We Reap What We Sow

Just three more days remain before our national Election day or will it be our national Embarrassment day?   Just three more days before we will know for sure what kind of America we will choose.  Anxiety and worry abound on both sides of the aisle, so to speak (and also in Canada, Mexico, Europe and Russia, indeed, the whole world is anxious and worried).  One side must think that they are going to lose their presidential bid since they are already declaring what they intend to do, as if they haven’t already done enough over the last eight years, to obstruct compromise and neglect their constitutional responsibility to serve the people.  The other side seems to be wavering too, not quite so confident as the polling gets tighter and the fateful day draws near.  AND it will be a fateful day!

But, says one religious fellow glibly, God will still be around taking care of things as always and making sure all will be well, God bless America!  I do not deny that God will still be around—but to suggest that no matter what we choose, God will take care of things is a cop-out!  We are responsible and accountable and God does not obstruct our freedom to be so, nor will God necessarily bail us out of our “chosen” troubles.   To suggest that no matter our choice next Tuesday, God will make everything just fine, is like a life-long alcoholic asking God to restore his or her diseased liver.  “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7-8).  This is true for individuals and it is true for a nation. We shall reap what we sow.

Never before have I engaged publicly in urging people to vote a certain way. (As a pastor I never used the pulpit to espouse my political views, as a military chaplain there were certain proscriptions about political expression, and as the director of a 501(c)3 non-profit organization—Yokefellow Society—there were political restrictions).  There are no restrictions on me now. 

The First Amendment is as important as the second.  The Presumption of Innocence is crucial to a democracy.  This land is my land, it is your land, and it is the land of those who have come, just as we all came, from other places. If we, as a people choose to elect Donald Trump, we will be choosing to let these things go.  It is as simple as that, not because I think so, but because he has said so.  AND we shall reap what we sow.  Vote on Tuesday and vote for sanity.  Vote on Tuesday and vote for democracy.  These are all on the ballot this time around.