From: kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu (Dr Nancy's Sweetie)
Subject: Results of US Elections
Summary: 1) Get a grip.  2) Lessons to learn?
Organization: Rowan College of New Jersey
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 14:59:14 GMT


I know a lot of conservative Christians supported George Bush in this recent
election, and I know that some people actively claimed it would be a sin to
vote for someone who was pro-choice on abortion.

But some recent articles here, and some commentary from TV preachers like
Pat Robertson, make it sound as if the US has just elected Diocletian.  I
hate to break it to you, but Bill Clinton has no plans to throw any of us
into an arena full of starved lions.  We're not going to be hunted down and
rousted from our houses, at least not yet.  (Indeed, I would worry more about
somebody like Pat Buchanan rousting me from my house.)

For all the US citizens who are acting as if the country has just made the
worst decision of all time, I want you to remember that there are other people
who have lived in situations where owning a Bible was illegal.  There are some
alive _today_ who met with other Christians in fear of getting caught by the
government.  There are people who would never have imagined being permitted to
campaign for a candidate -- let alone BE a candidate -- with Christianity as a
motivating factor.  We live in a virtually ideal situation for spreading the
Gospel and sharing Christ with the lost.  If it doesn't get done, we have to
find somebody to blame BESIDES the government -- starting with ourselves.


Some are saying that they hope we don't find out Bad Stuff about Mr Clinton,
lest we have elected an immoral leader.  I hate to belabor the obvious, but
here goes:  with exceptions that can be counted on one hand, no sinless
person has ever lived on earth.  Of those exceptions, not one was a US
citizen, and none ever served as President.

We might consider the people who cheated on their wives (like John F Kennedy),
broke the law and lied to Congress (like Richard M Nixon), and who actively
ridiculed the Bible (like Thomas Jefferson).  The jury's still out on George
Bush's involvement in the Iran-Contra trade, but let's just say that I'm glad
we won't have to impeach him in a few years.  The US has survived immoral
leaders, and will survive more immoral leaders.


Pat Robertson said if this homosexual rights bill passes that God may well
judge, that it is a sort of "last straw" before judgement.  Perhaps a bit
of history will put this in perspective:

200 years ago, when this country was founded, human lives were bought and sold
as property.  Children were sold from their parents, people were kidnapped
from their homes, and owners regularly had sex with female slaves, forcibly if
need be.  Those who tried to escape this system were executed, often without
any kind of trial.  We had a big war to end it, but (surprise) the country is
still here.

If God didn't wipe us out for allowing rape, murder, child molestation,
kidnapping, and breaking up families, I'm rather astonished that anyone thinks
a homosexual rights bill is going too far.


Michael Kline writes:

> I also find it depressing that many believe that Bush lost simply because
> his campaign was mismanaged and that something was said at the last minute
> about the Iran affair.

So far as I can make out, George Bush abdicated the Presidency through his
campaign.  An incumbent officeholder should say "During the time I've served,
these are the things I've done to address your problems: [list of things]."
Ronald Reagan said that, and variants on it, when he ran for re-election.
George Bush did not.  The Republicans attacked the Democrats as "soft on
family values", called them "liberals", and said "who do you trust?"

That kind of stuff doesn't work AT ALL on anyone who can think, and it doesn't
work well on people who are worried about eating tonight.  If Mr Bush had
started talking about the economy a year earlier, and made clear that he had
done things which had a mixed success (instead of insisting that there was no
recession for two straight years), he might have won.  Also, I think he got a
bit of backlash from negative campaigning this time.  In 1988, he trashed
Michael Dukakis pretty badly and got away with it.  This time, there were more
people keeping an eye on the attack ads, and they didn't work so well.

(I personally got a kick out of "who has the character to be President?" as
 the main refrain of someone whose campaign so frequently twisted the truth
 about the opponent.  Mr Bush doesn't have much character to boast about, so
 far as I can tell.)

 *

So far, the best thing posted on this election was "what about November 4th?"
The world is still spinning, and sinners are still dying.  And it is up to us
to do something about it.

I'd like to observe to the Christians who supported Oregon's Measure 9 (about
creating state opposition to homosexuals), who opposed Maryland's abortion-
rights measure, and who supported trying to make the country run on `Christian
principles' by electing pro-life presidents, is this:  it hasn't worked.

Twelve years of pro-life Presidents, and abortion is still legal everywhere
in the US.  Thousands of dollars spent in Oregon, and Measure Nine failed.
Millions spent on Mr Bush's re-election, and he won't be around much longer.
Maybe the lesson in here is that the government is not a proper tool, or at
least not one that is going to work very well.  If all that money spent on
electing pro-life presidents had been used to fund free clinics to help women
carry children to term, a lot more children might have been walking around.
If all the time spent on campaigning for George Bush had been spent spreading
the Gospel of Christ, there might be many more Christians.

By some estimates, there are as many as 100 million Christians in the United
States.  If we put as much energy and resources into helping our neighbors
who are homeless or hungry as we put into electing people, we wouldn't NEED
expensive government anti-poverty programs.


As a Christian, I can't justify spending money on political campaigns because
I believe it to be a waste -- just as betting all your money on one horse at
the track would be a waste.  Consider:

A few thousand dollars might buy you a seat on your local School Board, but
you won't have enough power to make any real difference.  That same money will
buy you a large portion of a Habitat for Humanity house, and that house will
make a real difference in the lives of the people who will live there.  And
what if you spend that money and LOSE the election?  Then it's wasted money;
it's gone and it won't be coming back.  But the house you buy is solid and
doesn't depend on the whims of the voters.

If every Christian in the US put in one hour and one dollar a YEAR to a house
built by Habitat for Humanity, we'd have no homeless people inside ten years.
(It comes to 100 million man-hours, and $100 million, per year.)  What a
witness THAT would be, the followers of Jesus working together to build
shelter for everyone who needs it.  How many people would see Christ's love
through this kind of effort?  Does spending money on political campaigns
really compare to that?  Does a Congressman really do more to help people than
someone who builds them houses?

So far as I can tell, a lot of my brothers and sisters have backward
priorities, or just don't think through how best to use their time and energy.
Instead of showing Christ's love through what they CAN do, they wait and
decide to do things after -- if -- they get elected.  But I think a single
doorknob on a house is worth more than 100 elected offices that you might
lose.  Given how much cheaper a doorknob is, I cannot justify spending so much
money on a political campaign.


This election season is over; those who believe that government is an
appropriate tool for Christians have lost many battles.  The government has
never done Christ's work, and it isn't going to start now.  But our job of
doing that work hasn't gone away.  Maybe it's time we did it ourselves, with
our own hands, instead of trying to use the government's resources to make the
job easier.  Jesus never said it would be easy.


Darren F Provine / kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu
"If you want something done right, do it yourself." -- author unknown
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