Happy New Year of the Snake (again)

Although it is still December 31 here in the U.S., rather than making this post at around 5:30 a.m., as I normally do, I am posting it at 9:00 (CST). This later time is midnight, the beginning of 2025, in Japan where I lived for so long. So it is now the Year of the Snake there, the same as in 2013.*¹  

People who are born in the Year of the Snake have positive character traits according to the Japanese (Chinese) zodiac. They are “deep thinkers, speak very little, and possess tremendous wisdom. They are fortunate in money matters and will always be able to obtain it.”*²

June and I are delighted to be expecting our third great-grandchild in May. We hope she will have the characteristics associated with those noted in the previous paragraph. Of course, there are also a few negative characteristics associated with each zodiac sign, so she will have to work to overcome those.

Consider what has happened in the Year of the Snake previously. While the snake does not have the strong negative connotations in Japan/China as it does in the West, awful things happened in the world in the Year of the Snake four times in the first half of the twentieth century.

The first Year of the Snake in the 1900s was in 1905. The Russo-Japanese War, which began in 1904, ended in a victory for Japan in September 1905. That war, fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan, resulted in 130,000 (or more) deaths, about 2/3 of them Japanese. 

Twelve years later, in 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and became embroiled in what was called the Great War then and World War I later.  As many as 8,000,000 soldiers and 13 million civilians died as a result of that war, although U.S. deaths were fewer than 120,000.

The next Year of the Snake was 1929. On October 29^th of that year, the Wall Street Crash marked the beginning of the worldwide Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average did not return to its peak close of September 1929 until November 1954. 

And then in 1941, twelve years later, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7 occurred. The next day President Roosevelt called that a “date which will live in infamy,” and the U.S. declared war on Japan. There were at least 60 million deaths in that war, about 3/4 of them civilians.*³

Fortunately, the years 1953, 1965, 1977, and 1989 were years with no notably horrific world events. But the first Year of the Snake in this century, 2001, was certainly a traumatic one for the U.S.

2025 will be a different sort of “year of the snake” in the U.S. “Snake in the grass” is a common English expression. Since in Japan snakes do not have a “bad” reputation, though, there is no similar Japanese phrase. A Japanese website says the English idiom means “an enemy disguised as a friend,” or “someone you can’t trust.”

On January 20, the 47^th POTUS will be inaugurated. While I am generally careful not to use unkind, pejorative language, I am only one among many who think that he and several of his Cabinet nominees can be legitimately characterized as “snakes in the grass.”

Candace Osmond is a “grammarist writer,” and she says (here) that a “snake in the grass” personality type refers to “someone who appears friendly and likable on the surface but has hidden agendas and will do anything to get what they want. They usually manipulate and deceive others to achieve their goals.”

Ms. Osmond gives no examples, but sadly, it seems hard to deny that the incoming President clearly exhibits that sort of personality, and some if not many of his nominees seem to have that trait also.

So, I wish you all the very best in the Year of the Snake, but I also urge you who are U.S. citizens to be careful not to be deceived by the “snakes in the grass” who will constitute what may well be a kakistocracy, that is, “a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.”

Since snakes repeatedly shed their skins, they are often seen as a symbol of regeneration in Japan. May this Year of the Snake be the beginning of the regeneration of good government here in the U.S.!

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*¹ I have written this article with little overlap to what I said in the post with the same name I made that year. Some of you may want to read that post (here) since many of you were not on my Thinking Friends mailing list then. The only comments on that post were from Craig Dempsey and Anton Jacobs, who are two of the three or four TFs who have commented most often over the past twelve years, and I much appreciate their many meaningful, thought-provoking comments.

*² From “The Twelve Signs of the Japanese Zodiac,” posted by Ms. Namiko Abe in June 2024 at this link. That article gives an explanation of all twelve of the animals included in the zodiac cycle in Japan. The same zodiac is used in China where the traditional lunar calendar is used, so the Chinese New Year won’t begin until January 29.

*³ These statistics come from the website of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans (see here). According to that source, the number of U.S. WWII deaths was under 420,000.

