election2016
How can salvation be believed when we refuse to save refugees, or hope grasped when we deny it to immigrants, or justice pursued when we refuse it to the oppressed, or faith accepted when we don’t have faith in those different from us, or love known when we deny it to our neighbors, strangers, and even our enemies?
Image via Reuters/Jason Miczek/RNS.
Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence urged forgiveness for Donald Trump Oct. 12 at Liberty University as evangelical outcry increased in volume over the weekend release of a 2005 video in which Trump is heard making lewd remarks.
“It’s not about condemning what is said and done. It’s about believing in grace and forgiveness,” Pence said at the Lynchburg, Va., school, headed by prominent Christian conservative and Trump backer Jerry Falwell, Jr.
Pence’s Convocation speech, in which he freely shared his testimony as an evangelical Christian, comes two days after Faith & Freedom Coalition leader Ralph Reed laid out the evangelical case for Trump at the largest weekly gathering of Christian students in North America.
Of course this it is not “just talk” as he and his defenders have claimed. But also concerning is the response from some Republican and religious leaders who had previously supported Trump now saying they can't anymore because of the women in their lives — daughters, wives, and mothers — who they want to protect. Women don’t need protection from men; women need men to stop being predators, enablers, and bystanders. Women are human beings made in the image of God regardless of their relationship to a man. This isn’t a woman’s issue; it’s a human issue.
Donald Trump and Hillarry Clinton at the Oct. 9 presidential debate in St. Louis. REUTERS/Rick Wilking
But even after a weekend spent huddling in Manhattan plotting strategy, a crucial question for the Republican nominee was whether this latest outrage would finally repel conservative Christians who are key to the GOP’s hopes for recapturing the White House.
So far the verdict appears mixed.
Photo via Kaleb Nyquist
Grist’s Emma Merchant recently crunched the numbers on how frequently climate change has been discussed in the debates of the past five presidential election cycles (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016).
She found that, out of 1,500 minutes of presidential and vice-presidential debate, climate change got a paltry 37 minutes of discussion. In 2012, of course, climate change got a whopping zero minutes of debate time.
“The vast majority of evangelicals support Donald Trump.” We’ve heard that statement so often during this election season that it’s all but assumed fact. But there’s a problem with that line and with how we talk about “evangelicals” in this election.
Image via Heather A Phillips/Shutterstock.com
Indiana Governor Mike Pence and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine faced off in the 2016 Vice Presidential Debate on Oct. 4 at Longwood University in Farmville, Va. The 90-minute showdown was moderated by CBS reporter Elaine Quijano, the first Asian American reporter to moderate a national debate. Along with the now-expected characteristics of national debates — attacks on the presidential candidate of either ticket, substance versus style, and, for this election cycle, repeated interruptions — one distinguishing factor of last night was the religious nature of both candidates.
Image via RNS/Reuters/Mike Segar
“The presidential nominees will share the dais with Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, and they will deliver the evening’s speeches in the spirit of collegiality and good-humor that has become a hallmark of the gala,” said a statement issued Sept. 27 by the New York Archdiocese and the foundation that runs the event.
The Oct. 20 dinner “honors a cause that transcends the polarizing political rhetoric of the day and exemplifies the vision of Gov. Alfred E. Smith, known as ‘The Happy Warrior,’ for his ability to maintain his positive outlook even as he tackled the pressing social issues of his day,” the statement said.
Thousands march in Raleigh, N.C. as part of the Moral Mondays Action against Voter Suppression and Special Interest groups takeover of state government. by Susan Melkisethian / Flickr.com
Just this summer, a federal court struck down the North Carolina law, ruling that certain provisions of it “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.” The court added, “With race data in hand, the legislature amended the bill to exclude many of the alternative photo IDs used by African Americans” and “retained only the kinds of IDs that white North Carolinians were more likely to possess.” Yet, importantly, restrictive voter ID laws in a number of other states remain on the books, and will be in place for Election Day.
1. ‘Jesus Feminists’ See Hillary Clinton As a Role Model. They Just Won’t Vote for Her
Increasingly, young evangelical women see women’s leadership as a major priority. But “evangelicals make up perhaps the most consistently anti-Clinton groups in the country.” Which leaves us … here?
2. Live, from the Republican National Convention
Who went to the Republican National Convention? Meet attendees and protesters through photos, video, and FBLive streaming, from Sojourners’ team on the ground in Cleveland.
3. Fear and Trembling in Las Vegas
Spending a week with street preachers in Sin City (...yep, you read that right).
Image via Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock.com
Sanders leaves what was a long and often-contentious race on a high note, having captured nearly 1,900 delegates — "far more," he said, "than almost anyone thought we could win.
Image via bikeriderlondon/Shutterstock.com
White Christian nationalism is back in full force. White Christians will need to do everything in their power to stop it — even those of us who avoid politics. When interviewed about Donald Trump’s success last week on NPR, former Republican presidential candidate and adviser to three presidents Pat Buchanan argued for a white, homogenous America, claiming that diversity of language and culture undermines our nation.
White nationalism is idolatry, plain and simple. As Christians our allegiance is to God, not to the American flag. “God’s country” is not the U.S.A but the whole human race, which is created in the image of God — no matter the race, no matter the religion. Our biblical alarm bells should go off when we hear candidates or neighbors say the U.S. is more special to God than other countries, particularly if it's that our whiteness is what makes us great. This is heresy.
For years, I’ve had a rocky relationship with the news. I love to know what’s going on in the world, but I can’t help but notice that the news sources I read all present the story from a definite slant. More and more over the last couple years, I’ve felt like I’m doing battle with the newspaper every morning. Each day, the media machine is telling me who I should vote for, what to buy, what new disease to fear, and who my country should kill.