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What a Pastor Should Tell His People About This Election

What a Pastor Should Tell His People About This Election

Many say there has never been such an election as this.

Whether that’s the case or not depends on when you lived. John Adams felt that if the country elected Thomas Jefferson as President, it was all over. Much of the country felt in 1860 that if Abraham Lincoln was elected, the nation could not survive. It almost didn’t. And throughout FDR’s four terms, people spoke of him in the bitterest of ways, calling him a dictator, saying whoever assassinated him was doing the nation a favor.

We’ve always had tough elections and flawed candidates.

And now—in 2016—we have the latest incarnation of flawed candidates: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

An evangelist friend said this week that he finds both candidates repulsive. He plans, however, “to hold my nose and cast my vote” on November 8.

Clinton and Trump generate more negative responses than positive. Clearly, the country wants neither in the Oval Office. But it’s about to be stuck with one. For four long years.

Anyone who has spent any time on social media throughout this campaign knows how dangerous it is to speak out, supporting either candidate. The hate-mongers on the other side—those who see their point of view as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but—are quick to react. Try to introduce a sane note into the discussion and both sides attack. I’ve almost quit trying, but today, October 20, will try one last stab at it.

Subject: “What pastors can say to their people regarding this election, even though they must not and should not declare for a candidate.”

Why not go public with one’s choice? Therein lies a story.

My dad was in his 80s and was visiting in the church my brother pastored. A well-known evangelist was preaching, one we all liked a great deal. When he got up to preach, the guest spent a good 10 minutes telling jokes and put-downs about President Clinton, who was in office at that time. Dad was offended.

Dad, the coal miner and lifelong union member—which in most cases made him a Democrat—said to Ron and me, “What if a lost person in the congregation was offended by the preacher’s remarks because he liked Clinton? Because of this bit of foolishness by the preacher, this fellow hardens his heart and goes out into eternity lost! Where is the sense in that?”