Elections for president of the United States are a binary choice. Oh sure, more than two candidates may show up on the ballot, but in the end it's a choice between one Republican and one Democrat. Other parties don't stand a chance in this era beyond playing the part of a spoiler, and absolutely everyone knows this to be true.
So, I have to scratch my head in wonder when I see people who profess to be believers in God lose their cool and begin parroting leftist talking points as if they were Tourette syndrome ticks when it comes to the 2020 election and candidate Trump in particular. Take the late Billy Graham's granddaughter Jerushah Duford, for example.
Duford recently penned an opinion piece about how women should resist Trump in the name of godliness, citing Trump's ill-advised photo-op in front of St. John's Church, Trump's history of crassness and of course Trump's brutally blunt tweeting practices. Duford reasons in her op-ed that all women have a responsibility to vote Trump from office for these things.
But curiously, she does not give any consideration whatsoever to the alternative in what is a binary choice. Consequently, Duford's "reason" fails miserably under even the slightest scrutiny.
Let's begin with examining Duford's position from the perspective of Scripture since her op-ed alludes to Scripture as the basis for her claims that Trump should be voted from office. The Word is full of lessons about not judging others lest you be judged yourself. And lessons about not casting stones at sinners. And exhortations to remove the log from one's own eye before trying to remove the spec from someone else's.
Duford tacitly reasons that none of these lessons apply when it comes to assessing candidate Trump. She blasts the candidate for failing to attain biblical compliance while completely ignoring his policies and accomplishments or lack thereof – all while lambasting others in the church for supporting him. While assessing a candidate's positions and record is fair game, Jesus has plenty to say about people who engage in spiritual judgment of others. See previous paragraph.
Next let's move to the perspective of common sense. Duford reasons that when a person is so utterly turned off by candidate Trump's behavior, they have a responsibility to vote for a ticket that supports the industrialized slaughter of pre-born babies and their subsequent dismemberment for harvesting of tissues for commercial use, a ticket that even calls for expansion of these senseless immoral barbarities.
But it doesn't stop there. Duford's defective reasoning also calls for voting for the ticket that tacitly supports rioting and the destruction of our cities, the ticket that calls for reducing funding for police forces, the ticket that has cast its lot with the socialists and that calls for ignoring our immigration laws. Duford's reasoning considers all of these things to be a negligible price to pay for not having to read some obnoxious tweets or to listen to some crass quotes from the past.
Next let's move to the perspective of promises made and promises kept. Duford's reasons that people should be willing to turn their backs on their stated faith and vote for the ticket that promises less religious freedom and promises Supreme Court picks that will surely work to enshrine atheism as the nation's official religion.
The Trump/Pence ticket's records of supporting religious freedom, of Supreme Court picks, of getting us out of wars, of supporting our police forces, of protecting pre-born life, of upholding our immigration laws are all irrelevant in Duford's reasoning. She does reason, however, that ignoring these facts will provide some sort of needed emotional release for those who ignore them.
I can hear Duford's response to my rebuttal now: "Trump is a racist!" In fact, she already took this position in very soft wording. But to take this position, one must first ignore a plethora of facts, including the truth about the origin of this accusation: Trump's supposed "very fine people" comment with respect to white supremacists.
Candidate Trump never asserted that white supremacists are very fine people any more than he asserted Antifa are very fine people. In fact, quite the opposite on both counts. All anyone needs to do is turn off CNN and go look it up.
Landmark passage of the First Step criminal justice reform act, record funding for historically black colleges and universities, the creation of inner-city opportunity zones that is pumping in billions of dollars and record employment levels prior to COVID-19 must all be ignored for one to go down the "Trump is a racist" rabbit hole.
And one must also ignore the fact that Democratic President Andrew Johnson repealed reparations provided to freed slaves by Republican Abraham Lincoln's designate, Gen. William Techumseh Sherman, and also ignore the fact that after reversing reparations, it was the Democratic Party that institutionalized racism by passing Jim Crow laws that spanned from the Reconstruction era all the way to the 1960s.
Oh, I almost forgot. One also must disagree with close to 40% of today's African American population about candidate Trump and the accusations against him of racism.
Granted, it is 100% anyone's right to vote for the candidate he or she chooses. But if Duford wants to write op-eds designed to influence others by trashing people, no matter how softly worded, she needs to expect her writings to be scrutinized. Her affiliation with the Lincoln Project brands Duford as a political activist who will resort to any measure necessary, and her piece was nothing more than emotional journaling crafted to influence a particular demographic to a political end.
Elections are binary choices, and Christians need to understand that Jesus is not on the ballot. Christians have no right to demand that one half of one ticket rises to some bogus spiritual purity test while giving the other ticket a complete pass.
Things like promoting the industrialized slaughter of the pre-born, support for endless wars, financial corruption, facilitating the destabilization of our cities and all the rest of the flaws the Biden/Harris ticket exhibits can't be ignored just because one despises Trump's public persona and thinks Pence doesn't matter. Because all of these things are the 100% assured alternatives to the obnoxious tweets, the bad photo-op and the crassness.
The choice may require that one must hold his nose to vote. But holding the nose is the sole rational alternative to turning one's back on core values and interests.
So, if you find that you'd have to hold your nose to vote smart, then I encourage you to hold your nose. But don't turn your back on your core values and interests just to experience some fleeting emotional release.
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