If He Wins Again: Some Friendly Advice for Those Depending on Trump to Lose

I’ve never voted for a person who actually won the Presidential race.

I didn’t vote for Barack Obama in 2008 or 2012, and I didn’t vote for Donald Trump, either.

So, I’m speaking as a person who understands the disappointment of losing an election:

It seems as though some of my fellow Americans are setting themselves up to be VERY disappointed in 2020. 

Just a few weeks ago, John Pavlovitz posted an article called “If He Wins Again,” in which he made some pretty dire predictions regarding the Fate of the World if Trump were allowed to keep the Office.

Pavlovitze wrote:

“He can’t win again.

That isn’t an option.

It simply cannot be allowed.

If he wins again, November 2016 will seem relatively uneventful; a partly cloudy day in advance of a Category 5 hurricane.”

Wow. That’s a lot of expectation riding on one night of votes for one political race in one country, isn’t it?

And–yet–I know how John Pavlovitz feels.   I remember when all of my friends and family were convinced that Barack Obama was starting race wars on purpose and signing Executive Orders at an unprecedented rate on his way to crowning himself King.

And yet somehow–impossibly!–he ended up winning his second term with even MORE votes than he received the first time around!

We were blindsided and dumbfounded!  HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?!

None of us could believe our fellow Americans had willingly surrendered the entire country to a Tyrant.

I know what it’s like to spend four years telling yourself the entire world is falling apart because of the activity of a single man in Washington…and then watching that same man be sworn in again. 

This is an honest confession from someone who felt all the anger and shame and fear that John Pavlovitz’s followers have the potential to feel, if they have to watch the Orange Man take another victory.

So, this is just a short, friendly warning to anyone who sees the next election as their only hope of Salvation from Evil Incarnate:

Be careful.

Doomsday prophecies only make you look foolish when the emotions settle down and the earth keeps spinning after all...

I’m not saying Trump is going to be re-elected.  I’m just saying, some of us need to start preparing for the possibility now…because I genuinely don’t want anyone to harm themselves or others in the midst of extreme shock.

No one thought Trump would win in 2016 (myself included), and some of the resulting reactions were memorable:

 

So, I’m simply hoping we can begin to deal with these Big Feelings before November gets here, in smaller bursts instead of one big “hurricane” (to use Pavlovitz’s analogy).

Maybe we can allow God to examine our hearts ahead of the election and make sure our priorities are in the right order…

Black Men Taught Beth Moore to “Say Less”

If you’re familiar with the controversy John MacArthur generated a few months ago by telling Beth Moore to “Go Home,” then you might be interested to know that Beth herself associates MLK Day with “being quieter.”

In fact, she told her Twitter followers that it was two black men who taught her to “say less” because the “white folks’ talk is cheap.”

My commentary on her tweet (and the original post) is below:

I don’t expect that I’ll get a response on Twitter. You can see I have 16 notifications at the bottom because I basically never log on. (I’m too busy staying at home, teaching my kids and taking care of my household. 😉 )

But, the point is, there’s a double standard here in which white men are treated as oppressors who need to be fought against, but the words of black men are given a certain respect and submission that would normally make a Feminist cringe.

Telling a woman she needs to “Say less?!”

Telling an entire race of people that their “talk is cheap” and unneeded in certain areas, on certain days?

You can only get away with that if you’ve already laid a healthy foundation of Critical Theory. 

What’s Critical Theory, you ask?  Well, it’s complicated. But one of the points Critical Theorists often argue is that marginalized people have a special insight, thanks to their experience with Injustice, which the Oppressor group cannot fully understand.

It didn’t come from the Bible. But, philosophers and Activists have spent enough decades weaving the ugly tentacles of Critical Theory through Christian culture that many people can’t tell the difference between it and God’s Word anymore.

If you’d like to learn more about Critical Theory, please dive into Neil Schenvi’s work. (You can start here: https://shenviapologetics.com/intro-to-critical-theory/)