October 18, 2020


First, my apology for a ten-day absence.  An unusually slow recovery from a cardiac ablation... plus an eye infection... ganged up on me to sap my energy and pre-occupy me with pain.  I was able to do most of my work at the Salem church, but there was nothing left in the tank for this diary.  I'm feeling better today, however, and it feels great to be writing again.
 
When I last left you, our soap opera was looking like this:  the president had contracted coronavirus, a supreme court justice had unexpectedly died, a plot was foiled to kidnap and behead the governor of Michigan, the first presidential debate horrified the country by revealing the president to be a bully and his contender to be woefully inarticulate, and the vice presidential debate was dominated by a fly that seemed to be stuck in the vice-president's hair spray.  Where do soap operas get these idiot writers who think we will believe such stories?
 
As with most soap operas, it turns out you can take ten days off from this campaign and nothing really changes.  Biden is still ahead in the national polls by about ten points.  His leads in the most critical swing states are still close and within the margin of polling error.  Blah, blah, blah.
 
The bottom line is this:  a lot of people in this country really don't like each other right now.  
 
Over the past ten days I've been keeping an eye (my good eye) on the news and thinking about how to preach an "election sermon" to my congregation in Salem.  Salem (Marion County, Illinois) is Trump country and the people in my church there appear to be overwhelmingly for him.  And since preaching is supposed to be both encouragement AND exhortation... how would you preach to a group of enthusiastic Trump supporters ...while remaining faithful to your own commitment to justice and truth?  I have included that sermon in this diary for your critique.
 
I have also been reading and reflecting on past elections.  Lewis Gould's short book 1968:  The Election That Changed America was about all I could manage to read, given my eye problems.  But thanks to a cocktail of antibiotics, I was able to get through it. And it is the catalyst for my other offering today:  Which Candidate Speaks to Your Gut.

WHICH CANDIDATE SPEAKS TO YOUR GUT?

Most of us are mostly swayed by how we feel about a candidate.  Of course, we can rationally compute which candidate comes closest to our positions on the issues.  But elections tend to be won by appealing to our guts, not our prefrontal cortices.  
 
To that end, I think there are four relevant factors in determining who will win our vote:
 
1.  Which candidate incarnates the American dream...for me?
2.  Which candidate articulates my understanding of American exceptionalism?
3.  Which candidate seems most empathetic to my grievances?
4.  Which candidate seems most empathetic to my fatigue?
 
These four gut issues are present in every presidential election.  And every successful candidate usually finds some way to connect with each of the four.  But the one who connects most broadly (think...electoral college) with the most voters is the one who is elected.
 
For many voters, the American dream means wealth.  Voila Donald Trump...and John Kennedy...and Franklin Roosevelt...and even George Washington.  On the other hand, some people think of the American dream as more a matter of overcoming failure, or injustice, or poverty:  Harry Truman, Barak Obama, Abraham Lincoln. Hillary Clinton would have been the first little girl to grow up and become president.
 
American exceptionalism can take many forms:  dedication to military superiority, economic domination, or geographical expansion come quickly to mind.  But American exceptionalism can also include our continuing quest for civil rights, accomplishments in science and technology, generosity in lifting people out of poverty, and global leadership in pursung peace and environment justice.  The first cluster was embodied by Theodore Roosevelt.  The second cluster by Jimmy Carter.  Most presidents tried to have some of each.  Lyndon Johnson tried to straddle that fence and got impaled on it.
 
We Americans are well known for our grievances.  Even our most noble document, the Declaration of Independence, was one part eloquence and nine parts grievance.  Collectively, we bellyache and grouse and whine about everything:  taxes, labor unions, management, the police, civil rights, the environment, student debt, banks, immigrants, ICE, the EPA, big business, health care, prisons, churches, schools...  Barak Obama was elected partly out of our grievances over the war in Iraq, the 2008 economic collapse, and the nation's ongoing sluggishness in dealing with racism.  Bill Clinton was elected under the slogan, "It's the economy, stupid."  
 