Revelation: The Most Misunderstood Book in the Bible

Just over 50 years ago, Vernard Eller, the eminent Anabaptist scholar, published a book titled The Most Revealing Book in the Bible. It was, of course, about the Book of Revelation. While that is doubtlessly true, I am calling Revelation the most misunderstood book in the Bible.*¹  

The Book of Revelation was the discussion topic of Great Books KC at its monthly meeting on December 6. That discussion group started in 2004, and I introduced it in a blog post for the first time in October 2014 (see here).

Although I attended regularly for many years, last month I attended Great Books KC again for the first time since last December. They have a “rule” that each year some book of the Bible will be discussed, and last year that book was the Old Testament book of Job.

Especially since this year’s selected book of the Bible was Revelation, I made the effort to drive down to the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library to attend and take an active part in the discussion of that last book of the Bible, which is so often misunderstood and misused.

While some of the 13 attendees (most of whom participated via Zoom) had a fairly good understanding of Revelation, several were clearly perplexed by it and some seemed to have a serious misunderstanding, which is seemingly true of the general public.

Misunderstanding of Revelation was augmented by Hal Lindsey, who died last month, two days after his 95^th birthday. Most of you recognize his name and remember him as the author of The Late Great Planet Earth (1970).

Lindsey’s book sold more than 10 million copies before the end of the 1970s, becoming the best-selling nonfiction book of the decade. By this and his later books, Lindsey “brought the once-obscure theology of dispensationalist premillennialism into the mainstream.”

Moreover, “Lindsey’s books demonstrated an incredible appetite for apocalyptic speculation … and paved the way for many other prophecy writers, including Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins, and Joel Rosenberg …. introducing wide audiences to the concepts of the Rapture, the Antichrist, and the mark of the beast.”*² 

In March 2015, nearly ten years ago, I made a blog post titled “Do You Believe in the Rapture.” Although I did not mention Revelation, the widespread belief in what dispensationalist Christians call the Rapture is based on a literal interpretation of Revelation and, to a lesser degree, on a few other parts of the Bible.*³  

Belief in the Rapture is one of the major misinterpretations of Revelation that has been held by many Christians since the early part of the 20^th century, and especially since Lindsey’s 1970 book.

In my remarks at the Great Books KC December meeting, I emphasized the following points, which I am now sharing briefly.

** Revelation was written primarily for the Jesus-followers who were living “then and there” rather than for people “here and now.”

** Revelation was written in apocalyptic language that should be taken seriously, but not literally. As N.T. Wright writes, Revelation “is full of strange, lurid and sometimes bizarre and violent imagery.” That eminent New Testament scholar goes on to say,

This book in fact offers one of the clearest and sharpest visions of God’s ultimate purpose for the whole creation, and of the way in which the powerful forces of evil, at work in a thousand ways but not least in idolatrous and tyrannous political systems, can be and are being overthrown through the victory of Jesus the Messiah and the consequent costly victory of his followers.

   (These quotes are from the Introduction of Wright’s 2011 book Revelation for Everyone.)

** Despite all the violence depicted in Revelation, the focus is clearly on the non-violent Lamb, the historical Jesus who was crucified and resurrected.

Revelation, properly understood, has a direct link to Christmas. By far, the best-known part of Messiah, Händel’s superlative oratorio, is Hallelujah Chorus, which is often performed in celebration of Christmas.

The words of Hallelujah Chorus come from Revelation 19:6, 11:15, and 19:16. During this busy week before Christmas, perhaps you can take four minutes to listen to those words being impressively sung (here) by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

_____

*¹ The title of a blog post I made in October 2017 is “Revelation: The Most Misused Book in the Bible.” I encourage you to click on this link and read it (again). There are 30 comments (including my responses) posted below that article, and according to Blogger.com, there have been about 550 pageviews of that post.

*² These quotes are from a lengthy and informative 11/27/24 article in Christianity Today magazine (see here).

*³ According to the stats provided by Blogger.com, that post has, inexplicably, had nearly 3,700 pageviews. 

