Fear Not, America!

Dear Friends,

In America, approximately 83% are Christian believers and many of us are passionately concerned about the state of our Nation today and are fearful about our future. So we find that half of us good, church-going Christian believers, are fervently praying that our next president will be one who has said that Christians must change their religious belief that abortion is wrong and who has promised unlimited, free, tax-payer paid abortions for all women in America. 70% of all the people in America believe that Hillary is dishonest and untrustworthy and does not have the integrity needed to be our president. 

The other half of us good, church-going Christians is fervently praying that our next president will be a person who has been married three times, has cheated on all of his wives, boasts that he has had sex with some of the world's top female celebrities, brags about groping women, and whose income comes from owning casinos and strip clubs. 64% of all the people in America believe that Trump doesn’t have the right temperament and morals to be president. 

In an opinion poll last week, 25% of Millennials (age 18-35) said they’d prefer to see a giant meteor destroy the world than to have Hillary or Donald as our next president. We are seeing an unprecedented level of disgust with two of the most unpopular major-party candidates in our lifetime. That’s why I think my cat, Sean McDougal, has a good chance as a write-in candidate.

Political historians have called this the nastiest campaign in U.S. history. It’s tearing apart families, friendships and even churches. Those of us devout Christians who sit in the blue-colored pews or the red-colored pews, are now yelling back and forth across the aisles, cursing each other on their facebook pages and calling each other out for supporting the “un-christlike” candidate. That’s why we need to settle down, take a deep breath and consider this paraphrase of Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, there is neither Democrat nor Republican; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Can you say “Amen”?

My biggest concern was what this election was doing to our Christian witness in America. So the best news is what came out of a recent (October) poll where only 12% of those surveyed thought that Trump was “authentically Christian” and only 18% thought that Clinton was an authentic Christian. It would not be good if people thought that Clinton’s abortion advocacy, her lack of integrity and Trump’s sexist and racist behaviors were “Christian.”

We American Christians need to get a grip on reality. Our attention this election year should be on budget and policy matters and the eroding of our religious freedom, but we’ve become a hostage of the media’s penchant for high drama and our focus has been on  distractions like which candidate has the most sinful spouse. Is it the former president who had sex with an intern in the Oval Office or the former model who posed for lesbian porn photos? Click here to vote! Truth is that it will be either Trump or Clinton who will be bringing a ton of personal “baggage” when one of them moves into the White House. That’s why we need to remember we are casting a vote for a president and not voting to canonize a saint. (If you do want to vote for a saint, please be sure to spell my cat’s name correctly on your ballot...) 

As a church pastor, I cannot endorse political candidates. But when my advice is asked, I tell people to ignore everything you’ve read or heard about the character of the two candidates. Both campaigns have done a wonderful job at manipulating our emotions and feelings about the other candidate and creating a passionate anger that’s dividing our Nation. But Oprah said.. “You don’t have to like Clinton to vote for her” and I absolutely agree. It is also true that, “You don’t have to like Trump to vote for him.”

So, let’s set our emotions aside and get right to the bottom-line. President Barack Obama promised eight years ago that he would bring change to America. Through his executive actions, he has been very successful in making the greatest changes to our Nation and culture that we have seen in our lifetime. If you like the direction our current president has taken America, then you must vote for Clinton who has pledged to take us even further and deeper in that same direction. If you don’t like the changes you’ve seen take place in the past eight years, then you must vote for Trump who has pledged to reverse that direction and restore a pre-Obama America. It’s really that simple. Ignore the hysteria. Think objectively. Pray. Vote.

And then in a few months a new president will be seated in the White House but God will still be seated on the Throne. Fear not. The Creator of the Universe will still be in control.