Someone has been vandalizing Trump-Pence road signs in Apache Junction. The first time they spray painted “Tax Cheat” across the placard, communicating more about the artist’s understanding of economics than anything about the candidates being advertised. The sign was replaced, and a few days later it was spray painted again, this time with one word: “Clown.” I’m not sure if the artist was signing his work like a painter or expressing his support for performers which many people think are creepy. Before that sign could be replaced, another one a mile up the road was similarly vandalized. After those were exchanged, the first one was vandalized again for a third time, this time with an expression that was simultaneously too crude to print in a church newsletter and too obscure to be clear in its meaning. I’m still not sure what relationship was being drawn between a national fast food chain and prostitution. Clearly our local artist is too erudite for me. I’ll simply have to be content to live in the presence of creative genius and greatness.
Yesterday I saw cell phone video of two women in masks screaming in the faces of people who were holding Trump-Pence signs. Actually, they weren’t screaming. They were barking… like dogs. It was odd. I’m not sure if anyone in the crowd sought medical attention for them. It certainly seems like a call to the mental health authorities would be the neighborly thing to do.
You may think these are simply examples of bad or disordered behavior, but in fact they are what folks in the 21st century call political discourse and strategy. You may find them unpersuasive, but I have decided I am convinced. Not convinced to support their preferred candidate who they did not identify. Not convinced not to support the candidate whose roads signs and supporters have been the targets of their attention. No, I have become convinced that there are no political solutions to spiritual problems, and that’s most certainly what we have here: a spiritual problem. It might also be described as a lack of virtue, a dearth of propriety, or beastly behavior better suited to savages than to civilization. But sin makes you stupid, and while I can think of several other words that might describe our current climate, I can’t think of one more fitting.
I plan to vote on November 3rd, and I am sure many of you do as well. But every supplication you make to the God of heaven between now and then and after is immeasurably more powerful and important than any of our votes will be. We do not trust in princes, whether pious or profane. We do not hope in parties, whether virtuously or viciously aligned. We do not rest in electoral outcomes, which usually seem to be a choice between those that will destroy the nation by poisoning and those that will destroy it by a bullet to the brain. Our hope is in the Lord, even though a peaceful and righteous result may be impossible to imagine. Jesus is still Lord of all lords and King of all kings, no matter who sits in the White House, or controls the Senate, or makes judgments on the Supreme Court. That court isn’t supreme after all. Their decisions to justify violence against the unborn, sanction sodomy, and uphold a host of other intrusions upon God-given rights and offenses against God’s moral law is nothing but spray paint on a sign. Decrees of men which contravene the decree of God are nothing more than mad barking. It may seem ferocious, but don’t be alarmed. Eternity will prove its foolishness and vanity. The Lord reigns. Let the Church rejoice. --JME
