Today I’d like to talk a little about the political climate in 2016; I’d like to invite you into a more reasonable conversation. In particular I’d like to engage those readers who consider themselves to be Christian, and I want to challenge the way you’re dealing with this election. I want to cause some “taking pause,” and hopefully a little discomfort. I want to get inside your heads and shake things up enough so that you’re going to have to think, and then rethink.

For some reason many of you believe it’s okay to jump in the muck with everyone else, and to start throwing around insults… and accusations… and half-truths… and defamation… and rumors, and to cast unreasonably harsh aspersions at people you disagree with politically.

Redirection:

I had intended to post some thoughts today about this photograph of my grandchildren, David and Beks, looking out at a rainbow Wednesday afternoon. Rainbows are a symbol of hope and promise, God’s visual representation of renewed covenant.

My daughter, Naomi, has a gifted eye for grabbing the image that tells the story; her pictures invite the viewer in. I may still write something about the children excitedly looking at the beautiful rainbow, this post could still possibly go that way. Believe me, if there’s ever a need for rainbows, butterflies, unicorns, and puppy-dogs then that time is now.

But there’s another image here that begs some conversation. I only took the picture because I heard the yard waste truck coming up the street and I wanted to show Rebekah what a big pile of stuff I’d hauled out of the back yard. It was only later that I noticed the story.

Do you see what I’m talking about? A little later I grabbed a picture of the front of our house from the driveway, but only because I liked the way the light had dropped on the front door frame. I didn’t intend to use either one of the images in a blog.

But now – I’m sure you see it too – it occurs to me that they are both one hundred percent accurate photographs of my house, taken Thursday afternoon, with no intention of being deceptive, or pushing some agenda, or trying to make you think one way or the other about Maul Hall.

But look! Look at the first image and you really can’t see much of the house because it’s hidden behind a huge pile of yard trash. Should we look at the house? Or should we look at the trash? Or, closer to the point, should we only look at the house through the pile of trash? Or is it okay to take a look at the house from the driveway? Can we take our eyes off the trash for a minute and just take a square look at the house?

Raking up the muck!

My question here, my plea, is could we possibly push aside the big piles of trash heaped up in front of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton? Could we take a look at who they are as American people, what their platforms say about their intentions, and how each one of them might respond to the responsibilities and the powers that come with office of POTUS? Could we then compare those impressions with our take on the candidates representing the Libertarians, the Green Party, and others? And could we then base our determination of who will be the next president on a clear view, absent the big piles of steaming, smelly, trash?

It’s just a thought. Because those children looking out at the rainbow (Ah, I knew they’d find their way back into this post…) are going to be living in this proud land of freedom, opportunity, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and if the politicians keep raking up muck and slinging it around in such a frenzy of cynicism and distortion and hatred, then eventually it’s going to get all over my grandkids’ rainbow.

And believe me, you really don’t want to be the one caught smearing crap muck on my grandkids’ rainbow.

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. – Genesis 9:12-13

– DEREK