And periodically, a candidate will reflect our fatigue with all that is happening.  In 1968, Richard Nixon seemed the most empathetic to the fatigue Americans were feeling with assassinations, urban riots, Viet Nam, and social liberation movements.  Dwight Eisenhower and George W. Bush were seen as easy going, a slowing down from World War (Eisenhower) and the scandals of the Clinton years (George W.)  Gerald Ford almost won in 1976 because he seemed so normal after Watergate.
 
Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have gut appeal in each of these four areas...but in radically different ways.  
 
For Donald Trump, the focal point of the American dream is wealth. His opulence, excessiveness, and machismo makes him an ideal salesman for those who want to live richly and in control of others.  It is understandable that he will not release his tax returns if it were the case that they would demonstrate that his businesses usually fail and he is about to face the consequences of too much debt.
 
For Joe Biden, the focal point of the American dream is the middle class.  He too is in favor of wealth, something he talked at length about in his Thursday night town hall.  But it is a less flashy version of wealth than that expounded by his opponent.  
 
Donald Trump has been on message with his insistence that America comes first.  Over and over, he uses superlatives to describe himself, with the implication that America is exceptional because we now have an exceptional president...the BEST ever.  Count up the superlatives he uses.  Few of them are historically truthful, but it his speech does feed a certain yearning for American exceptionalism.
 
Joe Biden is less effective than Donald Trump in conveying HIS idea of American exceptionalism.  That is why his opponents hammer him over and over again with such concepts as "He wants to destroy America," "He hates America..." Biden does believe in American exceptionalism, but it centers more on using government strength to help the weak and oppressed. Despite legitimate criticisms of some legislation he has sponsored over the years, Biden has long been a champion for the rights of women and minorities.  And his understanding of American exceptionalism includes "unity," the ability to bridge differences of party and race to work together.
 
Donald Trump is an exceptional candidate of grievance.  He has long been attacked by the establishment, myself (a mainstream Protestant pastor) included. Long before he was a candidate, he made for excellent sermon illustrations ...if I wanted to talk about any of the seven deadly sins. We've been picking on Donald Trump for decades.  And the more we pick on him... the more he spits and curses and whines... and the more millions sense his empathy with them.  And his list of grievances is long, and twisted: the media, China, NATO, immigrants, nasty women, protesters, scientists, Muslims, Democrats, staff who betray him, Republicans who betray him...
 
Joe Biden has one primary grievance:  Donald Trump.  And with that singular grievance, he is tapping into the what is probably the largest "grievance energy source" currently in the country.  Historically, we have seldom seen such grievance against a sitting president.  Covid-19 has accelerated our anger, just as the oil shortage, hostages in Iran, and inflation compounded grievance against Jimmy Carter in 1980... just as the depression compounded grievance against Herbert Hoover in 1932.
 
On the last factor, a candidate's empathy with our fatigue:  Donald Trump really doesn't get this one.  But Sleepy Joe...he gets it!  (Sometimes Donald Trump's name-calling backfires on him.) Furthermore, Biden's natural empathy with those who grieve has given him the inside track when it comes to Americans feeling like he understands them.  
 
While Trump's slogan, "Make America Great Again" is a brilliant tactic when it comes to the American Dream, American exceptionalism, and a host of grievances ...it misreads how tired we all are, and how much we are grieving, and how ready we are to settle for less than a Trumpian lifestyle.  Just give us a middle class home, some reliable health care, a little relief on our debts, a vaccine, a meaningful job... and a chance to get back a little normalcy.     



MY 2020 ELECTION SERMON

This is my first and only election sermon in 2020.  Pastors are not legally allowed to endorse a candidate or a party.  And so I won't.  If I owned a purple suit, I would have worn it today, just to show that I'm not using this sermon to tilt the election red or blue.  But since I don'thave a purple suit, as you can see, I'm wearing a blue shirt with a red tie... my subliminal attempt to relate to both sides.  In fact, not only am I going to avoid suggesting how you should vote, I'm not even going to encourage you to vote.  As your pastor, I honestly don't care whether you vote, or who you vote for.    
 
