The Morning After
If what I’ve seen on social media is any indicator, many of you may be distraught and terrified this morning. As Americans, you may be deeply concerned about the direction of our society and the future of our world. You should note, that you may be experiencing the same thing many of your counterparts who voted for the candidate you didn’t experience at this time four years ago. As believers, however, it is critical that we have the ability to see things for their spiritual significance rather than strictly through the lens of our flesh.
One problem I’ve often addressed is the tendency of many believers to to reshape their theology to match party and political ideology. This is as much true of the DNC and their supporters as it is true of the so-called MAGA movement. The main problem for Christians in the DNC, however, is that the party platform champions and enshrines positions, practices, and beliefs that God explicitly forbids. On the other hand, the MAGA movement faces the challenge of those pushing for Christian nationalism and misinterpreting God’s Word in relation to how we treat immigrants.
Choose a Side
Viewing these issues through spiritual lenses and within a Biblical framework, we must recognize that God has judged entire nations for the very things championed by the DNC today. God destroyed large and prosperous cities for reasons that parallel certain pillars of the modern-day DNC platform. For example, God sent the Babylonians to destroy Judah and carry its inhabitants away into exile because of their practice of sexual immorality, idolatry, and child sacrifice. Similarly, God sent the Assyrians to conquer the Northern Kingdom for similar reasons. As believers in Messiah, perhaps we should view this electoral outcome as an act of God’s mercy toward us, allowing us time to repent and avert the judgment we deserve for our collective transgressions, rather than seeing it purely as a political crisis.
To be clear, the issues I’m bringing into the conversation here are not ambiguous and the Bible is not silent on them. These issues are black and white. Some Christians have simply refused to believe what God has said on these matters. Too many American Christians have allowed strong emotions to overpower their faith. They have allowed their feelings about candidates’ personalities to draw their focus away from policies. They have embraced a culture of death, debauchery, and sexual immorality supplanted the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven with the culture of the world in which we live. We were summoned into the Kingdom of Heaven by way of repentance. That is exactly what Christians who have abandoned the Word of God; challenging its authenticity, veracity, and applicability must do. Today, as many believers wrestle with the outcome of the Presidential election, is the day for all of us to do exactly that.
But wait – if we take a stand against these issues, aren’t we abandoning the love Jesus told us to walk in? Not at all. Consider this analogy: If your child earnestly desired to run into busy street traffic because they felt and believed they were a car, would you stop them or would you stand by and “love them” as they ran into mortal danger? Would you stand idly by while a close friend euthanized a perfectly healthy pet in order to save money by encouraging them to make their “choice,” or would you take a stand? If we wouldn’t allow our children to run into traffic or stand idly by while harm is done to an animal, why are we sometimes so weak in our love toward other humans? If we remain silent in the face of these things, we position ourselves against God (see Romans 1, Romans 12:1-2, and James 4:4). If you are still struggling to understand that these issues are not small things, consider the agenda and what is at stake.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have [it] abundantly. [Jhn 10:10 NASB95]
These issues that caused the downfall of cities and kingdoms, that became pillars of the DNC platform are in alignment with the purposes of the enemy of our souls. They are not in any way in alignment with God’s Word or character. The thief comes to steal our children by indoctrinating them into a culture of sexual immorality, to kill unborn babies in the name of healthcare and “choice,” and to destroy our futures because we are too wrapped up in our vision of what life should be to heed the Word of God.
Consider further who supports these ideas. In the last few weeks leading up to the election, it became public knowledge that there were actual witches meeting, casting spells, and attempting to initiate curses over the President-elect and his campaign. Strangely, there are Evangelicals who also supported the Vice President (and seemingly her platform) and ran ads quoting the Bible. How could these two things coexist?
Have all DNC supporters aligned themselves ideologically with an evil agenda? I know that this is not the case. Many are simply concerned about the fitness of the President-elect and his ability to lead our nation. I can respect that view when it is rooted in facts. It becomes problematic when it’s rooted personal feelings and hyper-emotionalism. Is aligning ourselves with a party that promotes immoral positions worth it in order to achieve a desired political outcome? Conversely, those supporting the GOP must examine the nature of their support to determine if it crosses a line into Christian nationalism and political idolatry. No balance can be struck between our faith and our politics. If we are true believers and followers of Messiah, we must acknowledge and live according to our identity in Him, not create a new one.
