More Than Just #NeverTrump

Conservatives find themselves in a very awkward position this election year. We have been presented with two overly unqualified candidates (and yes, I did say overly unqualified) and bullied into believing that it is either or. Those that stand on the pro-Trump side claim that a vote against Trump is a vote for Clinton. Those who favor Clinton accuse us of wanting to start World War 3. I was astounded by the outcry against people like Ted Cruz who encouraged voters to vote for the candidate that they trusted to uphold the Constitution. Don’t worry about party affiliation (a sentiment echoed by the founders), don’t worry about the probability of them being elected. Just vote your conscience. Selfish, political, and petty is only the beginning of the accusations. Is that really such a terrible message? Vote your principles, vote your values, vote your Bibles. That a refusal to endorse someone that we feel in unfit to be the Commander-in-Chief of this nation would invoke so much vitriol is shocking, especially because so much of it is coming from the Christians.

Conscience is defined as the that which distinguishes between what is morally good and what is morally bad and prompts us to do the former and shun the latter. It is our Jiminy Cricket if you will, that gut instinct when we know that something is right or wrong. Our conscience is the still small voice inside us that tells us what is good. It is unconcerned with popularity and convenience. The relationship between the conscience and the vote is one that the founders of this United States of America took very seriously. They recognized that this system of elected officials, checks and balances, term limits, etc., was new to the world. We had a unique form of government, one in which the citizens had more of a say than ever before in history. Matthias Burnett, a pastor said,

“Consider well the important trust . . . which God . . . [has] put into your hands . . . To God and posterity you are accountable for your rights and your rulers. . .. Let not your children have reason to curse you for giving up those rights and prostrating those institutions which your fathers delivered to you. . .  Look well to the characters and qualifications of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust. . .. Think not that your interests will be safe in the hands of the weak and ignorant; or faithfully managed by the impious, the dissolute and the immoral. Think not that men who acknowledge not the providence of God nor regard His laws will be uncorrupt in office, firm in defense of the righteous cause against the oppressor, or resolutely oppose the torrent of iniquity. . .. Watch over your liberties and privileges - civil and religious - with a careful eye.”

That, my friends, is voting your conscience.

Why Clinton is out of the question is pretty obvious. Forget her horrible history as Secretary of State and in the NY Senate, the woman was under FBI investigation while she was running for office. The FBI conceded that she is indeed guilty of crimes and jeopardizing the safety of our nation, yet she remains un-indicted. As for Trump. . . I don’t know that there could be a less appealing candidate for conservatives to vote for. As a Christian and a conservative, there are issues that act as a litmus test for me and Mr. Trump just doesn’t pass.

1.   He is unclear on where he stands on abortion. Although very pro-abortion in the past, he claims to have changed his views. It can happen and if it has, praise God! However, he is very reluctant to take federal funding away from Planned Parenthood, which is confusing and leaves me wondering where he really stands. Why should my tax money continue to go towards funding a practice that I feel is immoral and to the for-profit organization that performs it?

2.   His position on Israel is similarly unclear. To be sure, Trump has made pro-Israel noises — and very loud ones. But as with so much else, the only consistency of Trump's remarks is their off-the-cuff and contradictory nature. At his AIPAC speech, Trump announced that he would both dismantle and enforce the Iran Deal. He has announced a policy of neutrality when it comes to aiding our most dependable ally in the region. Trump has also blamed Israel for the Middle Eastern conflict saying, "I don't know that Israel has the commitment" to make peace, and effectively exonerated the Palestinian side when he said that peace depends on "whether or not Israel wants to make the deal ...."

3.   Trump has a terrible record on free market issues. The only bright spot is his criticism of the Federal Reserve’s intervention in the debt market, but this is countered by his repeated support for bailing out Wall Street, the banks, the auto industry, and increased stimulus spending. Of particular concern is Trump’s belief that the government has the right to seize private property in the name of private economic development. This comes as no surprise, given his support for using eminent domain to profit his own company.

4.   Trump’s views of the Second Amendment are in cohesive. Particularly since the Orlando shooting, Donald Trump has staked out two wildly different stances on gun control. On the one hand, he has publicly appeared to back the Democrats' top gun control initiative in Congress while at the same time endorsing the possession of concealed weapons among people drinking alcohol in bars and nightclubs—a position that even the NRA admits is probably not a good idea.

Compound those issues with the fact that he is incredibly egotistic, lacks any kind of tact, and has not shown himself to be a man of character or integrity, I have not found Mr. Trump to be a conservative. I haven’t even found him to be a republican. And “nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust be men of unexceptionable characters. The public cannot be too curious concerning the character of public men,” so says my friend Samuel Adams. Of course no candidate is perfect. But should we not hold our public officials to high standards, those who make and enforce the law of the land?

