The Day After An Election
How we'll move forward tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Last Friday, my son grabbed a bag of Starburst minis he had gotten for Halloween to bring to his grandparents’. They were a new candy to him and to me. As we tasted them for the first time, he said, “I’m going to bring these with me so Grandpa and Grandma can try them.”
“That’s a nice idea,” I said. “I think they’ll like that. I bet they haven’t tried those before either.”
“Sharing is the most important thing, right?” He said thoughtfully.
My knee-jerk response was almost to say, “well, not really.” But I stopped myself and thought about it a moment.
“You know, I think so,” I said. “When God made Adam and Eve, they didn’t have to think about sharing. That’s something sin broke in the Fall.”
The rest of our conversation was about how God made us good, and that we can still trust God to give us enough. That our desires are sometimes not for the right things, but that most of the time we still know what is right and we can choose it.
This is a sharp deviation from the theology of man I remember learning. I had been taught that the heart is deceitful, therefore we don’t know the difference between good and evil. But Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which means we gained the knowledge of both and therefore the ability to choose.
God’s expectation is still for us to do good. But since sin does get in the way, for the times we fail, there is also forgiveness.
Today, I write this without knowing the results of this week’s election. You may even be reading this while votes are still being counted. There is no breath of relief or black cloud on the horizon, there is only the tension of waiting to see what transpires next.1
The past two weeks, I took to Instagram to do what I was trying to talk myself out of doing for the past several months: talk in no uncertain terms about the election.
Being that people voting for Trump were often arguing on the basis of morals, I couldn’t just sit and watch people sharing the idea that voting for someone with well-known and glaring character defects is in any way based on morals. We don’t elect someone who consistently circumvents the law to the highest position of leadership in our country on the basis of preserving our country’s morality. It’s an oxymoron.
On the basis of policy? Sure. On the basis of self-preservation, if you believe this person can make your life better? Yes. I’m not saying a vote for Trump is immoral, only that any argument that voting for him is based on morality is an invalid argument.
Here’s the thing: If you’re a white Christian, you may be culturally and socially vulnerable in some ways in our growing secular culture, but you are not vulnerable like those in countries without the religious freedoms we have under the law here. You are not vulnerable like the refugee. You are not vulnerable like the indigenous person. You are not vulnerable like the person seeking healthcare for gender dysphoria. You are not vulnerable like a pregnant Black woman in a state with a high mortality rate.
No, if you are a white Christian, you will never face any of those vulnerabilities. It can be hard to relate.
A lot of the time when I hear people say they’re voting for Trump it’s about protecting themselves, their family, and their way of life. But as Christians, we’re called to care for more than our neighbors who live and vote a lot like we do. We’re called even to love our actual or perceived enemies. This is not a mere suggestion.2
I know that if we were ever facing persecution—from which, thankfully, we are still afforded legal protection under our constitution—we would want our neighbors to speak out, vote, and collaborate for our protection. How do we do unto others as we would have them do to us? Are you convinced your vote this round did that?
There’s a reason so many people think that being a Republican goes hand-in-hand with Christianity, and it’s not because the Republican party is better at emulating the gospel. That’s not to say Democrats are more faithful—however, a vote for the Democrat candidate is not less based in morality than a vote for a Republican, but that’s not what most American evangelicals have been conditioned to believe.
Our Context
For elections in the US, I don’t only wish we had two better options, I wish we had more options. A minimum of 5 would be nice. But in this two party system, we either choose between the two top contenders or we leave it up to everyone else to decide. Even in our current context, I don’t try to convince anyone that a vote for anyone other than Harris is a vote for Trump. I do, however, try to help them see that if we end up with a Harris victory if they don’t vote for Trump, that’s better than them voting for someone who thinks he is not only established by God if he wins but thinks he is above the law of our land, the Constitution.
It’s not that Trump is pure evil. It’s not even that he appeals to the Christian vote in predictable ways. It’s that he, though made in the Imago Dei, openly diminishes that characteristic in others. It’s in how he knows exactly how to follow the evangelical Republican playbook to gain votes, and how that’s revealed the American church’s political idolatry. Someone like him never should have been popular among Christians. It is a convicting reflection of what we’ve passed off as acceptable and good. Our repentance is necessary.345
Divided We Fall
There’s a popular sentiment that gets quoted during these times, “we belong to each other.”
