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I come neither to defend John Piper nor attack him. If you have not read his piece that has all sorts of people up in arm, you should read it here.
I voted straight Republican this year except for my local sheriff and district attorney, two positions I do not think should be partisan anyway. I would not vote for a politician who supports abortion rights. Abortion is a euphemism for legally sanctioned murder. I would not vote for Joe Biden, a man who I think actually is nice, but whose policies are terrible and will wreck our recovering economy.
And now, having set all that out, I need to perhaps burn bridges with some of you unintentionally. A prophet is not welcome in his hometown and I may not be welcome among my readers after this. I leave open the comments for subscribers so they can complain.
In John Piper’s piece, he never says he is voting for Joe Biden or Donald Trump. What he says is this:
Actually, this is a long-overdue article attempting to explain why I remain baffled that so many Christians consider the sins of unrepentant sexual immorality (porneia), unrepentant boastfulness (alazoneia), unrepentant vulgarity (aischrologia), unrepentant factiousness (dichostasiai), and the like, to be only toxic for our nation, while policies that endorse baby-killing, sex-switching, freedom-limiting, and socialistic overreach are viewed as deadly.
Guess what? He is not wrong. He is not telling you how to vote, but he is pointing out that many of you are rationalizing a vote for one sinner whose policies you like over another sinner whose policies you don’t like and trying to conform it to your faith by saying the one leads to death, not the other.
Spare me your outrage.
I had good Christian church-going men show up on my front porch in 2016 to threaten my family for me not supporting the President then. My children were harassed by a church-going man while we were out shopping because of my opposition. At our children’s Christian school run by the church we attend right now, my children were so bullied because of my political position that we had to move them to another school. My wife had a woman in her Bible study at our church tell my wife the woman wanted to hit me all because of not supporting a politician. For a time, we had to stop going to church altogether because we couldn’t get from our Sunday School class to the sanctuary without someone wanting to give me a piece of their mind. I had sweet little church ladies writing to me that their husbands were church elders and I needed to think about what I was doing.
Don’t tell me voting for a morally corrupt person does not have consequences on your own soul or the character of a nation.
The number of white Christians in the United States who have decided President Trump’s behavior gives them a license to let out their inner asshole is astounding and it is even happening with pastors. See e.g. Robert Jeffries or non-pastor Jerry Falwell, Jr. And I say white Christians because overwhelmingly we suddenly have a bunch of white Christians who think if they dare say anything about ongoing racial issues in this country they’re somehow conceding arguments against their preferred politician.
If you can’t talk about an issue truthfully because it might seem like you’re betraying your political side, you are an idol worshipper.
The history of mankind reflected in the Bible and out of the Bible shows that morally corrupt leaders corrupt the character of their nations.
Stop nodding and agreeing, Democrats. Your morally corrupt, atheistic precious Obama did the same thing. He persecuted nuns and gave license to local authorities persecuting Christian bakers and florists and also gave license to sympathetic Christians and “Christians” to claim it isn’t really persecution because no one got shot in the back of the head.
Your side is burning down America with an American press blaming Donald Trump when it’s your activists and leaders encouraging it. And your last guy played with cigars and interns in the Oval Office and you made so many excuses for him that you incentivized a whole lot of the present President’s supporters making excuses now. But God forbid we point that out and make you confront it or point out some of you only apologized for it as an expedient way to now move on to criticizing the present President’s flaws.
If you want to vote for Trump, vote for Trump.
If you want to vote for Biden, vote for Biden.
If you want to vote third party or refuse, God bless you too.
But spare me your outrage over excusing bad character because the other guy has bad policy because **NEWS FLASH** bad character will inevitably lead to bad policy and if you don’t believe me you better go back and read 1 and 2 Kings or look at our national debt right now.
The bottom line is this — America is not God’s kingdom and a whole lot of you have confused it and are now justifying your preferred political choices by twisting your faith to conform to your politics and getting mad at anyone who points out what you’re doing.
When your guy loses on Tuesday, whoever that is, you’re going to curl up in the fetal position and believe the United States is over and everyone who voted against your guy is terrible. It won’t be true, but you will believe it because you’ve sought salvation in a ballot box and twisted your soul to fit in there. I don’t care who you vote for, but stop preening about it with overwrought mostly moral justifications.
You’ve got two old geezers who act like they’re fighting over the last chicken wing at an all you can eat buffet early bird special who the American public has concluded are the best we can do in a nation of over 350 million people and that is a damning indictment on the whole nation. Part of me thinks your excitement and enthusiasm for your particular candidate is just to cover the shame of these two candidates being the best we could do.
If me pointing that out upsets you, cancel your own damn subscription.
And repent, you idol worshippers.
PS — while you were out on your boat parade or car parade or in your socially distanced circle of jerks bragging that your side was all masked up unlike the other side, you weren’t phone banking, you weren’t knocking on doors, and you weren’t getting out the vote in the closest presidential election in our lifetime. Now you can get off my lawn.
