Election Fatigue?

In Ephesians 5, we see a passage that can serve to remind us of our responsibility to shine Christ's
light and to address the darkness we encounter:
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),
10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

This Scripture provides a clear contrast between light and darkness - if we are walking in the light, then we can know what is acceptable to the Lord; if we are seeking what pleases Him, that places us in the light.  We are called to renounce darkness - and the Bible presents clear definition of what that means.  Problem is, the lines have become blurred and behavior that has been deemed unacceptable is now acceptable.  We have to recognize the absolutes of the Scriptures and adhere to them.

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Paul related this strong word of exhortation to Timothy in the book of 2nd Timothy, chapter 4:
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

Do you have election fatigue yet?  The hits just keep on coming this week, as Donald Trump wages war against the Republican Party, of whom he is the nominee, as well as his opponent, Hillary Clinton, who has been hit with a barrage of leaked e-mails from WikiLeaks about the inner workings of her campaign.  Some of the content includes disparaging comments about Catholics and evangelicals from people associated with the campaign, according to comments from Tony Perkins, of FRC Action, a partner of the Family Research Council

Trump, meanwhile, is facing the ire of many in the evangelical community, which has some prominent leaders who are walking a tightrobe by supporting the candidate, even though the leaked audio tape reflecting disgusting sexual language has presented a huge problem among evangelicals.

But, in a broader sense, even before the tape release last Friday, evangelical pastors had rather tepid support for the billionaire.

Christianity Today reported on a LifeWay Research poll taken August 22 - September 16, which showed that 44% of evangelical senior pastors remained undecided last month about which candidate to vote for. 38% indicated they would vote for Trump, with 9% planning to vote for Clinton. 4% favored Gary Johnson.

94% of those surveyed believe that voting is a Christian duty.

A new Barna Group poll offers some insight into support of the faith community.  In this poll, Trump leads Clinton among evangelicals - 55% to 2.  Among non-evangelical born again Christians, he leads 49-31%. Adults who claim to have a biblical worldview break 57 to 30% for Trump.   Granted, these stats are from mid-September and were announced this past Monday.

George Barna, founder of the organization who served as a special analyst on the project, said:

“Although Trump has a huge lead over Clinton among evangelicals, the most noteworthy finding in this regard is that more than four out of ten evangelicals currently refuse to vote for either of those two candidates. Nearly three out of ten are presently undecided, making them the largest block of undecided votes still up for grabs. One out of eight evangelicals plan to protest the quality of the major party candidates by voting for a third-party or independent candidate. This behavior by evangelicals is unique over the course of the last nine election cycles.”

He said that if the election were to be held today, the evangelical vote would be at least 20 percentage points lower than that of evangelicals for the Republican candidate in each of the last five elections.

How will Trump's lewd tapes affect the Christian vote? A survey released Tuesday by Public Religion Research Institute, which conducted a poll with The Atlantic Survey October 5-9 shows, according to Religion News Service shows that Trump's support "has eroded among female voters and most religious groups during the past week."

The story reports that "...white evangelical Protestants show no statistically significant change in their willingness to vote for Trump, with 65 percent of them in his camp."

It goes on to say: "That contrasts with white Catholics..., for example, who are defecting from the Republican presidential nominee. They went for Trump over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, 56 percent to 31 percent, in a survey concluded on Oct. 2. In this latest survey, white Catholics reversed themselves, favoring Clinton over Trump, 46 percent to 42 percent."

There is so much more to cover here about the Presidential campaign and the role of evangelicals. Just this week, two Christian publications have published strong editorials regarding opposition to Mr. Trump: Christianity Today and WORLD, which has called for Trump to withdraw from the race.

Noted Bible teacher Beth Moore issued four tweets earlier this week that appeared to address the unacceptable Trump comments. The content included:

"Try to absorb how acceptable the disesteem and objectifying of women has been when some Christian leaders don't think it's that big a deal."

That was followed by: "I'm one among many women sexually abused, misused, stared down, heckled, talked naughty to. Like we liked it. We didn't. We're tired of it."

Earlier today, Beth Moore went back to Twitter to make plain that she was not endorsing a candidate.

First tweet: "1/2 Be aware that almost every word out of a leader's mouth right now is being twisted, turned & taken out of context for political agendas.

The second: "2/2 My tweets on 10/9/16 had 1 purpose: to speak up for sexually abused women who feel voiceless. I do not endorse/support either candidate."

She added in another tweet: "My whole ministry life is serving Jesus thru serving women. To expect me not to speak up in their behalf is like expecting a dog not to bark"

I know, the question that many are struggling with is: is it right for a Christian condemn Trump's behavior and still vote for him?   In other words, does voting equate to endorsing personal behavior? And, evangelicals are all over the map on these issues.  At the minimum, this incident should remind us that a role of the Church is to maintain a bold witness about sexual immorality, because it is displeasing to God.  We should be very strong to condemn all forms of inappropriate words and actions and we should take every opportunity to reflect holiness in our own speech and behavior.

And, it's time, I think, for us to take stock of the role of the body of Christ in the world today.  I have heard it said that the reason that we have two unacceptable candidates to many Christians today is a result of the failure of the church to be a witness to the world.  Think about that - we are place here in a position to influence with truth and power, so when we see corruption and departure from Biblical ideals, perhaps we do need to look at ourselves and evaluate how compelling we have been in our witness.

One way we can do that, I believe, is to be involved in the political process - not looking to political leaders for our salvation, but to exert strong influence on decisions that affect the well-being of our society and the practice of our faith.