Before I start this article let me ask you a couple of questions.
Q1: If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis; would you recommend that she have an abortion?
Q2: It is time to elect the world leader, and your vote counts.
Here are the facts about the three leading candidates:
Candidate A: Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.
Candidate B: He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.
Candidate C: He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and hasn't had any extramarital affairs.
Which of these candidates would be your choice?
“I am sending you like lambs into a pack of wolves. So be as wise as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)
Have you ever had a conversation that you can recall years afterwards like it happened yesterday? I recall chatting with a fellow Australian before a trip to America. The comment I recall them making was why would you want to go there? They went on to make unflattering comments about Trumps character.
Even at that point I questioned them about why they were more concerned about his personality than what he had achieved as the President.
As an Australian I feel privileged being able to look at what is happening from an outsiders point of view.
My eyes were already fairly open to who he was as president versus the person the media portrays. I was still surprised when I came across this interview between Eric Metaxis and Gene Ho. Gene was someone who in his own words was not religious, a liberal, and a democrat voter. How does a man go from a life like that to writing a book called Trumpography (How biblical principals paved the way to the American Presidency)? Trump hired him as his official press photographer for his 2016 campaign.
Gene got to see Trump around the clock in public and in private and he credits the Trump he saw behind the scenes as instrumental in him now having a relationship with God. It's none of my business whether Trump is a Christian or not but he must be doing something right if he can help someone living a life away from God turn there life to God.
So what is an Aussie doing writing about American politics? Yes I found the interview interesting because I am also a photographer but I'm writing this article because we are at war.
The coming American Presidential election isn't about blue or red, Republican or Democrat it's about the continuation or the end of the American Experiment.
The American Experiment? Yes the experiment that started when the pilgrims escaped the tyranny of Britain to start over as free men and women.
As an Australian currently living in the jurisdiction of a Premier who has this year suspended democracy I've now had some first hand experience in this regard. I've seen too many videos in the last few weeks of my fellow citizens being questioned by police. Charged by police and even threatened with being held in jail for months because they dared to question what he is doing in a public forum. Since starting to write this I’ve now also seen footage of the police threatening to arrest the press.
America started despite their faults and failings by putting God first.
There is a quote etched into a monument of the daughters of the American revolution across the road from the Plymouth rock in America that reads “They brought up their families in sturdy virtue and a living faith in God without which nations perish”
The birth of Victoria was not much different. Charles Joseph La Trobe I discovered recently had similar convictions. I wonder what the first Governor of Victoria would have to say about what is happening now. John Newton and William Wilberforce were friends of his father.
The result of the November American Presidential election won't instantly alter my fellow Australians lives. It could have a cataclysmic shift in life as we know it in the months and years to follow depending on who wins.
Looking at both countries though we have our unique differences I can see that democracy hangs in the balance. The prosperity and freedoms we have known is something we cannot take for granted. Members of my family and friends that are closer than some of my family have sacrificed too much for us to allow evil to win.
I am not a Christian because I believe blindly there is a God. I'm a Christian because I've researched not only the evidence for Christianity but also other religions.
The answers to the earlier questions;
Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt
Candidate B is Winston Churchill
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler
So next time you vote regardless of where in the world you are reading this from I urge you to look past the media’s representation of the candidate and research for yourself who they really are and what they stand for. Between now and then exercise the freedoms you do have and let your current elected officials (whether you voted for them or not) know how you would like things run and why.
The answer to the abortion question - if you said yes, you just killed Beethoven.
“Faith that doesn't lead us to do good deeds is all alone and dead!” (James 2:17)
Next Time: The under appreciated genius of C.S. Lewis