COMPROMISING MY CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES?

A few days ago a very young “Millennial” boldly declared that I would be compromising my Christian principles by voting for Trump. Well, I have voted for Trump and I did not compromise my Christian principles! Sorry, kid, but that did not happen. I held true to my principles which have been given to me by Christ, Himself.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays out a very clear definition of what the Ten Commandments really mean in comparison to the Pharisaical Laws.

And, later, He made a clear distinction by summarizing His purpose and the Ten Commandments with this statement in Matthew 22:

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The “whine” over this election has been (pinch your nose and speak in a high voice when you say it), “How could God possibly make us choose between two SINNERS??? Oh, no! That is worse than anything else in the world (including tragedies, terrorism, “global warming”, or any other thing happening in the world today). Oh.poor.us! We have to choose between two people who are sinners and act like sinners. BooHoo.

Hey... Both of these people are our neighbors, whom we are to love, and choosing between them is a matter of reality. Why NOT vote for a sinner. All of our presidents have been sinners: some saved by Grace and others not.

There is no place in our constitution which forbids having a president who is not a Christian. The last three who were living a vivid Christian life have been some of the schmaltziest presidents we have ever had. i.e. The two Republicans went immediately to the Democrats and blessed them with an announcement that “we” would work along side them in the things they wanted to accomplish. And they did. Ain't that sweet.

Each citizen of these United States has been given the honor and responsibility to choose our leaders. This is something we need to do, even when we do not want any of the candidates to win. It is our burden to vote anyway. It is our responsibility to discern the best possibility and vote, from President down to local town councilors.

It is our duty to let others know how we are thinking in case they need some buoying up, but it is not our responsibility to blast away on those who see it differently, with gleeful observations of how wrong we think they are. This election is almost over with. 

Let us begin healing as we trust God to push His agenda, no matter what. That is His job.

MAKE AMERICA LIVABLE AGAIN

As the day of voting draws nearer and nearer, I find myself contemplating three perfectly rotten scoundrels.

One was named Manasseh, King Manasseh of Judea, the man who was proclaimed by God to have shed the most innocent blood of all time. His story is so bloody that much of it must be read in history to get the true picture of what happened. As I studied him, I found myself rooting for God to “take him out.” (Lest you have any doubts, that is not a Christ-like attitude.)

I was very happy when the Assyrian King had him arrested on false charges and took him off to the dungeon at his palace. But God had news for him and for me: God was in charge of even this situation. During his stay in the dungeon, his life wasting away, he was bent over to the point that he began to recognize the evil he had done. And, guess what? He repented. He spent much time confessing each detail and repenting of them, asking God's forgiveness for his sin.

So, did God forgive him? You bet. Soon after his repentance, the guard came and released him from prison explaining that they had found the charges against him to be false. He was free to return to Judea and be the King there again.

He did return and he did rule as King again, this time destroying the majority of idol worship, cleaning the temple of all signs of it and ruling by the commandments of God. He was broken and became useful to God.

Another man on my mind is the great, honored President John F. Kennedy. He truly desires honor for what he accomplished, especially in standing up to Russia. And his manner of operation was genuinely acceptable on the level of polite society. But what we did not know was that his private behavior was abominable; even scandalous to those of us who had sexual scruples. His appetite for sex was so voracious that it had him hiding women in the closets of the White House so that he could have sex with them.

And, then, there is my Dad. He was a sleaze of a man and a total womanizer with a mouth that could make a sailor blush. His personal behavior was hurtful and ugly for many, many years. But... He rose up in the Army from a PFC shoveling horse left overs to a Captain in charge of a P.O.W. Camp in Korea. The point here is that as ugly as he was, he got the job done; whatever the job was. In fact all of these men did.

As I contemplate these men, I find myself seeing that I need to consider the repercussions of what I do with my vote.

I have clearly decided that, though both viable candidates for President are seemingly unacceptable, they are nevertheless the only viable candidates.

This is not the first time for me to be in this situation. I have not had opportunity to vote for a viable candidate that I felt deserved the honor of being President since I voted for Reagan. But I have always voted for the ideology and platform of conservative politics. Always.

Now, more than ever, except for 2012, I see a need to vote against the party ideology that I detest. And I detest the liberal socialist progressive ideology and party platform plus the current behavior of that party.

The mouth of Donald Trump may be abominable, but the platform he stands on is NOT. The platform she stands on is crushing and totally unacceptable as a continuation of the destruction of this freedom based nation.

Though I am not standing on the rhetoric of “Make America Great Again,” I am quite persuaded that we need to make America livable again.

As for me, I see voting for Trump and the conservative platform as a much better chance of making this country livable again. I will cast my vote for that possibility before I will throw it away or not vote at all.