So, if I'm not going to do any of that...what's the point of having an election sermon?  It is this:  when we joined the church, we made a promise to pattern our lives on the life of Jesus. And we also made a promise to live our lives according to the teachings of scripture.  When I gave my life to Christ, decades ago, I made a vow that with all I am and everything I have, I would try to live up to the teachings of Jesus.  And Jesus teaches us to love one another:  and that means that we are to love even the candidates we love to hate.  Jesus goes out of his way to demand that we love our enemies:  and that includes our political enemies.  Furthermore, loving people involves how we talk about them and how we caricaturize them.
 
It's not easy being a Christian.  There are a number of areas in life that get us pretty worked up.  We can get pretty stressed about money, or politics, or romance, or sex, or family matters, or church conflicts, or people who offend us...  And almost always, the more strongly we feel about someone or something, the more likely we are to forget what Jesus taught us about handling such matters.  The angrier we get, the more adamant, the more agitated... the farther away we get from being Christlike.
 
I'm seeing lots of Christians, in this political environment, who are missing the mark of being Christlike.  Because I'm a pastor, I'll go to any church the bishop sends me to.  And I'll stay there, and I'll love the people, and I'll deal with whatever is happening...whether I like it or not, whether it's easy or hard.  But if I wasn't a pastor, and I went to a church, and heard the people making some of the snide political comments that I hear among church people...if I wasn't a pastor and I saw some of the political comments church members make on Facebook...if I wasn't a pastor...if I was just a person in need of grace and love and a little joy in my life...I wouldn't ever go back to that church.  If you take away my pastor hat, I'm just a guy searching for a group of people who practice love and work hard at finding ways to love their enemies.  I want to be like Jesus.  There are people in my life and in the news who are hard for me to take.  And I need to be with a group of people who can help me do that in a Christlike way.    
 
You may object that we have freedom of speech in this country, and if you want to say something negative about a politician, you have a right.  I know that we have freedom of speech in this country.  And I appreciate that.  I practice and enjoy that freedom quite a bit myself.  But freedom that is not framed in responsibility is a cancer.  Self-righteousness that is not dissolved by kindness is of the devil.  Adamancy that is not infused with humility is anti-Christ.  Argument that denies inconvenient truths is demonic. And enemies that are not engaged honorably dishonor our Lord.  
 
The darkness of this political landscape has seeped into our churches and infected us as much as any coronavirus.  I wish there was a mask that could protect us from this spiritual infection.  But there's not.  This political hatred, from both sides, is a demon that has taken up residence in our hearts and minds.  It's crippled our churches and families and friendships.  It's paralyzed and muted the people among us who are most kind and thoughtful.  It has triggered derangement in those we count on to be passionate about justice.  That's all bad news.
 
But people come to church to hear good news, don't they!  So, let's not stop at a dark point.  
 
It may seem odd to you, but I happen to love politics, generally speaking.  I've been intrigued with campaigns and voting ever since I was a child.  There's a kind of a sport to elections that excites me.  And elections make history.  When seen from the distance and discipline of historical study, elections are engaging, insightful, and edifying.  I collect presidential biographies and various elections histories.  
 
And I have personal memories of elections:
 
The very first election I remember was in 1960, between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon.  My family, both sides, were rock-solid Republicans.  We lived in the country, southeast of Dekalb, Illinois.  And on election day, my parents piled us four boys into the back seat and headed off to an abandoned country school... the polling place.  They left us in the car while they went in to vote.
 
When they returned, we asked them who they had voted for.  My mom said it was none of our business, since the ballot was private.  My dad, who preferred an audience over his privacy, declared that he had voted for Kennedy.  My mom was appalled.
 
