A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Election Denying Former Congressman Leads Family Research Council's "Election Integrity" Effort

 Election Denier in Charge of Christian Organization's "Election Integrity" Effort

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.  Exodus 20:7

Election deniers are liars.  It's as simple as that.  

In all of the wailing, hollering, gnashing of teeth and whining about the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election, the one thing that was missing from all of the claims of "massive election fraud", ballot tampering, and improperly programmed counting machines was credible evidence.  Multiple audits, including "forensic audits," investigations, even a laughable episode with a group known as the "Cyber Ninjas," who wasted about $6 million, including a significant amount of taxpayer dollars, found nothing irregular or out of place, to indicate that the few minor errors here and there, which are part of every election, were part of some nationwide conspiracy to cause Trump to lose. 

Lies told by one well known national network wound up costing them hundreds of millions of dollars in a legal settlement they lost when their false accusations against the company that manufactures the ballot counting machines turned out to be lies.  And make no mistake about it, every word about a fraudulent election in 2020 is a lie, and needs to be called that.  

What Would You Do If You Caught Your Pastor in a Lie? 

I learned, the hard way, what trusting someone just because they are the pastor of a conservative church that brands itself as "Bible-believing" can cost.  I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, and I know that in a culture where one's true self cannot be revealed out of fear of persecution or rejection, or loss of reputation, lying is commonplace.  I also know that it is possible that the man who preaches from the pulpit every Sunday, imparting what he claims to be the "inerrant, infallible, written word of God," can be prone to telling lies, either because of ego, or for self-preservation, or to use the power of the pulpit to rally support for a cause that otherwise goes unheeded.  

The kind of support that a pathological liar, like Trump, gets from conservative Christians tells us all we need to know about the value that some churches, and their pastors, place on integrity and honesty, and it's not much.  They will make all kinds of excuses, trying to sound Biblical, to try and justify lying by claiming that the results of electing a pathological liar as President of the United States was somehow a good thing, in spite of his many very bad character flaws.  

So, while some people might find it surprising that the Family Research Council has chosen an insurrectionist, election-denying former Georgia congressman as the leader of their "election integrity" effort, I'm not surprised.  It's this kind of phony posturing that is characteristic of Republican, and Christian hypocrisy when it comes to far right wing politics.  

Jody Hice is a former Georgia Congressman, a former pastor of Southern Baptist churches, one of the members of congress bent on overturning the will of the people by voting against accepting the results of the 2020 election, and objecting to accepting Georgia's 2020 electoral votes.  He nullified any claims he has to being a man of integrity when he accepted Trump's endorsement in his 2022 failed effort to "primary" Georgia Secretary of State against Brad Raffensperger.  Apparently, Georgia voters recognized this, because Hice lost by double digit margins to Raffensperger.  

Even if it is secular politics, for an ordained minister of the Christian gospel to accept the endorsement of a man who openly denies his own acceptance of, and need for that same gospel, is a denial in and of itself of the spiritual power and the truthfulness of that gospel.  To put this same man in charge of "election integrity" for a far right wing political lobby is like putting a wolf in charge of the sheep, or a fox in charge of the henhouse.  

"These are grumblers and malcontents," says the Apostle Jude, in his short, but powerful epistle. "They indulge their lusts, their mouths utter bombastic nonsense, flattering people to their own advantage."  

And in reality, the book of Jude does provide some insights, from its first century prospective, into exactly what a Christian church looks like when it has been infiltrated by the ungodly, who "pervert the grace of God into debauchery and deny our only Lord and Master Jesus Christ."  

How Can an Election Denier be In Charge of "Election Integrity"? 

There's no denying that there was an attempt to subvert the results of the 2020 election, but it was not done by miscounting votes or stealing ballots.  It was done by people like Hice, who used their elected position as an attempted wedge against the will of the people, believed and acted on "the big lie" claimed by Trump, of "massive voter fraud" that he was unable to prove without a stitch of evidence.  So it is laughable that this former Republican Congressman and former Southern Baptist pastor is the Family Resource Council's choice to head up its effort on election integrity.  

That's a job where being a liar would be an asset.