Ultimately, I am not asking you to join the MAGA movement or even to become a supporter of our President-elect. If you are a conservative who is over the moon with excitement this morning, I am not asking you to change your political affiliation either or to change your views on moral issues. My concern is for those believers who have allowed political ideology to supplant sound theology, allowing campaign slogans to subvert the working of the Gospel in their lives. It is those individuals I am calling to repentance.
Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty. [2Co 6:14-18 NASB95]
Our Josiah Moment
The reign of King Josiah in many ways marked a time of repose for the nation of Judah. Evil kings had preceded him, and evil kings followed him. However, during his reign, Josiah instituted a number of reforms that, for a time, spared the nation of Judah God’s judgment. Among these reforms was a return to the prescribed temple worship and a cessation of child sacrifice. As the prophet Jeremiah tells us, the problem with Judah was that, despite those reforms, the hearts of the people did not fully turn toward God and away from their transgressions. The people (including the religious leaders) returned to all the evils of their predecessors, and they paid the price when Jerusalem fell.
For many Americans, and strangely many believers, the overturning of Roe v. Wade was an occasion for mourning. Meanwhile pro-life believers (detractors call us things like “forced birth”), rejoiced as the Supreme Court decision was announced. While I was pleased with the result, I also knew that legislating morality almost always fails in a diverse population. What had to change during Josiah’s reign, and what has to change now, is the heart of the people. Will American Christians be like Judah and turn away from our Josiah moment or will we lean into this time in history to lead people out of darkness and death?
What will be our legacy as believers when the Lord returns? Will we be known amongst the believers that came before us as the Body of Messiah who chose to faithfully stand against the evils of the day despite our political differences or will we be like the conspirators of Jeremiah 11, turning back to the evils of our ancestors who refused to hear God’s Word? What will be the future of our nation?
The Fate of Our Republic
Before I move on, let’s pause and more closely examine why we are so fixated on calling our form of government a democracy. The United States is a Constitutional Republic – or, perhaps more accurately, a Constitutional Federal Republic – not a democracy. For some, there is only a marginal semantic difference between the two. For others, myself included, this distinction is crucial.
As an African American man who is only one short generation removed from the civil rights movement, I am keenly aware of the weaknesses of a pure democracy as it pertains to protecting the rights of all citizens. In a true democracy, the majority rules without any regard for minority interests. Thus, all of the people are not represented. This leaves you with little recourse when the system at large has decided that you, your beliefs, and your way of life are not acceptable within the context of the larger social framework. Despite the constitutional protections afforded to African Americans, this was a reality for most of us throughout much of this nation’s history. I can only imagine how much worse that would have been had this nation been formed as a pure democracy. In contrast, a Constitutional Republic protects individual rights and prevents the tyranny of the majority.
Basic civics aside, I think it’s important to remember that we’ve heard that our now President-elect “is a threat to democracy” over and over again in the media. This wasn’t just your typical election mudslinging, this was a campaign talking point, a rallying cry, and a media mantra. What reasonable Americans (especially reasonable Christians) should be asking themselves this morning is, if that’s true, why did he win?
In Plain Sight
For nearly four years conservatives and independents who raised concerns about President Biden’s fitness and cognitive function were chided and maligned by the media and the DNC. The American public was told that he was “as sharp as he [had] ever been” and absolutely fit for office. In fact, if you Google phrases like “sharp as he’s ever been,” you’ll notice the rote repetition by members of the DNC and the media. If that was true and if all those questioning his fitness were conspiracy theorists, why was he replaced as the DNC nominee following the first Presidential debate? Is it possible that the truth was right in front of us the entire time and we were deliberately misled?
When she became the DNC nominee, the current Vice President, continued to run on the same platform, but called it change. The only shift was in the prominence that the issue of abortion had in the Vice President’s campaign versus that of her predecessor. Abortion became a front-and-center issue in almost every public discussion I saw (along with the opponent “is a threat to democracy”). The problem was, that while people’s feelings about this issue were abundant, the facts presented by the DNC were minimal and selective.