Note: Some of you may be interested in the 11/12/24 post by Religious Dispatches, “The Trump Administration’s Approach to Immigration is Inspired by the Bible — The Book of Revelation.” Here is a link to that provocative article about the grave dangers embedded in the widespread misunderstanding of Revelation. 

“O Little Town of Bethlehem”: Grieving the Ongoing Slaughter of Palestinians

Christmas Eve is just two weeks from today, and the popular Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” will be sung in many Christian churches that evening. So, this is a fitting time to think about the ongoing plight of the Palestinians in Bethlehem—as well as in Gaza and the entire West Bank. 

“O Little Town of Bethlehem” was written by Phillips Brooks. In the decades following his ordination as an Episcopal priest in 1860, Brooks (1835~1893) became whom many considered the greatest preacher of his day. While still a young man, he delivered a eulogy for slain President Lincoln in April 1865.

Later that year, Brooks traveled across the Atlantic to Europe and then made a pilgrimage to Bethlehem. On Christmas Eve, he assisted at a service in the Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional site of Jesus’ birth. Three years later he wrote "O Little Town of Bethlehem" for the children of his church.*¹ 

In 2015, 150 years after Brooks visited Bethlehem, I visited there for the first (and only) time. I took the short taxi ride from the south side of Jerusalem to the West Bank wall (or “separation barrier”). That structure, often called the “Wall of Apartheid" by Palestinians, was completed in 2006.

With my U.S. passport, I was able to pass through the wall with no problem. After observing what I could there, I then took another taxi to the main tourist sites in old Bethlehem. I was rather unimpressed, though, by the Church of the Nativity and the commercialism of the surrounding environment.*²

 I soon decided to go to the central shopping area of the city where I walked up and down the streets, observing ordinary Palestinians going about their daily activities. I quickly noticed the considerable difference between them and the Israelis I had seen in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Despite their close geographical proximity, they seemed to be living in a different, much earlier, time period. And most of them were not free to exit Bethlehem and travel to Jerusalem. They were mostly prisoners confined to their own “little town” of fewer than 30,000 people.

That and my experiences the next day traveling in East Jerusalem and the West Bank territories sparked the drafting of “The Plight of the Palestinians,” my 6/30/15 blog post, which I encourage you to read (again) by clicking here.

The plight of the Palestinians is far, far worse today than it was in 2015. That is true for the West Bank, but extremely, and increasingly, worse for Gaza now, 430 days after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

It is also bad again this year in Bethlehem. A recent article posted by Reuters is headlined, “Another bleak Christmas in Bethlehem….” The article includes an image (similar to the one above) of the creche created last year by the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem to depict the sickening rubble in Gaza.

And now, the situation there is so much worse. Just last week, Amnesty International concluded that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip. Sadly, in the coming year, things may get even worse for both Gaza and the West Bank.

President-elect Trump has named Mike Huckabee as his choice for the U.S. ambassador to Israel. Last month, a Religious Dispatches post (see here), stated that Huckabee is a stalwart Christian Zionist who has made over 100 trips to Israel.

According to that article, “Huckabee has aligned consistently with the hawkish Israeli Right and its agenda of permanent occupation, expansion, and Jewish supremacy in Palestine.” 

The first verse of Brooks’s carol ends, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in you tonight.” In Bethlehem now, the fears of most people are undoubtedly stronger than their hopes—and around the world, many of us grieve the ongoing slaughter of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Then, the last verse concludes with the words “peace to all on earth,” which the angels sang on that first Christmas.*³ May God help us all to strive more diligently to make peace to all a reality in Bethlehem, Gaza, and everywhere across the globe!

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*¹ Click here if you would like to hear the carol being nicely sung. Also, here is a link to an informative piece, including several images, about Brooks written by the New England Historical Society.

*² A short time after his mother Helena visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem in 325–326 A.D., Constantine commissioned the construction of a church on the site traditionally considered the birthplace of Jesus.

*³ The wording of the original carol was updated in The New Century Hymnal (1995), cited above.

Note: “To Bethlehem” is a powerful new poem that begins “O little Town of Bethlehem / forgive us for the lie / our churches tell - that all is well / as Christmas Eve draws nigh.”  I encourage you to read the entire poem by clicking here. 

