-life... Supreme Court nominations are often the hardest battles a president faces. Yet Trump is a known liar, has no idea what conservative justices mean, and has never demonstrated a willingness to stick to principles unless it benefits him. What he has shown a willingness to do is pledge to use the power of the presidency to increase the power of the presidency. That’s authoritarianism, the precise opposite of limited governance sought by conservatism." ~J. Lewis
• "He has had plenty of time to prove me, and everyone else, wrong. But he hasn’t. He has not become more responsible or more sober, more decent or more generous, more considered or more informed, more careful or more kind. He has continued to retweet white supremacists, make racist comments, pick unnecessary fights, contradict himself on the stump, and show an almost gleeful disinterest in building a real campaign or learning about policy." ~Ezra Klein (Full Post HERE) *(This is the only quote/post here by a liberal author; the rest are by conservative Christians.)
• "It is true that all leaders, being sinners, will act foolishly on occasion. What we are looking for is consistent, characteristic fruit, not anomalies. If you find characteristic fruit of foolishness, do not be deceived by words or fear or any form of pressure. Do not elect a fool to a ruling position. For what is true of false prophets is also true of foolish leaders: They will act wickedly. And “when the wicked rule, the people groan” (Proverbs 29:2). ~Jon Bloom (Full Post HERE) #alreadygroaning
• "It was a tragic display. Not really because of what Trump said or didn't say, or what anyone at the convention said or didn't say, but because the conservatives in the hall and many on social media went right along with it. There were dozens of things said by Trump and his surrogates that, if said by Obama, would have caused the people in the audience to explode into fits of righteous indignation (Examples: "I alone can fix this," "I won't let business do something I don't like without consequences," etc). They dropped, without hesitation, many beliefs which they've supposedly held for years."  ~Matt Walsh (RNC Recap Post HERE)

• "No matter the positive spin people try to put on the state of things right now, I feel a very deep foreboding about it all. I can't shake that feeling or convince myself out of it. I can't join hands with the sunny optimists, no matter how much I'd like to. I think we are in a dark place, and headed to darker places. Worse, when I look around, it seems more and more people have lost sight of the truth. They've lost even an interest in truth. People who I thought were on the same side as me suddenly flip and decide that all of the things we believed no longer matter. Their priorities change in an instant, and out of nowhere they are screaming at you the same slander that was being screamed at them only yesterday. This seems to happen more and more each day. I'm sure you feel the same. So what can we do besides fall back on Scripture? We were told it would happen this way. It's all there in the Book if you read it. And the good news is that we were also given the key to cope with it all, and to fight back, and eventually to find salvation. I realize when I go back to God's Word that we are not called to be optimistic about the actions of men and politicians and governments, or even about our own actions and our own strength... But in God we find real hope, and hope is so much deeper than mere optimism. And in God is where all the hope lies." ~Matt Walsh, yet again

"In the last days, there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that... Someday, everyone will recognize what fools they are... Yes, and everyone who wants to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived. But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught..." ~2 Timothy 3

"If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." ~2 Chronicles 7:14

"Fear of the Lord teaches a person to be wise; humility precedes honor."
~Proverbs 15:33

The time of Jesus' return is nearing (THANK GOD!!) and along with that comes increasing deception and godless behavior, twisted Christian doctrines, global chaos, and desperation for strong leaders. I am not surprised or discouraged by the media and the liberal left behaving according to worldly standards, but I am always disheartened when Christians compromise their long-held convictions and try to redefine God's standards. It's happening more and more. "Very difficult times," indeed. I understand that my one vote will not impact much on the state or national scale, but my choice and heart motives will matter between me and God, and my words here might have an impact on someone. I know that this is a confusing and difficult election for many Christians, and I fully understand why. So I'm back to prayer... and I'm praying that God will give His people peace and discernment, and that our faith will not rest on men's wisdom but on God's power. When I am upset and overwhelmed about the current state of humanity, this verse is a great comfort:

“But the Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord still rules from Heaven... for the Lord is righteous, and He loves justice. Those who do what is right will see His face.” ~Psalm 11:4, 7