Last fall, just
before the 2024 election, I wrote a Facebook post that got me into a bit of hot
water with a number of my “friends.” I put friends in quotation marks because I
think there is a distinct difference between being real friends and being
Facebook friends. Regardless, a number of these Facebook friends that took
issue with me were honest-to-goodness old friends from before Facebook existed,
and even some family. A few supported me but the loudest responses came from
those who strongly disagreed with me. Some of those disagreements went even further
and became personally hurtful.
What was my
crime? What horrible thing did I say?
I simply stated
that I would not vote for Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president,
because I felt he was disqualified in light of his response to the January 6th,
2021 storming of the United States Capitol Building. Further, I mentioned that
some viewed it as a religious obligation to vote for the Republican candidate,
and I stated that that was just not the case.
Here are my
actual words from the post regarding the religious pressure:
“Now, a note to
my Christian friends. Don’t let anyone tell you that voting for Donald Trump
has anything to do with your faith or your salvation. It doesn’t—either way.
The evangelical right likes to point to the Bible to coerce you to vote their
way, but you need to know that Jesus was neither a Republican nor a Democrat.
The more liberal-leaning left can sometimes do something similar. In fact, both
sides can make compelling arguments, but you must decide for yourself despite
their noise. Just don’t let someone twist your arm to make you vote for someone
out of religious fear.
My decision this
time around: Kamala Harris.”
Almost immediately,
the reactions from my Christian friends started burning up the comment boxes.
Some were the ones I expected. Normal disagreements and the ones making their
case for why it was the right Christian thing to do to vote for DJT. Others
were more personal though, like the one from a long-time friend from my teen
years in youth group who told me I was going to have to answer to God for voting
against everything he stands for.
Here are her
actual words: “Yes, Mike you will stand before GOD an answer that you no
longer believed in his word with a vote for a person who stands against
everything that GOD says in his word!!”
This one stung
because of who it was, but still… Because of this vote, I “no longer
believed in his word” and this person (Kamala Harris) stands against EVERYTHING
that God says in his word? Really? Everything? I’m still standing pretty strong
on the “Love your Neighbor,” “Love your Enemies,” “Love One Another” parts, I
think. I’m really wanting to dig deeper and do more to fulfill what Jesus
expects from Matthew 25 for how we treat the “least of these.” Seems to me that
Jesus made caring for the needs of others a bigger deal than how I voted in the
Presidential Election of 2024. As for Harris, well, her moral, ethical, and
faith background look pretty stellar when compared to the same factors on the
Republican side. She’s not perfect. No one is. There are some negatives. But, “everything”?
Please.
Two other people
have told me in two different responses, one text and the other a different
Facebook interaction, that they didn’t like that I tended to “call out” other
Christians in my posts. That’s made me go “hmm” for the last three or four
months as I considered those accusations.
In general, I’ve
not attacked other Christians because of their choice of Donald Trump. It did make
me sad, but for the most part, I’ve held my tongue. I’ve only pushed back when some
of them have tried to make it a moral imperative for other Christians to vote a
certain way. What I have done over the last few years is perhaps annoyingly
harp on the need to focus on loving God and loving others as THE primary focus
of the Christian life. If that makes some feel like I’m calling them out, then
check to see if the shoe fits. It might be a Proverbs 28:1 thing: “The
wicked flee though no one pursues,…”
The church
doesn’t need control. It needs to love.
The church doesn’t
need political power. It needs to love.
The church
doesn’t need a list of moral rules. It needs to love.
The church doesn’t
need to enforce it’s own set of values on the world. It needs to love.
If you’re
focused on loving your neighbor, you won’t…
·
Steal
anything
·
Insult
or denigrate anyone
·
Sexually
use or abuse anyone
·
Lie
to gain any kind of personal advantage
·
Leave
them hurting, hungry, or helpless
Basically, everything
that is sin is the antithesis of love. The solution is to love and to teach
others to love. Then the problem of sin will take care of itself.
If you’re
focused on loving your neighbor, you will…
·
Help
them get what they need
·
Feed
them when they’re hungry
·
Care
for them when they’re sick
·
Hold
them when they’re hurting
·
Stand
up for them when they need support
Love drives us
to do good to others.
My struggle is that
I don’t see the modern church (yes, I know there are exceptions) focused on
this. Rather, I see it pursuing control, political power, and the imposing of
moral codes. This is short-sighted and out-of-step with the teachings of
Christ.
I’m going to
close out this blog post with a rewording of a portion of Matthew 25 so that it
reflects how many modern Christians seem to expect Christ to address them on
the last day.
Here goes:
Then
the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my
father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation
of the world. For I was hungry and you left food supplies to rot on shipping
docks, I was thirsty and you let factories poison my water supply, I was a
stranger and you deported me, I needed clothes and you fired me, I was sick and
you made it harder to get medicine, I was in prison and you made me disappear.”
Yes, now I am calling you out. If the shoe fits, my friends, if the shoe fits…
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