Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Shaun King is a racial agitator of dubious merit and provenance personally, professionally, and financially, and he has just published a piece for the New York Daily News announcing that Republicans may no longer claim to prize family values, because they have embraced the outrageously sinful Trump and had rejected decent Obama.
Many say that King is a radical, what with his Black Lives Matter shenanigans. I haven't really followed them. I can tell you, though, that I am a radical, and that I'm going to make some pretty far-reaching claims. You will think I am overstating things. Perhaps. But try to view the country through the template I'm about to lay down. You might be surprised at its coherence.
This country is fundamentally divided, and it isn't over "family values".
Donald Trump is a wicked man, and what is more he flaunts his wickedness. He is not, as former president Obama is, a decent man. I'm not a Republican and do not associate with the supposed party of moral rectitude. I agree with Mr. King that the GOP has lost moral credibility during this election and had been before. What's more, they've completely exposed their hypocrisy. I'd watch with glee if the party imploded.
So I'm not writing this to defend the GOP or the Republican establishment or even Republican voters. But Mr. King made this a Christian thing. I wish to explain the Christian thing to him.
According to Mr. King, these are the virtues which made Obama a man Republicans should have been willing to embrace: he is honest, decent, moral, and faithful. Let us grant that this is true. I want to talk about Obama and his character, and why Christians, if not Republicans, could not embrace him.
There are a lot of little flashpoints in American society and politics that are divisive and defining. Any one of them is enough to guarantee the political passions of many will be constantly aroused, and their toleration for opponents minimal. And the divisions formed in this country over these many issues are multiplying and growing.
But there is one thing that dominates the background for evangelical Christians the country over.
There has been a massive and systematic slaughter of innocent humans within our borders for the last forty years. We really believe that. Perhaps you think us disingenuous because most of us do not blow up the murder mills or strike out against the government from guerrilla bases in the hills. (Or even, like me, believe that it would be a good thing to do.) The truth is, most of us don't even picket or parade. We are hypocritical in our speech and morally compromised in our actions, but the fact remains, we believe and know that this butchery of babies is real.
People like to say that they're not single-issue voters as if that were a virtue. But this is not a world without truth. The truth is that we aren't talking about taxation or job creation, but state-sponsored murder.
You know how some pundits bemoan the zero-sumification of American politics, shaking their heads over how voters and politicians on either side of the aisle behave as if the other side were evil instead of misguided?
We see this perhaps most obviously in the frantic freak-outs of many left-wing SJWs who are convinced that anyone who wants to see IDs at voting stations or more restrictions on welfare is racist. We find their behavior laughable because IDs at voting stations ought not to be a moral zero-sum. But the fact is that, despite the red herrings, there are indeed zero-sum issues out there.
Abortion is the big one. It's far, very far, from being the only one. But it's always there, looming large over everything. And it's a core plank on the Democratic platform.
For all of President Obama's decency and morality, we could never embrace him, but only pray for him.
This country is full of decent people who not only murder children, but unrepentedly promote this atrocity in others, masking the oppression of the innocent as freedom for the poor. We live alongside these evildoers. They are our neighbors and even our family. We work alongside them and are cordial with them. We might have a beer with them or invite them to church. We may even like and love them. But murder is always there, crouching between us.
From the vantage of one who voted for neither major candidate, I would like to make a suggestion to the many Christian leaders who were scandalized that people who claim to be Christians could vote for as wicked a man as Trump. Perhaps voting for Trump was easy because we are already used to living under wicked rulers. This one simply happened to be not decent. Some might find that refreshing.
We accept the legitimacy of our government. But we couldn't embrace a man like Obama. He may be decent and moral and faithful, but only by Moloch's standards. And you will find that most of us are not embracing Trump; we are simply hopeful that his rule will alleviate our concerns and fears. It is possible that he is an answer to prayer.
I end with a pseudo-ad-hitlerum, reminding the reader that Dietrich Bonhoeffer was surrounded by decency, that Hannah Arendt reported on the banality of evil, and that decency and morality was expected and near-universal in the Waffen-SS.
When you post your objections, please begin by bringing up the Christians who, like many Israelites of old, go up to the high places and in to the shrine prostitutes. Bring up the Christians who say that the Bible is not God's word and get nervous talking about the divinity of Jesus. Or simply begin with the Christians who have managed to truly turn a blind eye to abortion. There are many. But there are more who cannot.
My prayer is that one day we will truly awake, and that our prayers will be faithful and true, and heard.
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