For the past few days I’ve been
reading the responses to the election; they have ranged from arrogant to angry
to anguished. I want to avoid each of
these emotions as I add my bit.
I am an evangelical; more important,
I have spent a lot of time studying about and occasionally writing about
evangelicals (and their intense cousins the fundamentalists). Donald Trump was not the evangelical
candidate; too many evangelicals are ardent liberals for that claim to stick. In fact, I recall my old friend Win Corduan suggesting
evangelical theology is the only legitimate foundation for liberal politics.
God did not stuff the American
ballot box on Tuesday. Surely God could
have avoided the hubbub over the popular vote versus the electoral vote. (That
may be “bad theology” but surely the suggestion God interferes with our
elections in ways the Russians can only dream of is worse theology.)
The campaign to get the designated
electors to switch votes bothers me. Do
we really want to make heroes out of men and women who break their word,
violate the pledge they have made? Given
the riots led by Clinton supporters we’ve already seen, do you think Trump
supporters will sit back and take it when they are robbed of their legitimate
win? (“Legitimate” because that’s the way the system works.)
The existence of the Electoral
College does not mean “the fix is in,” unless you charge Hamilton, Madison, and
others who crafted the Constitution with trying to undermine democracy. What happened Tuesday has happened only three
times in our history (I’m not counting the Jackson/J.Q. Adams election because
it was more complicated). Two of those
times have been in this century, in 2000 and in 2016, which shows how deeply
divided our nation is. In the century
and a quarter since Cleveland (who won the popular vote) lost to Harrison (who
won the electoral vote), the Constitution has been amended twelve times. Yet, efforts to abolish the Electoral College
gained little traction during those years, years when Democrats—three-time
losers in the matter—dominated Congress. Could the best minds, both Democrat
and Republican, believe this Constitutional quirk is still valid?
May those sowing seeds of peace and
hope see an abundant harvest.