Phew! Well, now that I’ve got that off my chest I can talk about what I really wanted to talk about in the first place. Of course, another Clinton presidency would be a travesty. But here’s a news flash. There are over 6 billion people in this world, many of whom would make a much worse president than Hillary Clinton. But do we sacrifice our conscience to prevent that, if our conscience so dictates? As Christians, we have a greater hope, a greater security, and a greater freedom than the government could ever give or take away. The one who rules the nations, who sets up kingdoms and disposes of them? Yeah, we know Him. He has used righteous and unrighteous men to establish His will. And He is able do more than we could possibly imagine. But it starts with His people getting serious about spiritual things. This election isn’t about politics. No election is. It’s about our character, our faith and our worldview. If we claim to believe that God calls us to live lives of integrity and purity, how can we think that anyone striving for less is qualified to run the country? If we claim that God is involved in the affairs of men, how can we think that He cannot or will not intervene here, if we do the right thing? If we claim to be the salt of the earth, how can we then refuse to preserve it? This is called hypocrisy. Our actions contradict our words and we make a mockery of the gospel. We must make a choice. We either believe that what the Scripture says is true across the board or we don’t. But we don’t get to have our cake and eat it too.

So ask me again why am and always will be #NeverTrump.

Because I believe that my job is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these earthly things, including the leadership that we really need to carry out the purpose and will of God, will be added. 

Because I believe that it is a mandate, not a suggestion, to be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving to let my requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Because I believe that I am held accountable for the people that I endorse through me vote.

Because I believe that evil is evil, even if it is “the lesser of the two.”

Because I believe that God is able to use a teenager and a rock to take down an undefeated giant if only that teenager acknowledges that there is indeed a cause.

Because I believe that He can not only defeat the darkness, but that He gives us the courage to run into it with the light.

Because I believe that even if He doesn’t intervene, it is better to have a clear conscience before Him than man.

Because I believe that my worldview matters.

So if Trump lines up with your principles, if he does it for you, knock yourself out. But please don’t tell me that I am self-serving for standing on my principles or for living like what I claim to believe is actually true. Whatever happens, whatever the culmination in November is, vote your conscience. Vote as if your ballot determines nothing except the shape of your own character.

True Love

There is an epic scene in The Princess Bride (isn’t every scene in that movie epic?) where Inigo and Fezzik take Westley to Miracle Max so that he can be revived, stop Prince Humperdink’s marriage to Buttercup and most importantly, help Inigo avenge his father’s murder at the hands of the six-fingered man. Max, not particularly interested in the venture, attempts to send them away. But really, who can resist Fezzik? He’s a soft but deadly teddy bear. Max lets them in and fills a bellows with air and pumps it into Westley’s lungs. Before he forces the exhale by pressing on Westley chest he asks him what it is that is so important? What does he have worth living for? Westley softly gasps, “True love….”

“Ah ha! Did you hear that? He distinctly said ‘To blave,’” Max quickly says. “And as we all know, ‘to blave’ means ‘to bluff’, heh? So you were probably playing cards, and he cheated-”

At that moment a haggardly woman appears and screams, “Liar! Liar! Lia----r! True Love, he said "True Love", Max.”

True love. #Lovewins. As long as we love each other. This all seems to be the focal point of life. The zenith of our existence, the pinnacle of relationships, the highest of emotions appears to be love. Unfortunately, we often interpret true love as ‘to blave’ and vice a versa. As with so many things, society has really lost touch with what love really means. Parents who “love” their children try to be their friends, indulge them and refuse to enforce any kind of discipline. Is this love? Whether married or not, people will flirt with, sleep with and whatever else with whoever they want to, in the name of love. Is this love? When disagreement with a particular lifestyle is considered hate speech one must ask, is condoning everything that everybody does love?

So what does love mean? And where do we get our definitions of love from.

I would say that most folks probably get their notions about love from the media and Hollywood. Entertainment has become the model after which much of society replicates its life. At its most basic level, the media teaches us two things about love:

-      Love is meant to fulfill us and make us happy.

-      Love and sex are synonymous, and the more uncontrollable desire and passion is, the stronger and purer the love.

Fewer people might get their definition from a dictionary. There we might find it defined as such:

-      Intense feelings of deep affection

-      Deep romantic and sexual attachment

These descriptions are rather similar in that they both are about the lover and the satisfaction of their desires.

But as followers of Christ, we need to get our understanding of love from the Bible. Scripture says that God’s very essence is love and that no one and nothing is equal to Him and His demonstration of it. There are so many Scriptures dealing with love and so many pieces have been written by those wiser and more spiritual than myself. For the sake of simplicity, let’s sum it up like this:

-      Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

-      1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

-      1 John 3:16 “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.”

A little bit of a difference between this definition and the others, no? According to Scripture love isn’t so much about the lover but about the beloved. Love gives of itself, dies to itself, lays itself down for the sake of the one he loves. The object of real biblical love is not really deserving of it, but rather it is the love that makes them so. C.S. Lewis, in his book, The Four Loves, (worth the read) says,

“For the Church has no beauty but what the Bridegroom gives her; he does not find her, but makes her, lovely.”

