I'm Not Voting for a "Pastor-in-Chief"...

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.  Isaiah 5:20

Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings who cannot save.  Psalm 146:3

I've pretty much stopped looking at social media over the past month.  As the election approaches, and the tension mounts, the rhetoric is getting pretty ugly.  Most people don't seem to be able to find words to express themselves, so they just post memes which are really statements which are missing rational thoughts.  

One that was particularly annoying tried to make note of the fact that Christians can't vote for a Democrat and be true to their faith.  If you feel that way, you've completely missed the point of the Bible's writers have to say about what it takes to become a Christian.  Aside from the fact that to make such a statement is an incredibly insensitive personal judgement which falls outside the scope of acceptable Christian standards, anyone who would make such a statement is either completely ignorant of what is going on politically, or has made a willful decision to compromise their convictions based on narrow political self-interest.  

A False Dichotomy

Abortion rights are not the only issue in this campaign.  Personally, I'm opposed to allowing abortion to be practiced as a legal means of birth control, and have always been pro-life, from conception to the grave.  But I'm not willing to support the election of a politician whose corruption and narcissistic behavior undermines the integrity of the office he holds as well as the principles of our constitutional free Republic.  This President's incompetence, corruption and lack of integrity are far greater liabilities for the United States of America than the ability of a woman to abort a fetus.  The former is completely undermining the nation.  The latter can be resolved in other ways when those who are opposed to it are willing to get past the idea that a political solution to the problem is the only solution to the problem. 

The evidence of Trump's corruption is documented fact.  Most of the facts which support charges of obstruction of justice by this president came from individuals he himself appointed to office, his own cabinet members and associates who worked with him during his campaign and during the first months and years of his administration.  Is that a surprise?  Prior to becoming President, this man had a reputation wrapped up in years of debauchery and immoral behavior, fraud, lying, cover-ups and crooked business dealings.  

His political enemies have a lot to talk about, but the evidence of his corruption and incompetence has come from those within his own party and his own White House administration.  Some of them realized how bad it was and got tired of carrying the burden associated with it, walking away when they had the chance and saving at least some of their dignity and personal reputation.  Others had to be threatened with indictment and prosecution for their own crimes, well, in fact, some of them were prosecuted but they still provided us with the information.  What Trump has done, which turned up in both the Mueller investigation and in his impeachment, outweighs any possible political benefit that might come out of his dubious position on abortion, about which he has no personal conviction except for its use as a political wedge.  You're not advancing your cause by supporting Trump if this is the reason.   

Some Perspective on Abortion as a Political Football

Abortion isn't going away just because a President has appointed a few conservative justices to the Supreme Court.  The current chief justice has committed himself to the position that the Roe v. Wade decision is, in his own words, "the settled law of the land."  I've never heard Justice Roberts actually articulate any personal conviction about abortion as a practice.  He's Catholic, which is not an indication of his view on abortion one way or the other.  His rulings and comments would indicate that he leans heavily toward the "liberal" perspective on the court with regard to Roe.  He's the gatekeeper, so it is unlikely that under his leadership, the court will ever hear a precedent-setting case that would either take the guts out of the Roe decision or overturn it.  

Trump's two current Supreme Court appointees both testified before the Senate that they hold a view similar to that of Roberts when it comes to Roe v. Wade.  Both have a record which would indicate they are not likely to rule in a way which would overturn previous precedent-setting cases.  Both specifically addressed the issue of Roe v. Wade in public statements in front of both the judiciary committee and the entire Senate that they believe the Roe v. Wade decision is "settled law."  

That kind of zaps the reasoning for Christians to support Trump.  Beyond that, what do you have?  A man who has lived his life and made his fortune capitalizing on his lack of moral conviction and character integrity and flaunting his crude, immoral behavior, the kind of lifestyle every Evangelical Christian pastor preaches against every Sunday.  It's either inexcusable, willful ignorance or a deliberate choice for Christians to support him.  It's hypocritical to excuse it by claiming to be "electing a commander-in-chief, not a pastor-in-chief". Collectively, those in the Evangelical right who bashed Bill Clinton because of his lack of character and immoral behavior have turned themselves into hypocrites and liars with their unqualified support of Donald Trump.  I won't put myself in that position. 

Where's the Church? 

Abortion isn't going away until the underlying causes of it are addressed and resolved.  The church, and particularly the Evangelical Conservative American branch of it, has had decades to do something about it besides whine about who is on the Supreme Court.  While spending literally billions of dollars each year on the Christian entertainment industry, and billions more on the principle and interest payments for capacious, luxurious edifices in which people gather for a few hours a week, it spends next to nothing on ministry that would reach into the communities where abortion is rampant because of the lack of education and the presence of poverty and deprivation.  

The Obama administration, of which Joe Biden was a member, invested some real cash in communities where long standing systemic poverty and crime were rampant.  The result was a decline in the crime rate, and a noticeable decline in the number of abortions performed in this country in a year.  Isn't that what we're after?  Yeah, it's a government program but if it helped change hopelessness into hope, provided a light at the end of the tunnel, and helped someone see their way clear to keeping and raising a child instead of aborting a pregnancy, isn't that the desired result?  Better to spend tax dollars that way than on tax cuts for people who are already too wealthy to notice.

And from a Christian perspective, aren't we supposed to be chasing away the kind of ignorance that causes people to make poor decisions by leading them to know Jesus?  Why can't we spend the kind of money on ministry to people where decisions about aborting pregnancies are made based on whether they have a roof over their heads or food to eat, which is why most abortions happen?  Why are we leaving that kind of ministry to the "liberal" churches?  If you want to be taken seriously, then your actions need to be consistent with your words, and on this particular issue, action is sorely lacking.  

Take Some Initiative

Several years ago, I encountered a Christian "children's services" agency operated by a major Evangelical denomination that had an adoption agency as part of its "ministry."  You would think that an agency operated by conservative Christians would be pro-active in making it as easy as possible for good, stable, Christian families to adopt children so that those women struggling with the decision to have an abortion would at least have an option.  That was not the case.  

It was financially impossible for a middle class, working family with a moderate income and not a whole lot of debt to afford an adoption through this agency.  Not only did they not offer any financial assistance at all, but they expected the family to finance the adoption by adding to their debt.  This was in the early 90's, and the cost would have been more than $20,000 in legal fees plus the agency's cut of $12,000 for facilitating and processing the adoption.  Only a small percentage of the families in any given Christian church could afford that and the alternative would be getting in the line to adopt a child through the state, a process which took anywhere from two to five years.  

If conservative Christians are serious about reducing abortion numbers, the should start spending some of the billions they now spend on music, movies and $50 a ticket "Christian" concerts to help their adoption agencies provide the funding for more families to adopt children instead of seeing adoption as a means of making money.  

Do that, and then you might have a reasonable complaint about those of us who aren't supporting the re-election of an immoral, inept, incompetent, unqualified President.  I'm not voting for any of his enablers, either.  Casting a ballot for Biden and against Trump's other Republican enablers leaves me with a clearer conscience and a better perspective on being consistent with my Christian moral values.  Other Christians who feel this way should take note of the same.  You're not voting for a pastor-in-Chief either.