Tempest in a Pee Pot Redux

In June 2015, I posted my first blog article on trans people, and my 5/20/16 blog post was titled Tempest in a Pee Pot. This issue has been in the news again this month, so I am writing about it once more—and in addition, I am referring again (first here) to this month’s Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Sarah McBride (2024)

Sarah McBride (D-Del.) was elected this month to the U.S. House of Representatives. She will be one of 125 women in that position. But Sarah (b. 1990) will be the first trans woman ever to serve in the U.S. Congress—causing what, again, I am calling a “tempest in a pee pot.”

As has been widely reported in the public media this month, another female House member, Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), introduced a resolution on Nov. 18 to ban transgender people from using U.S. Capitol restrooms other than those designated only for their gender as identified at birth.

Mace (b. 1977) described McBride as a “biological man trying to force himself into women’s spaces” and as a “guy in a skirt.”

It is reported (here) that “Nancy Mace’s Christian faith serves as a guiding force in her life. … This unwavering commitment to her beliefs empowers her to speak out against anything that she perceives as conflicting with her faith.” And her faith means saying trans women must use men’s restrooms?!

Not surprisingly, Mace’s position in opposition to Rep. McBride using women’s bathrooms at the Capitol was supported by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga).*¹ Greene has publicly said, "Men [such as Sarah McB.] should be banned from women’s restrooms in every federal building paid for by taxpayers."

Tim McBride was elected student government president in 2011 when he was a sophomore at American University (AU) in Washington, D.C.*² Fifteen months later, the day after he finished that term in office, Tim made a startling announcement in the school newspaper: he was becoming Sarah.*³

I don’t understand how people transition from one gender to another as adults or even why they think it necessary to make such a life-changing decision. But I accept the fact that a small percentage of the population do make that transition and often face hateful discrimination for doing so.

When Tim became Sarah in 2012, she was largely supported by the faculty, staff, and students at a university that broadly affirmed the self-chosen identity of LBGT people. But things nationwide have gotten a lot worse since then, especially for trans people.

But currently, as opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg posted (here) in The New York Times on Nov. 26, “It’s hard to imagine how terrifying it must be to be a trans person, or the parent of one, in America right now.”

Goldberg goes on to say, “Donald Trump and his party, having triumphed in an election in which they demonized trans people, seem hellbent on driving them out of public life.” The title of her article is “There Is No Excuse for the Bullying of Sarah McBride.”

Sarah McBride is only one of some 500,000 trans women in the U.S. That is a large number, but still a very small percentage (about 0.15%) of the nation’s population. Nevertheless, most of those 500k trans women are bullied as Sarah is—and many in ways much worse than by bathroom limitation.

Each year, November 13~19 is designated as Transgender Awareness Week. It leads to Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20, a day to remember all the trans people who have been murdered in the previous year. In the last five years, around 175 have been killed, 60% of them women.

The anti-trans rhetoric of current national politicians such as the two women mentioned above and the bulk of the leadership of the Republican Party and their MAGA supporters seem to lack recognition of and compassion for hurting people. This is contrary to the love of neighbor proclaimed by Jesus.

As I wrote at the end of my previous blog post, the driving force of my life for the past seventy years (and more) has been, and still is, doing my utmost to be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. My support for Sarah McBride and for all trans people facing hateful opposition is based on that commitment.

_____

*¹ Greene (b. 1974) is another problematic Christian. She was reared as a Roman Catholic, but in 2011 she was rebaptized and became a member of an evangelical megachurch in her home state of Georgia.

*² Here is a link from “The Eagle,” AU’s student newspaper, telling about Tim’s election with some of his background and plans for the coming year and beyond graduation. There is also a large picture of him.

*³ This link is to a June 2012 transcript of AU’s radio broadcast telling of Tim’s transition to Sarah. A picture of Sarah at that time is included with that article.  

My First Sermon: Reflecting on November 1954

On a Sunday evening in November 1954, I drove the 13 miles from the farm where I lived with my parents and little sister to the Baptist church in the small town of Worth, Missouri. There I preached my first sermon. I was 16 years old and a senior in high school.  