In not so many words, the American people were told that women were in danger if they didn’t have abortion access. We were told that there were places in this nation where a woman could not have an abortion even if her life depended on it. We were led to believe that no one has late-term abortions and so on. Each of these ideas (again rampant in media discourse and in DNC events) is verifiably false. If the truth was right there in front of us the whole time, why were we told something different? Even now, with the truth publicly available to anyone who can conduct basic research, why do people still believe what they were told by the DNC and the media? If we were misled about these things, is it possible we were misled in other ways?
It’s Only a Few Nuts
Undoubtedly, there has been overwhelming social pressure to view the President-elect as a “threat to democracy” and to defend abortion as a “fundamental healthcare right” and so much more. Going back to the early days of 2021, government officials and political pundits publicly shamed conservatives and so-called “constitutionalists,” while also painting them as potential domestic terrorists needing to be closely watched (a threat to “democracy” as it were). These people have been painted as fringe groups, extremists, bigots, xenophobes, etc. In one recent comment, later clarified by the current administration, the President seemed to refer to these people as “garbage.” Overall, it seems like we’ve been steered toward thinking of this as a small group of outliers or perhaps a few “nuts.” The data, however, suggests something very different.
At present (the morning of November 6, 2024), Decision Desk HQ has the President-elect with 286 electoral votes (to the Vice President’s 226) and a total of 70,961,381 votes to 66,508,628. That’s a difference of 4,452,753 votes.[1] The Associated Press reports similar figures. Even given that there are still quite a few votes left to be counted, it is clearly not a small minority of bigots and misogynists flexing their electoral muscle. This is a group of people larger than the entire populations of California and Texas combined. If everything we’ve been told by the media is true, why did such a significant number of people vote the way they did?
Is it possible that this has nothing to do with the level of education of voters, a desire to maintain the patriarchy, a love of fascism, or anything as slanderous as those accusations? Is it possible that there is a cross-section of Americans (inclusive of believers) who find the prospect of continuing to support a party and a regime that is destroying families and championing abortion completely untenable? Is it possible that the DNC miscalculated support for abortion and believed that to be more important to most Americans than the price of food and housing? Clearly, this is not just a few “nuts.” This is a very large group of people sending a very loud message about the future direction of this nation.
The Path Forward
At this point, the candidate for whom you voted is irrelevant because the election has concluded. What matters now is how you move forward. If you are a believer and you are absolutely convinced that this is the death knell for the American “democracy,” you need to ask yourself why you believe that to be the case. Is it the GOP voters’ typical stance on LGBTQ+ issues? Is it their stance on abortion? Is it the accusations of rampant racism within the party?
You might actually be surprised to note that according to CNN exit poll data, 12% of Black voters, 32% of Latino voters, 34% of Asian voters, and 41% of voters that classified themselves in other, non-White ethnic groups voted Republican.[2] Is it possible that the accusations of widespread racism are overblown or even untrue? Is it possible that the sole reason you believe this is the “end of democracy” is that it is what you have been told to believe? Is it possible that the emotional pitch of the American political landscape is so high and the rhetoric so divisive that it is easier to believe what makes us feel good than what is true?
As uncomfortable as it may be, each of us needs to closely examine our beliefs and weigh them against the Bible. When we engage in this process (honestly) and find conflicts, we must determine where our erroneous beliefs originated. When we know the source of the error, we must turn away from that source of bias against the Bible, repent, and turn toward our God.
If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay [on earth;] knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, [the blood] of Christ. [1Pe 1:17-19 NASB95]
If you are a believer and you are still struggling with this outcome, I wholeheartedly urge you to search out the reasons why. This may very well be our Josiah moment. This may be the only opportunity this nation has remaining to avoid judgment for the transgressions we have championed. As this age winds down and we move closer to the sixth trumpet, Revelation 13, and the return of the Lord in the midst of the Battle of Armageddon, it would be wise for us to remember to whom we belong. It would prudent for us to remember that we are called to holiness, not conformity with the world around us.
[1] Decision Desk HQ, “2024 Presidential General Election Results,” DDHQ, November 4, 2024, https://decisiondeskhq.com/results/2024/General/President/.
[2] CNN, “National Results 2020 President Exit Polls.,” CNN, accessed November 6, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/exit-polls/president/national-results.
