I'm pretty careful with the political things I post online - my intention is not to be partisan, endorse one person over another, belittle one side...my intention is instead to try to help the world see more of who Christ really is, and to share things that might help the Church think through what it looks like to follow Christ in this time and place. Obviously the things I post aren't the voice of God, so feel free to disagree :) But I do prayerfully think through everything I post before posting, and if I post it, it's because I feel strongly that I should, and I hope it's helpful and beneficial to the social media/blogging world. Hence the article below:
I have never before felt so strongly against a certain political candidate as I do against Trump. There are a lot of deeper cultural, political, racial and spiritual issues as to why Trump has been able to get this far, and I believe in the coming months and years, we as followers of Christ will have much opportunity to examine those reasons and help lead the way in loving our neighbors and bringing the truth, redemption and deeper change our country desperately needs. Right now though, I think this article does a tremendous job of addressing the immediate issue of the Trump candidacy, and why it is essential as followers of Christ to examine what it means if we vote for him. Let us look to Christ to help us see the type of leader we should follow. And if we don't see any Christ-like characteristics in either leading candidate, we can vote for a 3rd party candidate (this is one of the best ways we can use our voice in our democratic system to show our dissatisfaction with the current political climate). But we must think long and hard about what it means if we vote for Trump:
"Evangelical Christians are not merely choosing a certain political outcome. They are determining their public character — the way they are viewed by others and, ultimately, the way they view themselves. They are identifying with a man who has fed ethnic tension for political gain; who has proposed systemic religious discrimination; who has dramatically undermined the democratic values of civility and tolerance; who has advocated war crimes, including killing the families of terrorists; who holds a highly sexualized view of power as dominance, rather than seeing power as an instrument to advance moral ends...In legitimizing the presumptive Republican nominee, evangelicals are not merely accepting who he is; they are changing who they are. Trumpism, at its root, involves contempt for, and fear of, outsiders — refugees, undesirable migrants, Muslims, etc. By associating with this movement, evangelicals will bear, if not the mark of Cain, at least the mark of Trump....
In lowering the sights of Christian political involvement, they are no longer serving a faith where 'justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.' They are dishonoring that ideal before a watching nation."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/evangelicals-may-carry-the-mark-of-trump/2016/06/02/dc0f59b4-28eb-11e6-ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html
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