Political Nomads...and Disappointments to 81%, I'm sure.

Dear Entrusted, 

2020 was the most heated political year that Daddy and I have lived through.  Our take away from watching and living through the political mess, is this:  We do not have a space in todays politics.  We resonate with all the scripture that refers to us as strangers, aliens and pilgrims in this world.  We are politically homeless.

According to John Fea, a Christian and historian that is notably objective, only 19% of evangelicals did not vote for President Trump in 2016.  Daddy and I understand this minority.  Neither presidential candidate won our vote.  Certainly there are Democratic positions that oppose our faith, but President Trump has also personified a few positions that deeply contrast our example, Jesus.  

Since 2015 our incumbent has used the slogan 'Make America Great Again'.  To the average citizen, these words are simply words.  To Christians that share our conviction that God's Word is sacred and deserving of reverence each day, these words beg the question 'How does God define great?'  Naturally, our renewed (in Christ) mind will wander to verses like the greatest commandment to love God first and neighbor as self second.  Is this what President Trump is referring to in the use of great?  We remember the great commission, and that 1 Chronicles 29 amongst many others calls only God great.  Jesus uses the word great to describe the greatest as the servant, the lowest.

American evangelicals that traded political interests for genuine study and commitment for God's word, seemed especially drawn to President Trump's repeated use of the words WEALTH and POWER.  These words have been used over and over and over to drum up support.  We understand the enthusiasm.  Who doesn't want wealth and power?!?!  But as Christians joyfully enslaved to God's holy Word, are these words endorsed by the Author of life?  

The Bible is strikingly clear about the traps of wealth and the useless pursuit of it.  The Bible teaches us from Ecclesiastes that death is the fate of us all and gathering possessions is futile.  Much better language in terms of financial position is stewardship.  God offers us many persons and parables that offer wisdom to the importance of not being a financial fool.  But wealth?  This word is hard for Daddy and I to endorse and because of our deep love for Leveque, Haiti you will not be raised to chase money or to elevate wealth.  

John Wesley had a lot to say about money.  Here is a favorite quote: "Money. Get all you can, without hurting your soul, your body, or your neighbor.  Save all you can, cutting off every needless expense."

As we studied John Wesley, we learned that his ministry began out of extreme poverty.  As God blessed him, he followed the New Testament example in Acts and continued to live very modestly.  But counter to culture, he gave his blessing of wealth away with extreme generosity and careful stewardship.  May we learn from this humble servant and be known as faithful teachers on God's behalf, not as pursuers of the finite.

Power.  Even typing the word evokes tension.  There is One who is powerful.  One. What if current political figures replaced this over-used and self-serving word with HUMBLE?  Imagine a slogan: Make America Humble Again.  Imagine a pursuit to get low, to care for the marginalized, the immigrants (like our ancestors were)...or here's a radically humble idea that God designed, to value the other side...yes, even the other political side. 

President Trump also used the word safe for both the 2016 and 2020 campaign.  Safe.  Entrusted, our deepest prayer measured by weight, is that you will love and trust God.  If you do, then safe is His name.  His Word says that the perfect love of the Father drives out fear.  Fear dies when we receive Jesus.  We no longer have to work like tiny ants building a fortress from evil or people that look or live differently than us.  We do not have to fear culture.  Culture saddens our tender, submitted to holiness heart, but culture should not cause fear.  Jesus overcame the world and we are simply passing through, wanderers.  The government is on His shoulders, not the other way around.  Safety is already here.  Fear is an age-old weapon to control those that do not have faith in the soverign God. 

The final word that Daddy and I share concerns with is Again.  A surprising number of evangelicals look at our country with a narrative of US history that is nostalgic and/or incomplete.  As we examine both our country's history alongside Biblical history, we see two distinct narratives.  There is a beautiful story of a young country and patriotic heros that broke away from parlement control and birthed a new nation, with the hope of freedom to prosper.  This is a wildly popular set of memories with so much of modern-day culture marked by it with holidays, monuments and street names to commemorate.  

Both Daddy and I want to encourage you to be thoughtful in scholarship, as Apostle Paul admonished.  There is a second narrative to our country - a second set of stories, heros and hopes of freedom to prosper.  This is the lesser known legacy of the African American.  This portion of American history is less-sexy.  Slavery, Jim Crow laws, literacy tests, explicit racism and no protection for black voters until 1965.  The final ship carrying kidnapped shipped arrived in 1820, 50 years after some declared our country 'freedom for all men'.  Many evangelicals make careless statements like "That was a long time ago".  As God gave us minds, we must use them to humble ourselves and consider objective observation and study.  

Looking back at the past 400+ years of American political pursuit, we can see that America has been great and greater for a select population and sadly America has pieces in its fabric that we don't want to ignore or dismiss with phrases like "Make America Great AGAIN".  The implication is damaging.  Humble, stewards that trust our God and care for the other side, this is our Father.  And as beloved children, this is our political ambition. 

One final 'word'...policies.  Many evangelicals have said again and again that President Trump should be considered aside from his extreme personality and moral failures and that policies should be considered primarily as votes are cast.  To this, we simply say 'We agree wholeheartedly.'  And after examining the policies, proposals, proproganda and positions of both sides, letting them slip through the filter of God's Word, we remain politically nomadic. 

Matthew 22...The Greatest commandment is to love God and the second is like it...Love your neighbor as yourself.

God's Word is our daily (micro) and lifelong (macro) guide.  It informs every single decision.  We believe that words are extremely powerful...literally holding the power of life and death (Deuteronomy 19).  Words are the means used by God to create the world and Jesus is named the Word (John 1).  Words matter.

Now, I must go HYGGE my youngest three...another favorite word I hope you know by experience.