The next election, when I was ten, was Goldwater against Johnson.  I was in the fifth grade, and the boys were all for Goldwater and the girls were all for Johnson.  We didn't know anything about either of the candidates, but we weren't about to betray our gender.  
 
I was, however, just starting to get interested in history and geography.  I'd started a map collection, and my fifth grade teacher encouraged my interest.  A couple months after the election I heard that President Johnson was going to give his State of the Union Address.  And I tuned in... rooting for "Illinois" to be chosen as that year's State of the Union.  What a boring speech.  And he never did get around to announcing which state was that year's winner.
 
By the time I was in high school, I was absolutely fascinated with history and politics.  I clipped photos from US News and World Report and Time magazine of senators and presidential candidates and posted them neatly on a bulletin board in my bedroom.  What a nerd.
 
My great-grandfather used to tell me stories about Theodore Roosevelt, his hero.  When Grandpa John was 18, in 1904, he snuck into the polls and voted for Roosevelt, even though he was underage.  And so in 1972, because the 26th amendment to the constitution had just been passed, I became the first 18 year old in our family to vote since 1904. I decided to vote for Richard Ogilvie (Republican) for governor and George McGovern (Democrat) for president.  Both of them lost in landslides.  I recovered.  But the bumper stickers I had put on my brown Rambler probably lowered the resale value of it that winter.
I think it's good for Christians to participate in the political process, share ideas, enter the discussion, run for office, engage the process at every level.
 
But whenever Christians do talk and act politically, we shouldn't be giving Jesus the slip, cheating on him, like he's not listening, like we haven't made vows to him.  It's like any other area of life where we have strong feelings...we can't bend the truth of Jesus to our liking, to our way of thinking, to our politics, to our party.  Jesus simply doesn't bend the way many Christians are trying to bend him politically.  In politics, I see a lot of Christians who are cheating on Jesus by using his name for purposes that lack grace and mercy and justice.  
 
There are two ways that we see Christians cheating on Jesus.  One is what I've mentioned earlier:  when we do not love our political enemies, when we spread falsehoods about them, when we demean them, when we do not engage them honorably...when we do not love our enemies...that is one way we cheat on Jesus.
 
And the second way we cheat on Jesus is when we confuse holiness with conservatism or holiness with liberalism.  There are some people who insist that Jesus is a conservative.  And there are other people who insist that Jesus is a liberal.  The truth is, Jesus was holy, but nothing in the Bible indicates that he was either conservative or liberal. Those are modern concepts.  Holiness is the only biblical concept here that applies to Jesus.  And holiness has to do with practicing justice, being merciful, acting with humility, and loving people who are hard to love.  Scripture calls upon us to be holy, just as God is holy.  It does not call upon us to be conservative or to be a liberal.
 
We used to have a cat called "Two-face."  That was about 30 years ago, back when the daughters were little, and they are the ones who came up with the name.  Mindy and Alison were normally two bright and creative girls, except when it came to naming cats.  They kept coming up with names like Whitey, Butterscotch, Blackie...and moved on to hyphenated names:  Blacky-Whitey, Whitey-Blacky, etc.  When one poor little kitten came along with half a gray face and half a white face, they called her Two-Face.
 
I used to think it was cute, and all our visitors got a laugh out of the name.  But then I had to take the cat to the vet once, and of course the vet needs a name for the office records.  It was really embarrassing to be sitting in the reception area when the secretary called out, "Two-Face Smith," and I was the one who had to get up and walk across the room in front of everyone's stares.  I felt like some scummy character in a bad Western.  Two-Face Smith.
 
It reminded me of my high school days when my friends and I on the school speech team would argue about politics.  Doug Fitzgerald was the resident liberal in our class and often referred to me as an idiot conservative.  On the other hand, Joel Book judged me to be so liberal as to predict that I would someday become a renowned pinko communist.  As for myself, I was actually trying to figure out what I was.  I even checked out a couple books, something along the lines of  What is a Conservative and What is a Liberal to see if I could figure it out.  But just like any other ole Two-Face Smith, I kind of agreed with both points of view.
  
