Periodically I ask myself why I’m continuing to spend the time I do on reading and posting others’ articles or writing my own. After all, most of the time I’m just preaching to the choir, and, as I often say to my husband, no one’s paying me to do this! So why bother? And, as a followup question, Would I be doing this if Hillary Clinton had won?
Let me start with the most important reason for these posts: I am deeply concerned and alarmed that so many honest, sincere, Bible-believing Christians thought that they “had” to vote for Trump. They listened to the opinions of others instead of reading and thinking for themselves. Some of the reasons for their Trump votes were somewhat moored in reality (Supreme Court nominations), but there was very little hard analytical thinking. Many reasons were just . . . silly. (Trump is Cyrus! Trump is King David!) The utter vulgarity of the Trump campaign seemed to bind Christian voters to him even more tightly. I watched all this with growing horror. And now I keep posting because I want to do my part to keep this kind of thing from happening again.
Does the above conflict with a) my belief in God’s sovereignty, and b) my obligation to “obey them that have the rule over you”? Absolutely not. Believing that God is in control is not a mandate for passivity or resignation but for confidence. I have an obligation to read my Bible, to pray, to seek God’s will, and to do my best to fulfill His mandates in my own life, knowing that the ultimate results are up to Him but that I have a responsibility to do my part and that I will be judged if I fail to carry that responsibility out. I can promise you with all sincerity that had Clinton won, and were I fulminating against her, the very same people who tell me I should accept that God was sovereign in the election of Donald Trump would be saying, “You go, Debi!” It’s all in your perspective, folks!
And how does my Trump criticism square with b) above, the Biblical imperative to obey our rulers? Again, as I’ve said a number of times before, we are a nation of laws. The authority of our leaders comes only from those laws. We elect them. They are, in a very real sense, our employees. If we say, in essence, “Oh well, I can’t criticize,” then we are abdicating our responsibilities as citizens, especially if the very same behavior from an officeholder who’s not a Republican would elicit howls of outrage. (Can you imagine, even faintly, the complete lava flow that would have erupted were we to have a President Clinton with Chelsea sitting at her side during Oval Office meetings? I ask you.)
Secondly, I have become so addicted to political news that I often run across articles I can’t resist sharing. Maybe I can get a few more readers for National Review, or RedState, or HotAir, or even The Washington Post. (The latter has a good range of writers, from liberal to conservative. I particularly appreciate Jennifer Rubin of “The Right Turn” blog.) Hey, I have to justify the time I spend in some way!
At least one reader has said, “Hey Debi! You wouldn’t be writing and posting all this critical stuff if Hiilary had won!” And you know what? She’s probably right. I probably wouldn’t bother, because there would be no point. I wouldn’t need to persuade my readers that we didn’t agree with her. That would be a moot point, a done deal.
Well, I’d better quit. I’ve said all of the above before, I know. But periodically I feel the need to re-explain myself. Hope this clears up some issues. Keep reading!