The full quote is from Mother Theresa, and it goes like this, “If we have no peace, we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
We’re not going to get it right every time. Sometimes, someone might seem like a good choice and fail. But, as Sharon McMahon says, “We cannot work for our mutual destruction.” To label a whole half of our country inhuman, evil, the enemy is to call for their defeat. We cannot work for the common good if our goal is to destroy half our population, either figuratively or literally.
When my husband and I have a disagreement, we say, “we’re on the same team.”
America, we’re on the same team.
I know it doesn’t feel like it. We have to work for the good of one another, regardless of political party. The politicians we elect have to be willing to work together for the good of our nation as a whole.
As an independent voter, I am not affiliated with any party. Remaining registered as an independent keeps me centered on what was always true: that I don’t owe allegiance to any party. I can vote for whoever I think best represents my values regardless of their affiliation or mine.
The downside of not having party affiliation is that I am exempt from voting in primaries. The duty registered Republicans and Democrats have is to ensure their party nominates a qualified candidate by showing up to these events—something that I took for granted in the past. And then, after your candidate wins, your duty is then to hold that candidate accountable for how well they represent the people while in office.
We need to be especially willing to speak out when our party gets things wrong.
Our diversity is good. Our mutuality in our diversity is good. Our discourse in disagreement is good. We actually need both sides, because when we share our perspectives we can round out blind spots, balance needs, and make better decisions. As a nation, our strength is and always has been in our ability to work together.
As Christians, our strength is and always has been our unity in submitting our whole lives to God. We remember that the common good is the Christian principle our nation was founded on. If we are aligning ourselves with powers that overtly threaten to oppress, jail, deport, or harm a whole group of people, we cannot say that we are honoring God with that decision.
When God outlined his laws and expectations for his chosen nation Israel, he also set up a system for cleansing themselves of sin. He told them his expectations, but he also made allowances for them to fall short. This was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice he would later make for all people for all time.
If God can make concessions for humanity, we can join him in that work, too. We live in the shadow of the cross. We live in the victory of Christ’s resurrection. We do not need to fight for control or put in place a government to cleanse the land.
We do need to find a way forward with arms linked together, a posture of listening to one another, caring for the most vulnerable, and trusting God to protect us when we have put others first. Doing so doesn’t diminish our fears but confronts them.
I am wholly convinced that we will get through together by the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe this for Christians because it’s what Jesus prayed in John 17. His word will not return to him empty.
Don’t think about what that will entail for others so that you can love them. What will it require of you? Go and do it, Beloved.
Things That Are More Important Than My Vote
As I walked home from voting today, I felt a sense of duty and honor. I did it, I made my voice heard. I did my best with the options available to love my neighbors, both immediate and nationally.
My attention quickly turned to something I read on one local candidate’s website: We live in the largest and most diverse county in Minnesota. Coming from a small town and seeing the differences in my political identity from then to now, I’m aware how where we live shapes our politics. I’m learning to be ok with that, thus all the things I shared above.
With that said, here’s my incomplete list of things that are more important than my vote:
Being a safe and welcoming presence in my neighborhood so we can build mutual trust.
Participating in church ministries both for the good of my church and also the good of my city.
Calling my parents (sorry, Mom and Dad, I need to work on this).
Texting that friend I’ve been thinking about to tell her, planning a phone call, or setting a date to actually meet up in person.
Actively participating in my kids’ lives to help them through their development, in their spiritual life, and to maintain a good relationship with them as they grow.
Showing up for friends, my kids’ school, and church families when they’re in need.
Delighting in my people as I believe God delights in them and me.
Staying engaged in my community, attending meetings when I need to know more about something that affects them and not just me, and writing letters, petitioning, and advocating as necessary.
Writing the books I have been developing, which will hopefully outlive me.
To look my husband in the eye, to look my children in the eye, to look the person across my table in the eye.
To love and love and love and love.
What’s on your list?
Of course, by the time this was published these words were already irrelevant. The race wasn’t as tight as predicted. Our job is still the same.
Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 5:43-48; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by
The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis by
Your Jesus Is Too American: Calling the Church to Reclaim Kingdom Values Over the American Dream by Steve Bezner
I really needed this today - thank you. ❤️