TO THE CHRISTIAN VOTER

Some years ago I saw a nice lady, in pain, with gallstones who needed surgery.  When I asked her preference of a surgeon she said she wanted one who was a Christian – apparently concerned less about competence or experience, and also oblivious to whether the anesthesiologist, who was putting her to sleep, her life in his hands, might not be a Christian.  She was insistent though.
 
Anyway, last Tuesday evening I was watching the election returns from Arizona, Utah, and Idaho and was reminded of this lady when the pundits began explaining in great detail why Ted Cruz was projected to win Utah while Donald Trump was projected to have abysmal results.  The reason being, of course, that the citizenship of Utah is overwhelmingly of the Mormon faith and that Cruz, having a reputation as a publicly practicing Christian, is more akin to the belief system and values of Mormons than is Trump with his persona and public image.  Similarly, in most of the previous state primaries to date there’s been much fanfare about what candidates are attracting Evangelical Christians and how this plays into projected results. 
 
It’s presumed (at least for me) that a Christian will vote for the candidate because he is a Christian, apparently, in many but not all cases, to the exclusion of all other considerations; presumably thinking “He’s like me” -- And that as a Christian, he is perhaps less likely to run off the rails than someone who is not a Christian, or perhaps a lesser Christian.  Or perhaps at best hoping that a Christian president would govern according to sound Christian values and on social issues that comport with the Christian faith.  History, of course, has woefully recorded otherwise.
 
So now we hear mainly Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio (some time ago) lobbying for the votes of Christians because they themselves too are Christians.  I’m not aware of any Democratic candidate lobbying for the Evangelical vote, probably because their party promotes that which is anti-life.  Anyway, this on the surface appeals to the superficiality of a voter’s discretion whose discernment of the best candidate for them and the country is reduced to a singular issue.  In this case, a “faith like mine”, which I think comforts a voter in his or her decision, thinking the fewer complicated things to consider the easier it is to understand. 
 
But this is akin to a candidate saying that since I have two ovaries like you that you should vote for me.  Or a voter deciding that since the candidate’s skin color is the same as mine, I will vote for them, which judging from the statistics of unemployed blacks over the past 8 years doesn’t seem to hold much water.
 
So if you, the Christian, are processing the choosing of a singular issue by which to choose your candidate allow me to offer one.  I think overall, that given the sad state of affairs in our country, something or someone must push back against what the radical left has wrought upon the country, our culture, and our society these past 8 years.  The issue of “law and order” would of course be near the top.  But one issue for consideration by the devout Christian I think would result in a more profound and enduring one, if confronted, for decades to come would be the destruction and obliteration of the poisonous political correctness and cultural Marxism (the politics of victimhood) that has pervaded the land and destroyed careers and adversely affected untold lives in this country.
 
Are you, the Christian voter, seeking a president to act as a Christian while he is president?  Or do you want a man (there is no such woman candidate) to govern and create an environment which gives you and all Christians the freedom to influence society whereby they can unabashedly practice their faith, ply their virtues, and speak freely in public, on college campuses, and in corporate offices, and exercise their conscience, without the fear of losing their jobs or having their careers destroyed?
 
The Mormons, and many Evangelicals, may be misguided in their singular choice of a “Christian-acting” man for president.  I would like to think there is something foundational in the endorsements of Mr. Trump by the likes of Dr. Ben Carson and Jerry Falwell, Jr., practicing Christian men, and would not be surprised to learn endorsed Trump for this very reason – to destroy the social poison of political correctness.  And I wouldn’t be surprised if their endorsements were founded on the historical lesson of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who in the Edict of 313 gave Christians the right to practice their faith and speak freely IN PUBLIC!
 
Constantine himself, no pillar of virtue, was extremely ambitious, had multiple wives and even put one of them to death, and was a ruthless general and politician.  But he too was politically savvy, and signed the Edict of 313, enabling Christians to spread the Christian message to the ends of the empire, Christianizing a pagan (immoral) culture.
 
There is no perfect political candidate.  Never was, never will be.  Mr. Trump ain’t one and neither are any of the others.  Moreover, I don’t doubt St. Peter himself would be challenged in governing this crowd.  But if freedom of religion, freedom to speak freely, freedom to act on your conscience is of paramount importance to you, in addition to spreading the Good News, then you may wish to consider the dismantling of political correctness as THE primary political aim in this election cycle.  And if there’s one candidate who’s already proven how to do it, and has already brought the electorate down this road, it is Mr. Trump, with all his flaws and warts, who is definitely politically incorrect, and prides himself on that attribute, refusing to kowtow to the media, and defiant in spite of being vilified by political elites, journalists, and academics, themselves purveyors of cultural Marxism, the politics of victimhood.
 
And as for my kidney stones -- if they ever come back and need extracting, while I would be comforted knowing a strong, healthy, self-reliant, steady, skillful, accomplished, Christian surgeon, with skin and a gender like mine, would be working on me, I’d nevertheless take an 18 year old, one-eyed, limping, long-haired, pygmy, as long as they are indeed CONFIDENT, KNOWLEDGEABLE, EXPERIENCED, and an ACHIEVER. 
 
Meanwhile, vote soundly.  Vote rightly.  But most of all be sure to vote.  And before you do, be FREE to speak your mind, shouting it to the left and shouting it to the right.  But most of all not keeping it to yourself. 
_________________
 
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”   
            George Orwell