Moans about the election from the conservative community are understandable. Losing stings, but for me the time for sorrow must end.
Why?
It is distinctly against the conservative grain to care that much about government. My church is flourishing, my family has needs, and my University has aggressive plans for the future. They all need my full attention and for now my representatives do not. We are republic, because we elect people to go and muddle through for us when it comes to civil affairs.
Perhaps the silliest response to the election is that “if it is a loser” in the voting booth “social conservatives” should drop their opposition to rights for vice or their support to the right to life. Ethics for a responsible person are not driven by what is popular, but by reason, revelation, and reality.
That fading Western nations are embracing libertine values is of no consequence. Members of my Church have lived in societies where polygamy is wrongly legalized and where second-class citizenship is a reality. They do not give up and neither will the moral minority in America.
We will keep voting when it is time to vote for the change we can get. Just as election losses did not cause our foes to give up, so a grim immediate political future will not deter us. Global Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant witness is growing.
The Republican Party may have a problem attracting “minorities,” but the global church is composed of every nation, tribe, and people. We are a billion strong and we are not going to change.
The good news is that in the meantime the country built by our grandparents and great-grandparents remains. We are still free to vote, practice our faith, and build a business. Compared to Christians in Syria, where priests are being murdered, or Egypt where they are being crucified to their Church doors, Christians, such as I am, must stop complaining.
I am sorry Mitt Romney lost, but not nearly as sorrow as I am to hear that Christians in Eastern Europe are being murdered. If the tax rate on wealthier Americans goes up, I doubt it helps much, but it certainly is not worth the amount of sorrow that has been expressed about it.
In short, I am a Christian first and an American second. . . I believe in one nation under God . . . not one God under my national identity.
All of this does not mean “giving up” on politics. Small government social conservatives must keep making arguments and trying to persuade others in public. We are citizens and have a duty to suggest the nation take a better path, but we are more than citizens.
French revolutionaries reduced each other to Citizen Jaques, but I am more than my civil self!
Globally there are slaves to be freed and hungry to be fed. There are nations so unjust, such as North Korea and Iran, that our own injustices seem slight. We must seek justice in those nations. Meantime, the libertine culture of America is rotting the poor of our nation and making them less able to participate in civil affairs. We are guilty of spreading that poison globally.
We need better story tellers to turn back this rot and the courage to call moral evil: evil.
I need to be a better husband, turn from our my vices, and help my local community to do the same! In short, I need to get a life . . . or better live the life that God has given me.
It is jolly to be a Christian with Christmas coming . . . and with that I must rest!
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