Love finds us stubborn, unfaithful, depraved, ungrateful, dirty and undeserving. But it is love that breaks down our pride, crushes the power of sin that holds us in bondage, cleanses us and makes us faithful, thankful and deserving. We are unworthy yet receive the most. Christ is all worthy and receives the least. And it’s important to remember this because we are the object of that Love. God demonstrates His own love towards me in that while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me.”  There is nothing quite like love of God, is there? It touched the untouchable, healed the impossible, comforted the mourners, and preached the good news, never giving a thought to personal space or privacy. It was lied about, mocked, denied, betrayed and beaten. Finally, as Love hung naked on an executioner’s cross, mingled with blood and tears, struggling for breath, it uttered two unthinkable words: Forgive them. And if Christ so loved me isn’t it only right that I love other people the same way?

Aha, and so now we get down to it. It is all about our response to the world we live in. Let’s face it, this world is a weird place. Our government is corrupt. The loud mouths have an agenda that is both anti-God and anti-America. Schools invite Planned Parenthood to speak to children about an ideology that justifies promiscuity and the murder of innocent children. Nobody knows what bathroom to use. There is a push to disarm the populace thus emboldening our enemies. The economy is on the brink of collapse and there is no national pride. The two extremes that I have observed in much of Western Christianity seems to be that either we will tolerate everything and confront nothing or else we confront everything and tolerate nothing. One results in a gross misconstruing of the gospel and the other results in a gross misconstruing of the gospel.

When the Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins, it does not mean that love tolerates and accepts a multitude of sins. Jesus never excused people’s sins. He was not afraid to call it what it was. Yet it is the love and the kindness of Jesus that leads us to repentance. Jesus did not accept the sin of the woman caught in adultery but neither did He condemn her. He told her to go and sin no more. He did not leave the man possessed with a legion of demons to remain among the tombs. Even the Pharisees, who Jesus was constantly confronting about their pseudo religiosity and unbelief, brought Him to weeping for the hardness of their hearts. Sin is sin and hypocrisy is hypocrisy and Jesus died for sinners and hypocrites. What drew me to Jesus was not that He was OK with my sin, but rather that He was willing to get into the mud and muck that I had made my home in and pull me out of it!

Real love, true love has the power to change things. It is not an emotion. It is not a hype. It is not a whim. It is a Spirit-led reaction that only comes to those who are led by God. Love says “no” when it has to. Love does not let people walk off a cliff because they might not want to hear the truth that there is a cliff. Love doesn’t shy away from confrontation because it’s unpopular. But love knows when to confront and how.

Abby Johnson was the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic for 8 years. She honestly thought that she was helping women. But after participating in an ultrasound guided abortion she left the industry, resulting in a lawsuit by her former employer which consequentially put her at the forefront of the pro-life/pro-abortion debate. But behind the scenes, there had been a group of people who would stand outside of her clinic. I know what images this conjures in our minds. Angry white men yelling, name calling and holding signs of aborted babies. But these people didn’t do that. Oh, they didn’t hide their stance on abortion. But they showed the love of Christ. They prayed. They prayed that God would bring light and life into the lives of both the patients and the staff. “They were friendly and showed genuine interest in me,” she told me. “They built a relationship, they wanted to know my name and things about my life, not to publish it publicly or make threats but because they really just cared about me and wanted to know who they were praying for and what my deepest needs were. They were confidential as well and never sent out ugly postcards with my name, face or address on them. I think those things made a huge difference in building my trust and giving me the courage to quit.” Since then Abby has been a major voice in the fight for life. She also founded an organization called And Then There Were None, which reaches out to abortion clinic workers, helping them leave the abortion industry and find healing and forgiveness. And Then There Were None has helped 240 clinic workers leave the industry, including 7 doctors! God spoke to her through the love of those faithful people outside the that fence.

Love is a name that means something. And love can do amazing things when God’s people live it in the world around them. “When there is much pain to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.” (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain)

“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”                                              2 Corinthians 5:14-17

The Beginning

"The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. Some have been the chief of sinners and some have come at the very last of their days but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them, trusting to the same support. It will bear me over as it has for them."

Charles Spurgeon

This is the story of the Christian, a sinner who’s trusted the strength of grace to safely get them to the other side of the great chasm that lies between him and a holy God. Nothing more. Nothing less. There are no other aides or supports.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says it this,

“For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”

And it continues on in verse 10:

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

I have tried so hard to pin down exactly why I am starting this blog but haven’t really been unable to concisely condense it. I guess the best I can do is the above verse, what with being God’s workmanship and walking in the good works that He has prepared for me. It can be easy to push off what we feel He is calling us to because, really, who wants to read my random thoughts on anything? But if this is where He is leading me right now, I don’t really have the choice of disobedience.

God’s grace has been my relentless pursuer throughout my entire life. I believe that God wants us as believer to extend that grace to the world around us. It is a dark and hostile place, but we have the light and the only peace that can ease its woes. That doesn’t mean that we are always nicey-nice, never step on toes or engage in confrontation. It’s just that we, being led by the Spirit, know when to confront and how to hurt without harming.

I take courage from Paul’s exhortation to “not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” (Galatians 6:9) Who knows what awesome things God has for us, if only we would have the courage to obey and the strength to press on. I guess we’ll have to try it and see.