What does the US Election Say About Us?

As we sit back and wait for it to all be over, I can't help but put down a few thoughts about what has for almost everyone been an ugly, mean-spirited and divisive election that has cast a pall far beyond the borders of the US. One of the things that has bothered me the most about this election is the position of the so called moral majority or Christian evangelical community. Their position as always is to support the republican party simply because they claim to defend conservative moral values. What I find baffling is that when the republicans picked Trump as their candidate - a man who himself demonstrates no moral values whatsoever - most evangelicals seemed to turn a blind eye and continue to support him.

The conclusion I have come to is that many US evangelicals are so concerned about defending their specific agenda, they are willing to compromise everything else that being a Christian should be about. When Jesus walked this earth, he cared about the sick, widowed, poor, marginalized groups and those seen as the worst sinners of the day.  That Jesus would be appalled at the image that the term Christian or evangelical evokes for many in America today. The golden rule - love God and love your neighbor - seems completely lost on them. What seems to have happened is that defending a couple of token values has become an idol to the point where all other core values like tolerance, caring, peacefulness, respect have been thrown out.

I realize that there is something core that seems to resonate between Trump and his supporters. Trump is seen as a powerful figure able to face down the status quo and steam roll over all his opponents. The idea is, who cares if he is a thug, so long as he's on your side. The problem is that this is a devils bargain. By supporting a thug to get their way, there's no guarantee that any supporter might not become a target of that same thug when the thug's mood changes. Its like school yard politics - some side with the bully because it seems safer, but in the end the bully is a bully, cares only for himself, and you're in trouble if you're near so long as he remains unchallenged. When you sell out your soul and values to get one thing you want - you may get the thing you're obsessed with but lose everything else that really matters.

Ultimately this approach seems to me about as unchristian as can be. I call it selfishness. If I am able to sell out everything to get one thing I want without thinking about the consequences for others, then I'm being selfish. Trump worships himself. His supporters are willing to overlook this because at their core they don't care about their neighbor. They care about defending their property, their families, their selected core values, and if everyone else is excluded - thrown out over the wall - so be it. So at its core its not just the politicians that are mean spirited in this campaign, its the very core philosophy and values that are driving the Trump campaign that are built on meanness. Its by design.

Admittedly, we all have a selfish streak from time to time and want to defend what's ours. What I have trouble stomaching is this whole idea that somehow to support a thug like Trump is the Christian thing to do. A valueless, selfish, hateful, abusive and disrespectful person like Trump is so far from anything Christian, that supporting him from a Christian perspective is simply incoherent. If you want to support Trump because you want a wall, or you feel he defends your interests somehow, so be it. But don't call it a Christian position, or even worse, demand others support him because it's the Christian thing to do.

I think this whole situation evidences that the Church in North America is in crisis. Christians have lost a sense of relevance because many of us have lost our connection to the core values our faith was built on, that of service and caring, not judging and imposing. There will need to be some serious soul searching to clean up the rubble of this election and avoid it walling up the Church further from wider social society.

As to the whole 'crooked Hillary' campaign, I don't buy that. In general, I'm no constant proponent of any one party or candidate. My biggest problem is with people who vote as a knee jerk reaction, and that applies to either side. Of course Clinton is not without her faults. She's made plenty of mistakes and should be held to account the same as anyone else. Still, these pale in significance when compared with the core of what Trump is all about. Clinton's mistakes are the kind we might make every day out of neglect or lack of attention when overloaded with too many responsibilities. Trump's worst acts are not mistakes at all, but simply flow out of who he is, his complete obsession with self worship, and disdain for anyone or anything that opposes him - including institutions of law and democracy. Who else would use $20,000 from his own charitable foundation to buy a 6 foot painting of himself and place it at one of his Trump hotels? This has happened more than once. You can't make this stuff up.

Yes, most elections are a choice between the lesser of 2 evils, and these choices are rarely easy. Its just that this time around the math seems a lot simpler than it usually is. On a more humorous note, I like the idea of last week's presidential election in Bulgaria where you can just vote for 'nobody' if you want. This might have saved a lot of people a lot of consternation in this election. I'm just not sure what happens if  'nobody' wins.