Next week Americans will go to the polls for midterm elections and decide who they want to lead our nation in various levels of government. The public rhetoric is marked by a level of acrimony that seems to me to be unprecedented at least in my lifetime.

Character is an essential ingredient to be a statesman.

There are Christians who will be making political endorsements; I never do. For the most part I do not know the individuals running for public office personally and have no idea how their character will hold up under fire. I believe character is an essential ingredient to be a statesman.

I do not vote for personalities I vote for those who I believe support the principles I think are best for all our citizens. I know from experience that I am one of those people who can be fooled some of the time and that what some say they will do is not always what they do once in office.

I take the privilege and responsibility of voting seriously and I need good information to make my decisions in the voting booth. Sadly, we live in a time when character seems to be as lacking in the press as it is in politicians.

I vote my conscience based on Christian principles.

For this reason I vote my conscience based on Christian principles and trust that other believers will do the same, but since I do not know what any candidate will do once in office, I do not make endorsements. I make the best decision I can like everyone else.

Once in office I support my elected officials with my prayers and when I can with my voice. Our president would be a case in point. I think Donald Trump has made some decisions that in principle will be good for all Americans, but by his own words he seems wholly lacking in Christian character and at times is as narcissistic as a three-year-old. So, I pray more.

But it seems that some who claim to be Christians allow political discourse to pull them down in at least two areas.

The first is the vitriol in political discourse on both sides on a number of issues. There is not a single issue being debated in the political realm that is worth one compromising their Christian character. I have no desire to argue with or attack others who disagree with me.

The second reason arises from the first. When believers argue with unbelievers they portray more confidence in the political process than they do in God.

I suppose we are doomed to go through this political madness until we “recognize that it is heaven that rules.”

Centuries ago the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar was warned by God in a dream he had become too prideful, and the prophet Daniel told him he would go through a season (seven years) of madness and live like an animal until “you recognize that it is heaven that rules,” Daniel 4:26.

I suppose we are doomed to go through this political madness until we “recognize that it is heaven that rules.” Christians should disabuse themselves from the notion that politics will make America great again.

When I awoke the morning after the presidential election and discovered Donald Trump had won, I thought it was a miracle. Not in the biblical sense of God manifesting His omnipotence, but in the sense his win was mystifyingly remarkable and unexpected, at least to me. Since Trump’s election I have been reading that some of the most vocal within the evangelical community think his election was a miracle of the first order, and not the second.

The mainstream media is mystified

The mainstream news media as mystified as I was, and trying to understand how Trump pulled it off, are trying to get into the mindset of the voting block they think was responsible, white evangelicals, to get some answers. They think some of the answers they have gotten represent the evangelical community and worse yet, maybe even God.

I think the liberal press is in the dark on this one because of the truism expressed in the childhood retort, “It takes one to know one.” By that I mean, many within the liberal press do not understand the evangelical mindset because for the most part they are not evangelicals.

An eye-opener

So let me open the eyes of those blinded by their liberalism, evangelicals did not vote for Donald Trump because of his sterling Christian character; they voted for him because they were terrified of a Hillary Clinton administration.

The liberal news media will be able to accept a political explanation for the results of the last election more easily than they can understand the idea of divine intervention, especially since many of their number seem to question His very existence.

But when evangelicals claim God made Trump President to supposedly correct the policies of Barak Obama they are suggesting that God took a break from running the universe when Obama was elected and that is theologically inconsistent. I don’t think God takes those kinds of breaks.

How God works

Based on my reading and understanding of the Scriptures, God sovereignly superintends the flow of human history, so that humans acting as free moral agents making decisions and doing things, both good and bad, are woven into the tapestry of circumstances inexorably culminating in His perfect will. I know that was a mouthful, but that is the way the universe rolls as I understand the Bible.

This means God, at times, in His mercy and grace works in, through and with humans to accomplish His will in the earth. In His grace, God works through us at times, and in His mercy, in spite of us at others. And this holds true for whoever the president is, Barak Obama or Donald Trump.

This is what was taught by Solomon, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes,” Proverbs 21:1. A king or president can ultimately do no more or no less than God allows. Donald Trump, as our president, is a very small part of a master plan that is supremely larger than his own ego.

Paula White, renowned televangelist, prosperity gospel preacher, and purported spiritual adviser to President Trump, has made the news recently reportedly trying to guilt listeners into making financial contributions to her ministry. God loves a “cheerful giver.” There is nothing said in the Scriptures about a guilty giver.

This is nothing new

It was almost three decades ago, February 1987. Oral Roberts mailed a fundraising letter telling his supporters that unless he raised eight million dollars by the next month, March, above the ministry’s monthly needs, God was going to take his life.

The goal was reached when a dog racetrack owner in Florida sent Roberts a check for the remaining $1.3 million. I do believe God works in mysterious ways, but I don’t think He holds people for ransom. God may be mysterious, but He is not an extortionist.

I don’t remember where it was published, but a cartoon was circulated showing Oral Roberts sitting behind his desk in his office with a picture of George Washington as he appears on the one-dollar bill on the wall. Roberts is pointing to the picture and the caption reads, “My personal Savior.”

When people like Paula White, Oral Roberts, and others make such outrageous claims they open themselves up to these kinds of attacks. And because they claim to be Christians they bring reproach on Christ and His church.

Jesus gives us a different perspective

There is an interesting narrative in the eighteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke beginning in verse eighteen. A ruler asks Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments, and he says, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” Jesus then tells him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Unlike Jesus, modern day televangelists say, “sell all you have and give it to me,” so they can have treasure on earth. It is said, “God helps those who help themselves,” but I think there are some who are helping themselves to more than they need.

Don’t sell that last wallet

A friend of mine who was a truck driver said he was driving out west listening to a “Christian” radio station when the evangelist said he had a few “miracle” wallets left for sale. The preacher said they were miracle wallets because whenever you opened one there would always be money in it. There was no mention of how the money got there; I guess that was the miracle part.

After offering the wallets for sale this radio preacher made a shameless appeal for finances to stay on the air. My friend said he wished he could have called him up and said, “Don’t sell that last wallet.”

I don’t know if he has any more of those miracle wallets left. But if Paula White has to threaten people to raise funds she must need one. I guess that’s why she’s Trump’s spiritual adviser and not his financial adviser.