If the Shoe Fits...

 

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 6^th, 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…