LKS (1954)

Why would a boy be asked to preach? Those of you from many other Christian faith traditions likely think it strange that a boy who had celebrated his 16^th birthday only three months earlier would be asked to preach in a church worship service.  

Although not common, neither were such instances rare in the Baptist tradition. Regardless of age or lack of theological education, those who had felt “called” by God to be preachers/pastors were usually affirmed by their home church as well as by nearby churches with which they were associated.  

Back then, most Baptist churches had worship services every Sunday morning and evening. The attendance on Sunday evening was usually far less for the morning service. Probably only 20~25 people were there for that Nov. ’54 evening service at Worth Baptist Church. 

As a high school senior, of course, I had no formal theological education. But for more than eight years, every week with very few exceptions I had attended Sunday School, Sunday morning & evening worship services, and Wednesday evening prayer meetings. That was beneficial Bible/theological training. 

What would a boy preach about in his first sermon? Joe Wolven, my good friend and “best man” at June’s and my wedding in 1957, also started preaching when he was in high school. His first sermon was based on Genesis 1:1, and he titled it “In the beginning, God.” That seems quite appropriate. 

The biblical text for my first sermon, though, was Matthew 16:24-26. I have no memory as to why I chose that text and have been unable to find the brief notes I typed out to use for my mostly unscripted sermon.  

Here are those words spoken by Jesus as recorded by Matthew: 

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (KJV).

It seems a bit strange to me now, but I titled the sermon based on those words, “Self-Discipline for Growth.”*¹  

Last week, I read these words: “In speaking of self-control, one is easily misunderstood. It should not be associated with a destructive repression, but with a constructive expression.”*² I am quite sure my sermon was about the latter (and I equate “self-control” and “self-discipline”).  for

Even for quite some time before preaching that first sermon, I sought to live a purpose-driven life. Prior to receiving what I felt sure was God’s “call” to be a preacher/pastor (in Aug. 1952), my main purpose in life was to be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ—and that purpose necessitated self-discipline. 

Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life (2002) was a highly successful and influential book.*³ Recently, I took a look at that book again. For the 23^rd day of his 40-day program, the prominent California pastor wrote, 

Spiritual growth is not automatic. It takes an intentional commitment. You must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow, and persist in growing. Discipleship—the process of becoming like Christ—always begins with a decision.

Although I was preaching as a high school boy nearly 50 years before Warren’s bestselling book was published, I am quite sure I said something similar in that 1954 sermon. And I still believe that that is true for all who claim to be Christians, regardless of age. 

As I continued to grow through the years, my understanding of what it means to be a disciple deepened and broadened. But the driving force of my life for the past seventy years (and more) has been, and still is, doing my utmost to be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.

_____ 

*¹ I have the sermon title, Bible passage, and date (Nov. 54) recorded in My Pastoral Record, a splendid gift from June not long after we were married in 1957. That record book also indicates that I preached 17 more times (in my home church and seven others) before starting college in September 1955. The last sermon recorded in that book was number 1,112—and that was in June 1976. I regret that I did not continue keeping the record of sermons preached, which would be far more than double that number. 

*² James Allen, Book of Meditations and Thoughts for the Day: For Every Day of the Year. I know almost nothing about Allen (1864~1912), but this year I have enjoyed reading his helpful book, which was published the year after his death. The words cited above were some of his “thoughts” for November 14.  

*³ The Purpose Driven Life was on the New York Times Bestseller List for over 90 weeks. It is reported (see here) that 50 million copies of it had been sold in more than 85 languages by 2020. 

 

Expressing Sympathy (and Congratulations) to VP Harris

This is not the article I planned to write for this month’s first blog post. “Expressing Congratulations (and Sincere Sympathy) to Pres. Harris” was the title of the post I anticipated making. But the sad news I read upon arising early Wednesday clearly indicated that I would have to write a different article. 