Gonna Make You Mad This Morning
Boy you were right. You sort of made me mad. Mad enough to sign up and comment. Yesterday myself and 30 or so other Republican supporters spent several hours in Carroll County waving American flags, Trump flags, Don’t Tread on Me flags and holding signs in support of our President. We weren’t yelling F Biden or vote Trump or you’ll regret it. Overwhelmingly the day was full of thumbs up, and horn blowing in full support of Donald J. Trump. On the flip side I had one thumbs down from a white young girl and her mom. That was completely acceptable. I even did a little touchdown dance for the young girl. The issues I had came from mostly younger 20 something year old black women. The were enraged enough to tell me I was number one with their middle finger all the while videoing their escapades. My response was, “love not hate” and “we go high and you’re going low.” BTW the black males mostly loved what we were doing. I agree with that poll that say, “Trump has support from black males.”
I just really want to know how any of us know that the President is UNREPENTANT?
He supports what conservatives support. He has proved his worth in my opinion. I could simply support him
based off of the fact that democrats and the left wing media all lied and colluded to hurt the man. They tried to make him quite fighting and any less of a man, “Bush 43” would have given in. They even said, “he had hookers pee on him“ as part of some weirdo thing and that was simply another lie, and that’s another reason why I support DJT. He is and was sinner just like all of us. Does the President continue dividing us? Well, how can anyone unite us? Biden is talking like he will, but that is just like Obama’s lie. He divided us so bad he made conservative America mad and we fought back and elected DJT. You can’t unite me with anyone who believes abortion is a women’s right and believes the government will fix healthcare. We can’t deny the President loves America. He’s obviously become a better man and isn’t having Kennedy type relationships in the White House. Maybe I love this President because he is Pro-life and isn’t shy about it. As a Christian I’m taught that all sin is the same. That is where I’m flawed. Abortion is and will always be in my top 2 of worst sins. It is way worse than bragging about your accomplishments, or saying bad words on stage in front of America. My and Erick’s sin of partaking in alcohol goes against Gods teachings. So Erick you too need to sometimes get off your high horse and realize if you really believe in Gods teachings then your sins are no different than the president’s sins. It is worth repeating, I repent of my sins by asking for Gods forgiveness and many times turn around and commit that sin again. I’m flawed and when I see a pretty women it’s hard not to do a cat call in my head. It is time we look at the President as just like us. He is human and just like everyone else a sinner he just doesn’t hide his like the rest of us do. Look who he is surrounded by in Washington, bureaucrats! They hate him because, he moved their cheese, and they will tell on him at every which way they can to stop what they as unelected govt. employees don’t like and we should cheer the President for that. I’ll ask it again. How do any of us know that the President is UNREPENTANT?
"Many of you are rationalizing a vote for one sinner whose policies you like over another sinner whose policies you don’t like...."
Of course we are. The same thing would be true if George Washington were running against Hillary Clinton. Both are (or were) flawed individuals, as are we all. But any effort to draw a moral equivalence between the two would be absurd. Everything human beings are and do are shades of gray. But adults who have a developed moral conscience understand that the ability to discern and discriminate between shades of gray is indicative of moral maturity.
"Don’t tell me voting for a morally corrupt person does not have consequences on your own soul or the character of a nation."
No thoughtful Christian (or other conservative) excuses Trump's stupid rhetoric and infantile tweets. But the fact that Donald Trump was a serial adulterer in the past and a proud narcissist in the present does not result in my wanting to be either an adulterer or a narcissist -- nor would it affect most people accordingly. But the fact that he is the most pro-life president in history and a strong supporter of religious freedom and the rule of law (along with dozens of other moral positions that we could cite) does in fact have consequences on the soul and character of the nation.
Thoughtful and informed Christians are not looking to make America into some kind of theocratic (or more accurately, sacralistic) state. We are not Theonomists or "Christian Reconstructionists." I don't take any cues from Jerry Falwell (Senior or Junior) or Robert Jeffress -- and certainly not from John Piper or Tim Keller -- any more than I would take seriously anything that Andy Stanley might blurt out about politics. There are far better Christian social and political thinkers today (Wayne Grudem, Gene Edward Veith, Robert George, Rod Dreher, and dozens more).
"If you want to vote for Trump, vote for Trump.
If you want to vote for Biden, vote for Biden.
If you want to vote third party or refuse, God bless you too....
I don't care who you vote for...."
This is foolish and irresponsible.
It is horrible and it saddens me that you and your wife were hassled in 2016 and I would never support that, but those who reacted as such may have been shocked that you seemed to be incapable of distinguishing between Trump and Hillary. In 2016 we knew all about Hlllary, which is why no knowledgable Christian could vote for her. On the other hand, we could only hope that Trump would fulfill at least some of his campaign promises. Now Trump has a track record, and we know that he has accomplished far more good than any president since WW2.
The Above Response Is From My Friend Jefrey Breshears of Areopagus
I am held accountable by God for what I know. I know Biden supports abortion on demand and after the birth of the child. As well as supporting children as young as 8 living as a transgender. I know it is my moral duty to be part of everything God ordained and God ordained government. It is my civil and moral duty to vote. I will face God one day and who I vote for and why I vote matters.