Friday, November 11, 2016

Thoughts on a post-election Veterans Day

Early morning, Veterans Day. I intend to rake a lot of leaves today, clean up the house a little bit, and think about the meal I'm going to cook this evening for me and my honey. But before getting to the leaves, now that we're a few days passed the incredible night of November 8, the day the world changed (or so it seems), perhaps a few comments are in order.

  • First off, grace and peace to our many veterans. My hope is for a world at peace. I am going to do what I can for that high and utterly unrealistic goal. I'm supposed to be all about peace, since I serve the Prince of Peace. Forgive me, Jesus, for the many times I have forgotten this.
  • As for this past election and its aftermath: although it really doesn't matter what I think (the world's going to go crazy no matter what I think), let me just say that people need to get a grip. Maybe your candidate didn't win. Fine. It's time to do some thinking and planning, work out ways to continue the fight for your cause, and strategizing about how best to win hearts and minds to your side. But for now Donald Trump is your president, and no amount of chanting "Not" will undo that. Nobody ever won hearts and minds by burning flags, destroying property, stopping traffic, etc. Some of you just need an old fashioned civics lesson.
  • That being said, I need to be done with politics for a while. I got caught up in it this year, like a lot of people, and like everyone else I had my opinions. But what worries me most is not what a President Trump will do and not what the anti-Trump protests are doing, but the damage we Christians have done to our testimony about Jesus during this election. I will probably have more to say about this in the future. 
  • One of the political sites that I discovered in the course of this election and have come to truly value is The American Conservative. Of course I don't agree with everything there, but they have some really good writers who do some clear thinking. They often have an interesting take on things, and they're about much more than the political. Also, the fine Rod Dreher writes for them.
  • I have also come to like Front Porch Republic and recommend it to all. They pretty much eschew the left/right politics of our day and some of their writers call themselves Communitarians.
  • As for me, I'm going to think long and hard about the way ahead. We Evangelicals have wrapped our golden calf in a red-white-and-blue flag, draped some fashionable cross jewelry around its neck, and stuck a "Make America Great Again" bumper sticker on its backside, then proceeded to kneel in worship. Politics has always been one of the primary sub-gods in service to Mammon. Though Jesus said we cannot serve two masters, for we will come to be devoted to the one and despise the other, we Christians seem to have been trying to prove him wrong ever since.
  • Leonard Cohen has died. I remember hearing his stuff for the first time in Neil McCue's apartment (where are you now, Neil McCue?). This would have been about 1974 I guess. But I knew some of his music from other sources. One of the great singers of the era, Roberta Flack, recorded his amazing song, Suzanne. I think I already knew the lyrics from a book of poems or something. Anyway, Flack was exquisite, and the song exemplifies Cohen's greatness as a lyricist.  


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