“The land of the Free
and the Home of The brave”?
There are just six short autumn days left until one of the most important general elections we, and perhaps the world, have ever witnessed; the 2020 US Presidential Election. The current incumbent of that powerful post is hoping to win a second term in the Oval Office and we’ve been watching one of the most disturbingly dark and rancorous Presidential Election campaigns in that great nation’s history. There are genuine fears of cyber-hacking and disinformation. Most ominously, this time there is an incumbent in the White House whom many fear will sow doubt, thrive on chaos, simply refuse to accept defeat and attempt to cling to power in ways we’ve only ever seen in nightmarish dystopian movies we thought were too outlandish and far-fetched to believe. There has never been such a scenario in that great country that, up till now, has prided itself on the peaceful transfer of power at each inauguration. The United States of America is now staring down the barrel of an election that could result in months where constitutional lawyers will brutally battle it out in various courts over vote recounts and disputed ballots. In terms of the stability, unity and future of the United States of America it’s a very, very dangerous time.
The current incumbent is, of course, the duly elected American president. While he’s trailing in the polls at the moment, he may well be re-elected. But his authoritarian nationalism, his rabid racism, his misogynistic treatment of women, his affinity with other despotic and authoritarian leaders, his lack of respect to disabled people and other minorities, his ineptly deadly handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his dismissal and disputation of proven scientific fact is, by any metric, deeply alarming. In the closing paragraph of his 1st. Inaugural Address, delivered on 4th. March, 1861, Abraham Lincoln said, “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Religion has always played a huge part in Presidential elections - sometimes a healthy part, sometimes much less so. May God guide the people of America with the “better angels of their nature” as they face an epic choice in November, for the result will have global repercussions for democracy, decency, progress and solidarity for generations. Now is the time for all American Christians to look at the two elderly men standing for the great office of President and ask, “What would Jesus do?” Of course, in these chaotic, perilous times it is, indeed, entirely a matter for the American people to decide - we are mere prayerful spectators. May God bless the Unites States of America with peace and amity.
