Some Primary Season Perspective
It’s primary season. I get pulled into the theater of it all, myself. It likely appeals to the same spot in the human heart that The Bachelor or Big Brother does for millions of women. There’s something cathartic in the distraction of someone else being the bad guy to someone else’s good guy. Or at least seemingly cathartic.
And then there is the actual concern of who will win the Republican nomination and, hopefully, defeat President Biden in the general election and govern the executive branch of our federal government. That matters. That man will have tremendous power over our federal institutions, most specifically our armed forces, and will also be the face of the flawed but only viable, organized opposition to the Left in our country: the Republican Party. We should be thoughtful, serious, and prayerful about whom that will be.
But this isn’t a candidate advocacy piece. This is a reminder to those in my own tribe, those who know the secular Left and the LGBTQ revolution are moral acid and want both spiritual and political reformation. We’re right about the Left, about wokeness, about the sexual revolution and feminism. And yet the spectacle of these big election seasons can draw a higher portion of our attention than they actually merit. Their allure is incommensurate to their impact on the people we are most responsible for. President Biden has affected my children’s lives, but less than my own sins have. A President DeSantis or President Trump or President Scott would have effect on them, but less than my prayers or Bible reading will have. And yet when I open Twitter or a news site or listen to talk radio I can sometimes feel more spark and electricity in my soul than when I pray or fight my sin or read Scripture. And among my kind, non-woke Christian men, my read is that I’m not atypical in that.
Who wins the Republican nomination matters, and it should matter to you. It should matter more to you than who wins the World Series (it’ll be the Marlins) or the Super Bowl (Dolphins). It should matter more to you than whether Christopher Nolan gets his groove back. Perhaps it should it matter even more to you than interest rates or the potential downsides of AI. But it should not matter more to you than regular Christian obedience to God in your marriage and your fatherhood, in your job and your relationship to your neighbors. You know, the ones right next door.
I don’t know who my father supported in any Republican primary. But I do know his favorite Bible stories and hymns. I know how to get him really going in a conversation about Jesus, and I know he’s the one I’ll call if I ever need a pep talk on normal Christian living. And I know he’s raised 5 Christian children who now between them have 18 kids themselves, all being raised in Bible-believing churches.
Maybe he would’ve preferred Pat Robertson to George H.W. Bush in 1988. Maybe Alan Keyes in 2000. I don’t know.
But I’m glad with what I do know.