At This Point...

Thanks for reading this.  Whether on-line or in print, I sincerely appreciate it.  There’s an old supposedly Chinese saying, “May you live in interesting times.”  One problem though – there’s no known Chinese saying like that.  The closest one is actually from a 17^th Century Chinese short story -- “Better to be a dog in a peaceful time, than to be a man in a chaotic period."    The way things are nowadays, even a dog’s outta luck.

Last week, I was watching the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, when he described the current Middle Eastern refugee crisis as a “disaster of Biblical proportions." Clapper went on to say that he worries about the background of some of those fleeing Iraq and Syria.  I’ll take, “What Can Go Wrong With That?” for 10,000 Alex. These times are not just interesting, they’re downright chaotic.   Sadly though, most Americans are simply not interested.

One of the reasons I‘m thankful you’re reading this – it shows you’re concerned.  So many of our fellow countrymen (and millions of the illegals living here), just don’t care enough about America to stay informed.  I offer Obama’s reelection and Hillary’s candidacy as sad proof of our uninformed masses. 

This brings me to a recent exchange between Dr. Ben Carson and Donald Trump.  Last week, Carson was asked by a reporter how he was different from Trump.  "Probably the biggest thing -- I've realized where my success has come from and I don't in anyway deny my faith in God."  Carson continued to cite what he said was one of his favorite Bible verses, "By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life and that's a very big part of who I am. I don't get that impression with [Trump] him -- Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't get that."

Aside from the fact that Dr. Carson demonstrated it’s hard to humbly discuss one’s own humility, it’s not clear to me that anyone who believes they’re the one most qualified to assume the highest office in the most powerful nation in the world could list humility as one of their foremost attributes.  Granted, he was just answering their question.   I must agree with Dr. Carson – I don’t get that impression of Trump either.  Maybe that’s why Trump is so refreshing.

Carson is obviously a pious man, but he certainly violated the Eleventh Commandment as proclaimed by Ronald Reagan -- our savior from the Carter years.  As “Saint Reagan” declared, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”  Perhaps especially when talking about your own humility.  The guiding principle for these interesting and difficult times needs to be that espoused by the late William F. Buckley, Jr.  Buckley said we should nominate, "the rightward-most viable candidate."

 Consider now the last seven years under the self-professed Christian and Constitution scholar Barrack Obama.  Christians are being attacked all over the world – physically in the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere, politically in the US and Europe.  Islamic countries are so bad now that Muslims don’t even want to live in them.  The Constitution has been trashed to the point that it’s not even worth the parchment it was written on.  And what is our current National Security Strategy – the Obama Doctrine?  Senator Ron Johnson called it, “Peace through withdrawal.”  I’d call it, “Losing from behind.”

Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, said it this way, “There is a palpable feeling among many Christians (as well as non-Christians) that our nation has been in a downward death spiral during the last seven years of President Obama’s administration.  Some feel that the 2016 election may be the last opportunity to reverse that trend...Trump, they believe, is the only candidate with the leadership skills necessary to lead us out of that mess.”

So why Trump? Consider this humble proclamation by The Donald, “We’ll win so much if I’m elected you’ll get bored with winning!”  That’s my kind of boredom.  Trump also said people are shocked when they found out he’s protestant. "I am Presbyterian. And I go to church and I love God and I love my church."  Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t.  If I may quote Hillary for a moment, “At this point, what difference does it make?”

Truthfully, any of the Republicans would be great, Christian or not.  As Pastor Jeffress also said, “Evangelicals no longer require their president to be one of them; they just want a president who doesn't hate them.”

This column appears in The Upson Beacon, 16 SEP 2015 published in Upson County, GA.