Category Archives: Politics

It had to come.

It’s an axiom.

In logic, this means a proposition, not subject to proof or disproof. Its truth is assumed to be self-evident because most people believe it. Once broadly accepted, it becomes a premise from which other conclusions are logically and inescapably drawn.

Nobody has proved it’s true. It may not be true. But enough people believe it’s true. So it’s seen as true and declared as true.

One central axiom of our time is the normalization of a new form of personal morality. The most important and irreversible vanguard of shifting sexual mores in America is the widespread and rapidly growing acceptance of homosexuality.

It must be true.

Once gay marriage was established as a constitutional right, the war was over. Traditional values had lost, tolerance had triumphed. There were all sorts of complex demographic, cultural and political factors leading to this approval but it was undeniable.

It’s an axiom.

Life goes on.

We’re not going back.

We live in a new world and we must be brave.

“Trans”.

That’s the abbreviation for the latest frontier – transgendered people. They are neither “her” nor “him”. They’re somewhere in between, moving in one direction or the other, seeking their true identity; reveling in their happy selves as members of the opposite sex from the one they were trapped in at birth.

They are the new champions of change – literally.

Past generations might have scratched their heads at the mystifying phenomenon. It’s another example of an infinitesimal minority managing to roil the cultural waters of an entire nation.

The Governor of North Carolina backed a new state law restricting public restrooms to those of the same sex at birth. Saying it was discriminatory – a powerful word if ever there was one – the Justice Department, urged on by President Obama, threatened to sue the Governor.

The bathroom law was all washed up. It never stood a chance.

Tolerance is unrelenting in forcing itself on all those who disagree. None dare raise a conscientious objection and be seen as hopelessly out of touch with “the real world”.

That’s ironic. It’s also an axiom of our age. It must be true.

We’ve embraced boundless tolerance – except for dissent.

The other day a news magazine arrived. On its cover were Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. They both were sporting yard-long noses. The Truth Hurts was the headline.

Perhaps this picture is prophetic.

Describing the corruption of an earlier age, Isaiah wrote:

“So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter” (Isaiah 59:14, NIV).

This nation is set to nominate the two least popular and most controversial and morally-challenged candidates for president in American history. It may end up being a contest over who has told the fewest lies – or the biggest.

“Truth has fallen in the streets, honesty cannot enter”.

People get the government – and the leaders – they deserve.

It’s another axiom; true through all ages and in every civilization.

In a society where “justice is driven back and righteousness stands at a distance”; where evil is called good and good evil; in a culture where bitter is substituted for sweet and sweet for bitter; and in a land where leaders more often reflect the dominant values than shape them, the sad and pathetic choice we’ve been given in 2016 is richly deserving.

This is a choice for our times; the emblem of poetic justice.

We are reaping what we have sown (another undeniable axiom).

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn” (Proverbs 29:2, KJV).

This is God’s axiom.

It’s his judgment upon a people who have chosen to cast off moral restraint, define their own morality and seek their own way.

Trump and Clinton have been supported by millions to whom truth and integrity are subjective, relative and – in the end – dispensable. It’s rampantly true in people’s personal lives, why not in the lives of their leaders?

For the Christian this is not the time to despair or give up. It is the time to pray, think and vote.

No matter what has happened to get us here, is happening now or will happen in November and beyond, our sovereign God is in control. He knows the end from the beginning, and he will protect his church against even the gates of hell itself.

And a corrupt president – if we should elect one.

God’s still on his throne.

He has a plan.

Take heart.

Yes, you may sometimes feel like a Puritan living in the midst of Babylon but remember God’s people have lived in interesting times before.

Take the first century, for example.

“Be on guard,” Paul told believers then. “Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do everything with love” (I Corinthians 16: 13-14, NLT).

Don’t fear the polls. Trust God.

“Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness” (Psalm 37:4, NASB).

Paul closed his second letter to the Corinthians with this consolation:

“Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you” (II Corinthians 13:11, NLT).

Our faithfulness, his presence.

It’s logical. It’s true.

It’s a divine axiom.

Today, tomorrow and forever.

 

The man’s face was contorted in rage.

He was yelling and screaming – except when he was chanting.

He was protesting, I suppose, the marvels of democracy. He didn’t like the results of the presidential election. His candidate didn’t win and he was protesting the one who did – President-elect Donald Trump.

More than 120 million Americans cast votes for either Trump or Clinton on November 8.

It was an even split – actually Clinton won slightly more votes. The Electoral College, which our founders gave us to help prevent mob rule, delivered its clear majority to Trump.

Every day since, people have taken to the streets in protest.

The peaceful transfer of political power – a hallmark in this democratic republic – continues. Secretary Clinton delivered a gracious and eloquent concession speech. President Obama welcomed Mr. Trump to the White House for their first meeting. The President was also gracious – as was the President-elect.

All three called for acceptance of the results, a chance for new leadership and a healing of the country’s deep divisions.

The man who was so angry waved a sign. It said Love Trumps Hate.

I noted the irony. The man seemed anything but loving. Unexpected defeat seldom brings out the best in anyone.

Yes, the supporters of Hillary Clinton are stunned, bitter, heartbroken and in anguished disbelief.

A presidential campaign fueled by division in a country already historically divided could not have ended any other way: a close result, with the losers angrily unwilling to recognize the winners.

The divide now suddenly widens and deepens, were it possible.

After I spoke about the election at a men’s morning Bible study, one of the men said that the divisions are more than national – they are often very personal. He told the group of 40 men that his mother-in-law is so distraught she has refused to speak about it.

Then he suggested that here was an opportunity for Christians to show the love of Christ in how we responded to those we know who stand on the other side of this cultural ravine.

Some may be in our families. Some are in mine.

It was a great point.

In the darkness of recriminations and despair, you and I must let our light shine.

The sign is right: love does trump hate.

It’s the only thing that does.

In his life and in his death, Jesus Christ proved that.

Jesus has given us his teachings. He’s also given us his example. He has told us to be meek and humble and to be peacemakers. He said people would hate us and mock us for following him. He told us not to retaliate in kind but to turn the other cheek.

This doesn’t mean we apologize for our convictions or try to draw out a compromise on uncompromising principles. Churches and pastors – eager to win the world’s approbation – do that too often. Charles Spurgeon was correct:

“To hold with the hare and run with the hounds is a dastard’s policy”.

Sometimes the only ground between right and wrong is battle ground.

May God help our leaders to remain strong in the face of growing opposition to our faith.
But if we say we follow Jesus, we must act like it and talk like it and think like it. We must never succumb to hate and bitterness or view our fellow citizens as enemies instead of adversaries.

There is a difference.

Even if we are led to believe we have enemies among those who disagree with us – even then we are left with the example of the One we call Lord. He offered not a word of accusation or defense at his bogus trial. On the cross, among his final words was a plea to his Father to forgive those who had murdered him.

This country is not facing its greatest division.

One hundred and fifty-five years ago, Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s new president, spoke to a country torn asunder and on the precipice of a literal civil war. He had been elected by a hair under 40 % of the popular vote against three opponents. Seven Southern states had voted to leave the union following his election.

It was the greatest crisis in our nation’s history.

As he closed his inaugural address on the steps of an unfinished U.S. capital building, Lincoln made an eloquent plea to his countrymen. It’s worth remembering, taking to heart and putting into practice.

“I am loath to close. 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”.

The Apostle Paul told us that you and I have been given by Jesus Christ both a message and a ministry of reconciliation. (II Corinthians 5:18-20).We must not be conquered by evil, Paul told the Roman believers. We must overcome evil with good (Romans 12: 21).

In these contentious times, may we resolve to answer this call and let God touch our hearts and minds – and the better angels of our nature.

I remember when we took our daughters to the amusement park.

They begged me to ride the roller coaster.

I resisted their entreaties. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it – in fact I suspected it might be a rather unpleasant experience. I didn’t like the prospect of sudden jolts – or steep climbs or speeding descents.

Finally, I relented.

As I was sitting in the small seat, the steel bar shut tight. Then the roller coaster started slowly moving down the narrow track. I had this sudden feeling of panicked regret. Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea.

What would this ride be like – really?

Too late – I was on and locked in.

I had a similar sudden apprehension at around 2:30 Wednesday morning when I first saw the words flash across the television screen – words I never once expected to ever see – “President-elect Donald Trump”.

A nation divided by the most contentious presidential campaign in our lifetime was suddenly united by shock.

The watching world was stunned.

I had gone to the polls and bought my ticket on the Trump Train – with some serious misgivings. I was forced into it by my convictions, and even more serious reservations about the other candidate.

As I settled in to watch the returns of an election I’d followed closely, there was nothing that told me this would be anything other than a comfortable win for Hillary Clinton.

I was not alone.

While some predicted an upset, I’d seen too many elections to think tonight would be one. Trump might run closer than expected – that’s the best anyone could hope for.

Voters could at least send a message.

I don’t think Donald Trump thought he would win – though he put on the requisite brave face in the closing days. He predicted a big surprise, said he’d sweep the industrial Midwest, spoke of a massive movement of voters who would rise up and elect him.

It had crossed my mind that maybe there were enough angry voters out there willing to take a chance on Trump. This might be the year. But it would be the “miracle” a Trump aide said they needed.

The media elite and pollsters were unambiguously unanimous. It wasn’t going to happen.

Then it did.

Slowly, through the evening, Donald Trump held onto his early lead – in popular votes and, more critically, in the Electoral College.

The big states were close – Florida, North Carolina, Ohio. But he carried them all. Then Trump grabbed a lead in states that should have been hers – Wisconsin, Michigan, even Democratic Pennsylvania.

The blue collar revolt was in full angry swing. Donald Trump was the chosen instrument of its wrath – delivered upon an arrogant and unresponsive Washington establishment in both parties.

Take that!

And so it was that you and I witnessed extraordinary history this week.

Donald J. Trump is as unlikely a president as we’ve ever elected. His victory is the biggest upset since Truman beat Dewey in 1948. Culturally, it’s a much bigger upset – it’s an earthquake.

Our country’s never seen anything like this.

It’s surreal.

Donald Trump is the first person to enter the White House with neither political nor military experience. The Ship of State sails into uncharted waters. The most erudite experts are of no help. They’ve already been totally wrong and blindsided.

Nobody had seriously pondered this because nobody took it seriously. President Trump? Seriously?

Now we all must. And we’d be naïve not to be a bit concerned.

We tend to be polarized in our reaction to a new president. It’s either the end of the world or the beginning of utopia. Neither is true of course.

Upon assuming the presidency, a young and untried JFK said he was surprised to discover that things were as bad as he had alleged during the campaign. “In the final analysis,” he later observed, “it’s easier to make the speeches than it is to make the judgments”.

It’s easier to promise than to perform; to campaign and market than to govern and lead.

Perhaps that’s why Donald Trump was uncharacteristically subdued when he went to Washington this week. He’s now getting the daily security briefings. Soon he’ll know how tough this job is.

President-elect Trump needs our prayers. May God grant him wisdom, compassion, humility, courage, and integrity. May this new and entirely unorthodox leader – who will be sure to lead in unorthodox ways – help to heal the deep divisions and unite our nation.

That won’t be easy.

President Trump’s going to make mistakes and we are sometimes going to disagree with him. He will disappoint. Leaders do that. May God help us to be hopefully realistic and prayerfully patient.

This is going to be quite a roller-coaster ride.

God knows the end from the beginning. He knows every moment of the next four years.

“Be still, and know that I am God,” he reminds us. “I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world” (Psalm 46:10, NLT).

God is our trust. May our new president look to Him.

So hang on! We take this uncertain ride together. There will be steep climbs, sharp turns and speeding descents. Whatever happens, it won’t be boring.

“The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah” (Psalm 46:11, KJV).

Amen.

“Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ’twixt that darkness and that light”.

James Russell Lowell, Boston Courier, December 11, 1845

It’s finally here.

Election Day.

It marks the end of the most amazing, unpredictable, unprecedented and deeply controversial presidential campaign of the modern era.

Never in our history has this nation been forced to choose between two candidates like these.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are profoundly unpopular. Nearly 70% of the American people believe they both are dishonest and untrustworthy. Nothing these two candidates have said in recent weeks has done anything but deepen that distrust.

Let’s face it. This presidential campaign has been a fascinating but uninspiring event.
There’s been nothing uplifting about it. It’s been almost painful to watch.

We could say this campaign’s been beneath the dignity of a great and free people. Or we could be honest and admit it’s a mirror reflection of our declining culture.

Trump and Clinton have been nominated by the two great political parties of this country.

They are us.

They represent the poetic justice of our larger choices and values. We don’t like these candidates. But in our hearts we know we deserve them.

“Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34, KJV).

That reproach has fallen upon America this year.

The vultures of moral decay always come home to roost.

On the evening the FBI was announcing it was re-opening its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, the TV news ticker was scrolling that the Supreme Court would hear the appealed case of a transgendered youth.

The announcements belonged together. They’re connected.

This is post-modern America. This is the new day. This is the present morality. This is restraints cast off.

We could end up next week with a president-elect under FBI scrutiny; an administration hounded by scandal and distrust from day one.

Put in office by a country of jaded voters who increasing can’t discern and don’t care.

Some of you have voted. Most of you have not.

Now “comes the moment to decide”. Each of us must determine what’s right in this year-long “strife of truth with falsehood”. It may not be so easy to discern “the good or evil side” when neither candidate is admirable.

Still, for each of us, this is a “great decision”.

The stakes are high. We dare not walk away.

Christian leaders have been all over the political map. It’s hard to find the safe middle ground this year – there isn’t any.

Each side fears the abyss if the other wins.

As a follower of Jesus, I struggled with my own morality as I tried to assess the morality of my choices.

My vote mattered and I couldn’t throw it away on a write-in or a candidate with no chance to win.

I don’t know what Donald Trump will do as president. I do know what Hillary Clinton will do. That was my first hurdle – I know her. I know her party platform. I know her agenda. I know her character.

She has said repeatedly that she will place on the Supreme Court justices who will “uphold marriage equality [homosexual marriage] and a woman’s right to choose” [abortion on demand].

Trump released a list of his potential court picks – all of them conservatives committed to the meaning of the Constitution rather than an ideological agenda.

The Supreme Court could be the next president’s lasting legacy – a court able to shape American law and life for generations.

On economic policy, health care, immigration, defense and foreign policy, I found my own thinking at odds with that of Hillary Clinton and her party.

Donald Trump’s sins of the flesh are vile and despicable. His temperament seems undisciplined, his manner obnoxious. His language is often careless and mean-spirited; his positions sometimes ill-considered.

He’s not presidential; she’s a seasoned and experienced politician.

He’ll try and change things; she not so much.

In the end, I decided that his personal weaknesses pose less of a threat to the Republic than her pervasive corruption and lust for power and money.

My vote was cast in faith – not in Trump but in God. I did my best.

You must reach your own decision on these candidates. Like a flu shot, it will only hurt for a moment.

King Saul was removed by God from the throne of Israel because of his deceit, greed and disobedience to God’s commands.

He misled his nation.

King David committed adultery with Bathsheba, repented and was forgiven by God and restored.

He led his nation to greatness.

No leader is perfect. That can’t be our expectation.

The outcome of this election – as all else both great and small – rests in the mighty hands of our sovereign God. His purpose – whatever that may be – will be fulfilled when the votes are counted.

Whether we cheer or bemoan next Tuesday, let’s not forget this.

Our God reigns. That is our best hope. It’s our only hope. It’s a firm hope.

“Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own”.

My daughters loved to do it as family entertainment.

They’d bring a friend into the living room where I was, whisper to her, “watch this” and then announce:

“OK Dad, number 19.”

Like clicking on a computer, I’d begin a detailed description of our country’s 19th president, Rutherford B. (for Birchard, a family name) Hayes. I’d spout off dates, events, VP, home state, physical appearance, personality and various other facts, some important, most trivial.

Figuring it was a set-up, the friend would insist on picking her own number. I’d do the same thing.

After three or four numbers, my daughter would boast, “I told you, my dad knows a lot about the presidents”.

For the past several years I’ve held 50 third-graders at Liberty Christian School spell bound each spring as I spend nearly an hour lecturing on the American presidents, armed with nothing more than colorful portraits and a bust of Lincoln.

I don’t need notes.

I’m a presidential savant.

Lincoln died at ten seconds past the 22nd minute of 7:00AM on Saturday, April 15, 1865. He had been laid diagonally on a short bed at the Henry Peterson boarding house across the street from Ford’s theater. He was 56 years old. Edwin M. (for McMasters) Stanton, Lincoln’s Secretary of War, was said to have famously remarked, “Now he belongs to the ages”.

Nothing in the preceding paragraph was googled – except in my head.

I’ve watched the movie Lincoln 22 times – but most of those details aren’t in the film.

When Beth and I were served at a local restaurant by a young aspiring actor named Chester, I proceeded to share salient facts about his presidential namesake.

Yes, that’s right, I’m a weirdo.

Blame my mother, who, while a sales lady, brought home a free set of World Book encyclopedias when I was ten. Included was a volume on the presidents.

I devoured it.

I was hooked – on our country and the fascinating and often heroic and tragic men who have led it.

Over the past half century, I’ve moved beyond the statistics of the presidents, which I mastered as a child. I’ve gained a deeper and more nuanced appreciation for the temperaments, gifts, strengths, weaknesses – the successes and failures – and the diverse personalities of the 43 men who have held the nation’s – and now the world’s – most powerful office.

One thing I’ve learned is that character counts. Our nation has survived and prospered because of it. Without wise and self-disciplined leaders of integrity in times of crisis we would have been doomed.

Another thing I’ve learned is that even the most powerful and greatest of men are mere mortals.

When little Toto pulled back the curtain on the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her companions discovered the diminutive, white-haired and cherubic-faced senior citizen who had been performing an elaborate and impressive disguise.

When Dorothy upbraided him as “a very bad man”, the old gent replied, “No my dear, I’m a very good man. I’m just a very bad Wizard”.

The Republicans presented Donald Trump last week and attempted, with the valuable help of his impressive children, to unveil the decent, humble and caring man behind the public curtain of his uniquely authoritative candidacy and personality. We were invited to behold the real Donald Trump – not the media’s alleged caricature.

This week it will be the Democrats’ turn to try and humanize Hillary Clinton – who has been at the controversial epicenter of the public’s eye for a quarter century.

What’s behind the curtail matters – a lot.

No president has ever fully idealized this country’s vision of what a president should be – certainly not while in office. Only history can correct our frequent myopia.

Trump and Clinton enter the fall campaign as the least popular and trusted candidates in American history. There is little comfort for them – or the rest of us – in thinking it’s going to get easier next year. The history of the “glorious burden” of the presidency clearly argues against it.

It would be a grave mistake for any president to go into this storm without a firm moral compass. Those who attempted it ended shipwrecked.

When he was secretly diagnosed with cancer of the jaw, President Grover Cleveland, once the burly sheriff of Buffalo, said that he was reminded of “how weak the strongest man is”.

What is true physically is equally true politically and morally.

“Nearly all men can stand adversity,” observed Lincoln, “but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power”.

Either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will place his or her hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States. When they utter the words, “So help me God” on that cold January noon they will assume more power than any other person on earth.

May we pray that the scriptures will be opened to King David’s pledge:

“I will lead a life of integrity … I will reject perverse ideas … I will not endure conceit and pride …My daily task will be to ferret out the wicked and free the city of the Lord from their grip” (Psalm 101, NLT).

The curtain will be pulled back.

Character will be revealed.

It’s the nature of the office.

We’ve been here too often.

The violence is numbing us.

The rituals and rhetoric of public grieving seem predictable and somehow insufficient.

The anticipation of tragedy is disturbing.

Amidst the cacophony of angry voices and opposing opinions – editorials and talking heads – our flag remained the most poignant silent reminder of our shared grief and the uncertainty of life.

At the beginning of the week the Stars and Stripes waved proudly as we celebrated the 240th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. Before the week was over it flew sadly at half mast, testing once more whether this nation – conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal – can endure.

President Obama has ordered the American flag lowered more than any president in history.

It is a sign of our troubled times.

This time it was for five police officers slain in Dallas while protecting the lives of others.

We’ve been an increasingly divided country. We are North and South, red states and blue states, rich and poor and black and white.

Sometimes we’re simply Americans – but not often enough.

Values once held dear are today suspect. Beliefs that united and sustained us in tough times are questioned or scorned as idealistic and naïve.

Throughout history there have been nations that have been great without being good. The United States is not one of them. Our founders never intended it to be. They created a government that must rely on widespread virtue – and faith – to survive.

“We have no government armed with power,” observed John Adams, “capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion … Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Three years before the bloody civil war that would sunder the nation Abraham Lincoln argued that dependence upon economic and military strength alone would not be enough to preserve the Union:

“Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere.
Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them.”

Abandon ordered liberty rooted in virtue, Lincoln said, and “you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises.”

Our founders understood that in a free republic personal virtue and national greatness are inseparable. Forsake individual morality and this nation would descend into the bondage of anarchy.

Their warnings have proven prophetic.

After the last funeral is conducted in Louisiana, Minnesota and Dallas, white police officers will still be confronting young black men on the streets. And the tensions will remain. So will the judgments, suspicions and reactions.

The cause of racism will not cease even when its effects are addressed in law and practice. Bias and bigotry are stubborn and subtle enemies. They dwell deep within the human heart and the heart cannot be legislated.

For decades we have known that the deterioration of the black family – and the absence of strong male role models – has impacted the black experience much more than economic and legal factors.

Yes, racial discrimination is still a daily reality in this country and it’s immoral. Poverty is also real. But the ultimate answer is not more laws but more decency, responsibility, respect, determination, courage and self-control.

Right and wrong are not subject to race – they are colorblind. The content of a man’s character is the only judgment you and I have any right to make about him.

Through the prophet Jeremiah God warned of the desperate and unfathomable wickedness of the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9). Even as many began to trust in Jesus, he still “didn’t trust them, because he knew human nature. No one needed to tell him what mankind was really like” (John 2:24-25, NLT, emphasis added).

Jesus knew what was in the heart of man.

These tragic acts of violence remind us again that we are all fallen creatures and we live in a fallen world.

Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn observed, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart – and through all human hearts.”

We are fallen not because of our race but in spite of it. In the end the only race that matters is the human race and the only thing that can redeem that is the grace and love of God through Jesus Christ.

Only Christ can transform our hearts and heal our divisions. He alone is able to excavate the angry heart of stone and replace it with a tender heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).

Only God can heal our land by changing each of us. Only changed people can change society.

This is our calling. This is our duty.

May we pray with David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10, KJV).

Only then can we begin to face the stubborn ancient prejudices that lurk within us all.

Because the heart of this problem is a problem of the heart.

It was a dramatic moment in a dramatic story.

The tall young senator stood unshaven and disheveled on the floor of the senate. His voice hoarse from hours of a filibuster; exhausted, his energy spent in a one-man defense of his ideals, he looked once more at his passive colleagues.

“You think I’m licked,” he told them. “You all think I’m licked. Well I’m not licked. And I’m gonna stay right here and fight for this lost cause.”

He staggered over to the large bin overflowing with fabricated telegrams orchestrated to condemn him and drive him from office.

He reached in and grabbed a handful and held them up.

“Even if this room gets filled with lies like these. And the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will listen to me.”

With that, Senator Jefferson Smith collapsed.

As with all Frank Capra’s movies, this one would have a happy ending. The distinguished but corrupted senator whom Jeff Smith had once idolized openly confessed his complicity on the senate floor.

Jim Taylor’s graft machine was defeated.

Truth triumphed over greed.

Jeff Smith would live to fight another day.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington – starring the inimitable James Stewart in his first Oscar-nominated role – stands alone as the iconic Hollywood depiction of American values and old-fashioned patriotism.

That nearly eighty years later its pure idealism would seem so quaintly irrelevant is an American tragedy.

Young Jefferson Smith, unlikely choice to replace a deceased senator, is suddenly thrust into the cynical sneering world of Washington politics. A good and decent man, the naïve Smith is mocked by the press and ridiculed and dismissed by his worldly colleagues.

When his legislative plans to acquire land to build a camp for boys in his home state interfere with the nefarious schemes of a powerful political machine, Smith is suddenly no laughing matter. Run by a ruthless boss named James Taylor, the machine goes all out to railroad unsuspecting Jeff Smith out of the senate.

It is a classic morality play.

Selfless idealism confronts self-centered greed.

Throughout the film, the virtues and values of America – especially our ideas about individual freedom and decency – are unapologetically espoused.

There is no cynicism in this film except on the part of the villains who care nothing of American virtues and have no virtue of their own. They care only for themselves – for power and for money. They would use the government to concentrate and expand both.

Speaking to his jaded legislative assistant who would later root for him and fall in love with him, Jeff Smith explained why he wanted the boys’ camp:

“You see, boys forget what their country means by just reading The Land of the Free in history books. Then they get to be men they forget even more.

Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: I’m free to think and to speak. My ancestors couldn’t, I can, and my children will. Boys ought to grow up remembering that.”

When Jeff Smith finally had the chance to speak to his hardened senate colleagues on the floor, he painted a noble red, white and blue portrait of America.

He read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He invoked Lady Liberty at the top of the capitol dome and defended “the whole parade of what man’s carved out for himself, after centuries of fighting …so he can stand on his own two feet, free and decent, like he was created to, no matter what his race, color or creed.”

Smith insisted “there’s no place out there for graft, or greed, or lies, or compromise with human liberties.” Freedom, he declared, was “the blood and bone and sinew of this democracy that some great men handed down to the human race.”

It was quite a speech.

Jeff Smith believed every word of it.

Today, many Americans, like the boys Smith spoke of, have forgotten what it truly means to be an American. Amidst our cynicism, anger, fear and bitterness we’ve lost sight of the great privilege and duty of living in the greatest, freest and most wonderful nation on earth.

It’s easy to give in to despair and cynicism. The media, popular culture and too many of our politicians lead us to think that American liberty and all it represents is just another “lost cause.”

But as Jefferson Smith reminded us, we must hold to our ideals and “you fight for the lost causes harder than for any others. Yes, you even die for them.”

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was banned in Hitler’s Germany. In German-occupied France in 1942 it was the last film shown before the ban went into effect – one theater showed it 30 times – and the first shown after France was liberated.

It should be required viewing in every high school.

Jeff Smith reminds us of what America means – what it stands for and why it’s worth fighting to preserve.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8,KJV).

It was a beautiful spring day in New England.

It was perfect weather for an outdoor ceremony.

Most boys would be excited about going fishing, running through the woods, playing ball or just goofing off.

Not me. Not today.

I was on a mission – a serious mission. And I dare not fail.

It all started a few weeks before when I was cast for the part in a school presentation. I was one of the tallest, skinniest, most serious – and shyest – kids in the class. So of course when the roles for this patriotic ensemble were assigned, I was given Abraham Lincoln. My job was to recite -from memory – the Gettysburg address.

My mom – with a pride only mothers possess – helped me locate a black top hat and matching long-tailed coat.

And then she rigged up a brown paper beard.

I got through the school recitation without skipping a beat – though one side of the beard began to sag a bit by the time I got to “we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot hallow – this ground”.

The oration was met with robust applause by teachers and students.

Some of the kids started calling me Abe. I rather liked it but remained in my shell.

And then Mrs. Tobiasson, an older lady who took a liking to me in her English class, asked me if I’d like to reprise my role as the Great Emancipator – at the upcoming community Memorial Day ceremony.

I was scared but said yes.

Mom was now an expert make-up artist and made sure my paper beard was securely attached (we decided against glue).

Then she captured the moment for my descendants by taking my picture. I stood up straight, put one hand inside my coat and stared into the camera with the same serene confidence that Abe had for Alexander Gardner at his D.C. studio on Sunday, November 9, 1863 – 11 days before his speech – and a little over a century before my portrait.

Tolland, Connecticut was a small but proud picturesque town with well-kept shingled homes, stately public buildings and a town green. The Memorial Day ceremony was held on the steps of the new brick library.

It was a large crowd. All the local luminaries were there. So was the school band.

The cloudless sky was a vibrant blue.

When my turn came, I stood and calmly and clearly spoke the words I now knew well.

It was my first public oration. I was 12.

The speech is short – especially when compared to the two hour eloquent pontification delivered by the noted Edward Everett just before the President spoke. Fortunately for me, that’s not the speech we remember and school children recite. It passed immediately into deserved anonymity.

“…our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation …”

Lincoln began his “few appropriate remarks” by placing the Civil War in a historical context – not the Constitution but the earlier Declaration of Independence, which he revered and based his principles on.

The stakes were high.

“…whether that nation … can long endure …”

The war was a test he said – we’ve had many since – of the strength and resilience of the American experiment in self-government. Would we – could we – survive?

“… those who here gave their lives that that nation might live …”

Freedom is never free. Every soldier’s gravesite is an eternal testament to the high cost of our liberty. Those graves were there on that raw November Thursday. Today they surround the globe. Lincoln honored their sacrifice -and explained it – by recognizing it as freedom’s price and well worth paying.

“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”

Lincoln was wrong about his two-minute speech but right about Everett’s long oration. He was also surely right that deeds matter more than words and no deed mattered more than to lay down one’s life for one’s country and for the noble cause of freedom.

That sacrifice must never be forgotten.

“It is for us the living …”

The dead can do no more. They’ve given their “last full measure of devotion”. Those of us who remain and follow must honor the dead by bravely pursuing the “unfinished work” and “the great task remaining before us.”

Being an American isn’t just a lucky break – it’s an unresolved responsibility.

In a free republic there must be no place for cynicism or apathy. Only when we determine to do our duty as a united and free people can we insure “that these dead shall not have died in vain”.

After Joshua had commanded one man from each of the twelve tribes of Israel to take a stone from the Jordan River and build a memorial, he told them to “let this sign be among you, so that when your children ask later saying ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ you can tell them, ‘they remind us’ …” (Joshua 4:6-7).

As I removed my paper beard that afternoon, I knew I’d fallen in love with Lincoln, with his speech and what it meant, and with my country.

I knew I’d never forget.

You remember the famous scene.

Who could forget it?

Not our daughters who stared transfixed while the black -hooded, sharp-beaked and hunch-backed hag slowly disappeared onto the floor.

Dorothy had just thrown a pail of water on the scarecrow who was on fire. The water splashed on the Wicked Witch of the West – a villain if ever there was one.

As the Wizard later observed, the Wicked Witch was “liquidated”.

As she began her descent, the witch cries, “I’m melting! Melting! Oh, what a world! What a world!”

Those are among her final faint words as she meets her highly justified demise.

“What a world!”

Yes it is. And sometimes you and I feel like we’re melting.

It’s hard not to feel a bit burdened, a little anxious, and even slightly discouraged by this present world.

None of us lives on Walden Pond – isolated in an oasis of natural calm. We are here, in this world as it is and there is no reasonable escape from the human condition, long for it as we often do.

Instant global communication puts all of us in a kind of echo chamber. You and I get more news more quickly from more sources than at any time in history.

Most of this news isn’t good. It impacts us. And we often think, “What a world!”

What we witness daily is the desperate groaning of an earth yearning to be set free from the oppressive and corrupting curse of sin. The violence, injustice, hatred and deep divisions on every side join in a cacophony of despair. The prophet says “the earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly” (Isaiah 24:19, KJV).

And in these last days, Isaiah adds, “The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard” (verse 20, KJV).

Is this not what is happening?

Even in our well-ordered American democracy, this year’s presidential campaign has reflected the angry coarsening of our culture. If it is true that Americans get the leaders they deserve, what does the current spectacle tell us about ourselves?

Would any thoughtful citizen not agree that this bombastic and shallow carnival has been beneath the dignity of a great republic? And before we hasten to blame the candidates, let’s remember that our politicians do not create the mood or tone or the values of our country – they reflect them.

The American people have been betrayed by their parties, their government and their leaders. They have become distrustful and cynical. That’s because too many – including Christians – have placed their ultimate trust in the princes of this world and not in the almighty Ruler of the nations.

Disillusionment was inevitable.

The Apostle Paul describes the world’s current situation in his letter to the Romans.

“Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse … all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8: 20, 22, NLT).

Sin is the fatal virus that infected the whole human race and explains the self-destructive path that has so often over-powered man’s most noble pursuits; that has led to man’s inhumanity to man and fueled his darkest passions.

We wrestle, we struggle, we hope and we sigh. So many hearts are heavy with a grief and despair that seem never to lift.

Jesus spoke to his disciples on the night of his betrayal and told them that he wished for them to “have peace”.

And then he said:

“In this world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, NKJV).

Jesus said that trials and difficulties and the swirling controversies of the world would be an ever-present reality. They would affect us “in this world” (emphasis added).

Then Jesus pivots.

“…but be of good cheer …”

On this conjunctive hinge swings the bright door of hope.

In the face of this challenging and disturbing reality – and in spite of it – Jesus tells us to “take courage, be confident, certain, undaunted” (The Amplified Bible).

How in the world can we do that?

Because there is a far greater reality.

“I have overcome the world”.

Jesus has defeated the devil. He has conquered the grave. He reigns triumphant. He’s coming again.

He has won! For all eternity, he has won!

This world is temporarily under the sway of Satan, its evil prince. But you and I as Christians rejoice that Jesus Christ came to “destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3:8) and to “deliver us from this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4).

How then must we live?

We must “live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:12, KJV).

Where do we find the strength to do that?

In the promise of his return.

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13, KJV).

All of fallen creation shares with us the exciting anticipation of his coming.

“But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay” (Romans 8: 20, NLT).

What a day that will be.

Anticipation.

There’s no better way to live in this world.

I bit into a grape not long ago.

I love grapes but to my dismay, this one had a seed in it.

Somehow, in my haste, I had missed the label on the package. I would never have purchased grapes with seeds.

Seeds spoil the succulent fun.

Of course, where would we be without them? There would be no grapes, or apples or any other fruit or vegetable without seeds. I still vividly remember buying vegetable seeds for my dad’s garden when I was a kid in Connecticut.

Dad, who didn’t know what a small garden was, would have great ambitions every planting season. After careful study, he picked out the seed packages he wanted and he knew the brand names. I marveled at his attention to detail; his encyclopedic knowledge of all the instructions.

Sometimes he’d ask me to pick them up at the store and he was always very specific.

I figured what’s the difference?

I remember the luscious and colorful squash, corn or carrots pictured on the outside of the package in all their glory. But the seeds were disappointing and never looked like much. When harvest time came it was from those tiny inconspicuous seeds that a bountiful and beautiful garden, cultivated with deliberate care and blessed with the rain and sun from above, had grown.

It was another valuable agricultural lesson I learned in spite of my rather apathetic disposition toward gardening.

Beth and I were in Atlanta recently attending the Haggai Institute Global Summit. What an exciting event. Recognized Christian leaders from around the world had converged to share the Haggai Experience. These men and women had taken Haggai’s leadership training for evangelism.

They didn’t resign their professions but instead had returned to their native lands – and their occupations – and joyfully shared the Gospel with their countrymen – in their own language and culture.

This is a model of global evangelism unmatched in power and effectiveness anywhere in the world.

While much of the third world closes its doors to western missionaries, Haggai Institute bypasses visas, lengthy language courses and cultural acclimations to take the love of Jesus Christ to unexpected and previously unreached places.

Haggai’s leaders are trusted because they are not strangers from away – they are one with those they reach.

Whether it is an artist in China, an environmentalist in Indonesia, a scientist in Bulgaria, a doctor fighting AIDS in Nigeria, or a businesswoman helping the victims of war in Ukraine, the leaders of Haggai Institute are making this world a better place – and sharing the Gospel while they’re doing it.

Never has there been a greater need. Never has there been a more exciting opportunity.

Since 1969, Haggai Institute has prepared nearly 100,000 men and women from 188 nations to present the Gospel to those who have yet to hear that God loves them so much that he sent his Son to die for them.

The leader of our Mandarin ministry in China, a gifted young man named Ezekiel Tan, shared a quote with us in Atlanta:

“You can count the number of seeds in an apple but you can never count the number of apples in a seed.”

Jesus told us that the “kingdom of God cometh not with observation” (Luke 17:20, KJV). There are often no visible signs of God’s work – no news broadcasts or prime-time specials. Much of what God does in this world begins in unremarkable and small ways. It’s often undercover and unnoticed.

A recent report reveals that there may be close to one million Christians worshipping in secret in Iran.

God’s kingdom grows and expands and it advances not through geopolitical shifts or military conquest but through the daily dedication of the disciples of Jesus and their quiet deeds of love and kindness.

When he described God’s kingdom, Jesus compared it to a mustard seed.

“It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants”, he said. “It grows into a tree and birds come and make nests in its branches” (Matthew 13: 32, NLT).

The influence of God’s kingdom may not be easily observed or loudly lauded in a world reeling from evil and drenched in suffering, but its transformative power is making the lives of millions better.

God does great things from tiny seeds.

There is no stopping the power of God. There is no thwarting the purposes of God. There is no killing the love of God. There is no defeating the kingdom of God. The gates of hell shall never prevail against it.

Christianity had to go worldwide. It had no choice.

This was its founding charter, its far-flung vision and its forging mission. Jesus made this crystal clear to his first followers on the Galilean mount of his ascension.

Before God brings the curtain down on this fallen planet, purges it with fire and makes all things gloriously new, Christ’s Great Commission will first be fulfilled. The Good News must be preached to all nations (Mark 13:10).

The story must be told.

Through ministries like Haggai Institute and its global leaders, this divine mission could be achieved in our lifetime.

May we always remember that in this great enterprise, no one can count the number of apples in a single seed.