I think you can be a conservative and be a really good Christian, provided that your conservatism doesn't cheat on Jesus.  A good conservative strives to conserve  things, including the environment.  They hold tradition in high regard, believing it to be generative.  Conservatives believe in change because it is only through accepting change that we can keep the things we have always valued.  Conservatives trust people who are honest and modest, prudent and reliable. Conservatives prefer investing in organic growth over social engineering.  They honor, but do not blindly defend institutions and institutional memory.  Conservatives believe that those who have privileges in this life also have an obligation to help those who are vulnerable and poor.  Conservatives value saving and investment and personal responsibility. In my almost 50 years of ministry, I have been encouraged, taught, and supported by Christian conservatives, who are among some of the most intelligent and loving people I've ever known. 
 
I think you can be a liberal and be a really good Christian, provided that your liberalism doesn't cheat on Jesus.  Liberals are generous. They believe in change in order to upset the homeostasis:  if the system is hurting people, the boat needs to be rocked and the system changed. Liberals are not afraid of risk, they traffic and thrive in faith and imagination.  Liberals are not afraid to be excessive in pursuit of justice or liberation.  They believe in taking equal rights as far as practically possible.  Liberals believe in self-sacrifice, giving you everything they have and everything they are in order to reverse harm and do good. Liberals believe that new life is born from conflict and boldness.  In my almost 50 years of ministry, I have been encouraged, taught, and supported by Christian liberals, who are among some of the most intelligent and loving people I've ever known. 
 
Liberal and conservative are not opposites, they are complementary.  When we politicize and polarize the two philosophies, we render ourselves impotent in trying to address the important issues of our day:  gun violence, global warming, war, poverty, or racism.  
 
I think that whichever way this election goes, we're going to need God to help us clean up the mess.  It's odd to me:  for all the things we've seen God do, we've never seen God come up with a form of human government that actually works.  In the Bible, nothing seemed to work:  not Pharaohs, not judges, not the kings of Israel or the kings of Judah, not empires.  They were all more or less beastly and lying and dehumanizing.  And since biblical times, we humans have gotten ourselves into one mess after another.
 
The only thing we have from God, from the words of Jesus himself, is an idealistic concept.  Jesus called it the Kingdom of God.
 
The Kingdom of God is where God rules in our hearts and in our relationships and in our land...  God's mercy reigns.  God's justice reigns.  God's generosity reigns.  God's liberality reigns.  God's conservatism reigns.  God's holiness has its way.
 
And because the Kingdom of God is always there, sometimes in the foreground...sometimes only in the background...we have hope.  We do not lose heart.
 
In a democracy, Christians really should be joining the political conversation.  It would be good for our country, as long as we're imitating Christ and not "stepping out" on him with our partisan idols.
 
If we feel in our hearts that God is calling us to help the poor and the weak, we should join the conversation, engage the process, and not lose heart.
 
If we feel in our hearts that God is calling us to beat our swords into plowshares, we should join the conversation, engage the process, and not lose heart.
 
If we feel in our hearts that God is calling us to care for the earth, we should join the conversation, engage the process, and not lose heart.
 
If we feel in our hearts that God is calling us to care for the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant, we should join the conversation, engage the process, and not lose heart.
 
If we feel in our hearts that God is calling us to care for the sick and honor the elderly, we should join the conversation, engage the process, and not lose heart.
 
If we feel in our hearts that God is calling us to uphold the sanctity of life, we should join the conversation, engage the process, and not lose heart.
 
If we feel in our hearts that God is calling us to speak truth to power, we should join the conversation, engage the process, and not lose heart.
 
This election is days away.  Whichever party and candidate you may support, each one of you who has committed your life to Christ has the glorious duty and honor of making sure that your words and actions reflect his love, his mercy, his justice, and his humility.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Quick Links
Click Here for my website