11/13/16 Post-Election Stuff

Christian Leaders on Trump Win

Christianity Today has collected comments from 20 "evangelical leaders." I put that in quotes because the term "evangelical" has been taking a beating of late.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/november-web-only/trump-won-how-evangelical-leaders-feel.html

Though I had not heard of Bill Johnson before, he is apparently an important personage in a part of the American church. This rebuttal to Pastor Johnson's support of Trump is well-reasoned and gives broader support for being against the way too many "evangelical" leaders have come behind Trump.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/why.bill.johnsons.defence.of.trump.is.a.masterclass.in.missing.the.point/100326.htm

Ed Stetzer weighs in--I am getting to like his posts more and more!

http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2016/november/this-is-what-it-looks-like.html

Five years ago, white Evangelical Protestants were the most heavily Republican voting bloc in the country, and also the group most concerned about the private morality of public officials. Only 30 percent of them believed that “an elected official can behave ethically even if they have committed transgressions in their personal life.” A recent article in New York Magazine headlined with “Religious Right Now Judgement-Free, Thanks to Donald Trump.” In it, the author states:

But Donald Trump has changed all that. Today, white evangelical Protestants are the least moralistic cohort of voters.

He goes on to cite a PRRI/Brookings survey, which affirmed that 72% of white evangelical Protestants “now believe elected officials can behave ethically even if they have committed transgressions in their personal lives.”

It doesn’t take much reflection to see the writing on the wall if we are to believe this survey: some people are now OK with wrong as long as they get the guy on the right.

Now, I'm not of the view that this means you've sold your soul if you vote for Trump (or Clinton, for that matter). In fact, in the past month I have hosted quite a few Evangelical leaders who have spoken quite eloquently as to why they are voting for Trump, Clinton, or others. I am friends with a number of people with whom I personally disagree in regards to this election season.

However, the NY Magazine article highlights something very important—the people of God, who are called to hold to the highest standard of morals and ethics, now rank as the highest group percentage-wise of those who say that these things don’t necessarily matter. This is a problem of huge proportions.

With such a swing happening in a short period of time, we have to consider the surrounding circumstances. As such, it is hard not to conclude that for many this has happened so that they could justify voting for Trump.

Now, it would be one thing if those individuals said, “Integrity still matters, but, man, we are stuck with two people who have integrity problems, and I am going with ________ in spite of my integrity concerns.”

That would be making a hard choice while keeping your beliefs.

But that’s not what happened.

Instead, to support a candidate, many actually changed their view. Remember the question: “an elected official can behave ethically even if they have committed transgressions in their personal life.” When that was Bill Clinton, Evangelicals were “nope” but now that it’s Trump, they’re “yep.”

That’s the definition of selling out.

Secular Rapture

This is a great podcast, with some writers sympathetic to the plight of many who, for right or wrong, voted for Trump. (From a generally progressive site, making its commentary even more interesting.)

http://radioopensource.org/secular-rapture-trump-american-dispossessed/#

One more PRE-Election post

Strong Towns is a site I like and I don't think I got this into earlier posts, so here goes:

http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/11/6/pre-election-thoughts?utm_content=buffer334ec&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer