Who is this man?
- A man with a middle eastern name.
- Considered an outsider by many in his own country.
- There is a long span of his life for which there is no public record and of which we know nothing about. What is he hiding?
- He has often been critical of his own country. He spent a good portion of his childhood abroad exposed to foreign customs.
- It is known he spent his childhood in a country that today is known to be a hotbed of extremism, and credible reports place him in what is now a known where he first made contact with one of his close associates terrorist State. The oft repeated excuse that this happened centuries before those places became to be associated with terrorism is not the point (I don’t care about a washed out terrorist State): the point is that this man has never given a full account of what he was doing in these places.
- It is well known he palled around with shady characters and has never given a public explanation of this or of the full extent of his associations even when publicly confronted about them.
- Serious questions about his true religious beliefs and conduct have been raised. He’s spoken harshly about respected conservative religious leaders and has had a longstanding relationship with an incendiary preacher. Some religious people have even gone as far to suggest he might actually be anagent of the devil.
- Critics have repeatedly belittled his young age, very thin resume, lack of executive experience and remarkably short public record.
- Although he has surprising popular appeal, many observers have been repelled by what they perceive as misplaced adulation from the crowds. In fact some people have publicly confronted him about this but he has remained completely unapologetic.
- He admittedly has a way with words but many of his ideas could be considered subversive and a corrupt influence on the nation. He’s often been accused of not using plain language when expressing his positions. In a famous example, when publicly asked to define his position on taxes, he equivocated and tried to have it both ways.
The man in question is Jesus of Nazareth, known and adored by millions as Jesus the Christ.
If you are a committed Christian like I am (full disclosure: I am an Evangelical Christian), you are probably uncomfortable with someone even attempting to compare any mere human being (no matter how remarkable or special) to Jesus Christ. Let me first assure you this is not my intent here.
The point I am trying to make is that smears and innuendo have routinely been applied throughout history to those people who have been agents of change in our society, and clearly, even Jesus Himself didn’t escape this treatment. The origin of these smears is usually the same: a combination of fear, ignorance, prejudice and sometimes hatred.
For this reason, it doesn’t completely surprise me that a subterranean campaign of smears, prejudice and hatred are taking place in the current US presidential election.
What disheartens me as a committed Evangelical is that it appears that many other committed Evangelicals appear to be at least silent participants in this campaign.
I was born and raised in Mexico. I’m a fourth generation Evangelical, a tiny minority in an overwhelmingly Catholic country, and I owe this fact to the dedication of a group of American Christian missionaries that followed God’s calling to preach the Gospel in the mountains of Michoacan and Guerrero in Mexico, where they reached my Great Grand Parents. The Gospel (the Good News) they brought was 100% grounded in the Bible and in a nut shell was a whole message of redemption by God’s Grace, with a strong emphasis in living righteously and pursuing a better life through education and hard work. This same message was planted in my life at an early age and was a guiding light through my formative years. It taught to love my God with all my strength and to love my neighbor like I love myself. For me this was a breath of fresh air among a sea of blind religious tradition, ignorance and prejudice all around me.
It especially pains me to realize many years later (and after having lived and worked –legally- in the United States for 10 years) that much of the ignorance, prejudice and hatred that I’m seeing in this Presidential campaign is coming from some Evangelicals (and I still have a hard time believing this, having met scores of committed and loving Christians in the United States). For the Love of God. For the sake of the Church and for the sake of America, This. Has. Got. To. Stop.
As an Evangelical I will not tell you who to vote for (although I clearly could offer some ideas of what candidate I consider best prepared for these tough times in America). What I WILL ask you is to think and pray and examine your heart next time you receive an email full of innuendo or smears and you are tempted to hit send.
God Bless.