VP Harris making concession speech (11/6)

Kamala Harris campaigned well, but both the popular and the electoral votes were decisive. Nevertheless, I congratulate her for her valiant efforts, determination, and forward-looking spirit. In her concession speech on Wednesday afternoon, she said,

... while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign—the fight: the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness, and the dignity of all people. A fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up.

Of course, no politician likes to lose, but for VP Harris herself, losing may have been good for her. Because of current and lurking problems in the U.S. and the world, she could have well ended up with a failed presidency. (For some of the same reasons, the same may happen to Trump). 

If Harris had won, she would have had to contend with debilitating Senate opposition and continual opposition by the NAR (which I wrote about here a month ago) and other MAGA adherents, including the growing number of White Christian nationalists.

In addition, Kamala would have had to—and now Trump will have to—deal with the warfare in the Near East, which will likely grow worse before it gets much better. We don’t know how she would have handled that incendiary situation, but she would likely have faced considerable criticism no matter what she did.

Perhaps more serious than anything else is the worsening of climate change and the urgency of dealing with the ecological predicament. This crucial matter will quite surely get markedly worse in the new Trump administration, but Harris would not have been able to forestall the coming crisis.

Consider why Trump “should” have won the election. In addition to the large block of White Christians voting for Trump and the residual racism and sexism still lingering in the land (as I wrote about in last Saturday’s “extra” blog post (see here)**, consider the following:

* The unpopularity of President Biden. According to a highly reliable poll taken on Nov. 1-2, Biden’s approval rating was 40% and 56% disapproving. It is rare for the Party in power to win a presidential election with the sitting president’s rating 16% more negative than positive.

* The perception that the country is on the wrong track. As indicated here, 63% of the U.S. public think the country is headed in the wrong direction (on the wrong track), and only 26% that it is headed in the right direction. That makes it very hard for the incumbent Party to win a presidential election.

* Continuing high prices because of inflation and corporate greed. This 11/6 Washington Post piece doesn’t deal with corporate greed as I think it should, but it does suggest that the widely held perception that the economy is “not good” or “poor” impelled many to cast their vote for Trump.

* The unaddressed problem of classism. This issue is addressed well by a 11/6 New York Times opinion article by the eminent journalist David Brooks (see here). Another source indicates that while voters with graduate degrees vote Democratic overwhelmingly, this year more than ever before, those with no college education voted overwhelmingly for Trump.

Where do we go from here? On Wednesday, the editorial board of the New York Times wrote, “Benjamin Franklin famously admonished the American people that the nation was ‘a republic, if you can keep it’.” They go on to say,

Mr. Trump’s election poses a grave threat to that republic, but he will not determine the long-term fate of American democracy. That outcome remains in the hands of the American people. It is the work of the next four years.”

So, I conclude by again congratulating VP Harris for her valiant campaign and expressing sympathy to her for losing the election to a far less worthy candidate. And I trust that she will, indeed, continue to lead in the struggle for implementing “the ideals at the heart of our nation.”

_____

** In that post, I wrote, “If VP Harris loses the election, … it will be because of the votes of White Christians more than any other chosen demographic (that is, other than non-chosen demographics such as gender, race, or ‘class.’)” Thursday morning there was this post on Religious News Service’s website: “White Christians made Donald Trump president — again.”

What More Can We Do?: One Week until Election Day

Although several of you USAmerican Thinking Friends have likely already voted, Election Day is one week from today, and I assume most of you will be voting then, as I plan to do. But is there anything more we can do this week? 

“A Return to Abnormalcy? Perish the Thought!” That was the title of the article I originally planned to write this week before the election. “A Return to Normalacy?” was the title of my blog post just before the 2020 election. My point: the election of Joe Biden would be a return to normalcy in the U.S.*1  

The current presidential polls continue to indicate this year’s election will be very close, and there could very well be a return to the “abnormalcy” of a second Trump presidency. I certainly would like to “perish the thought,” but I also definitely thought he would not be elected in 2016. 

If Trump is elected next week, I predict he will not serve for four years. Whether by impeachment and removal from office, using the 25th amendment to the Constitution, or because of debilitating health issues, I think it is quite unlikely Trump will be in the White House until January 2029. 

But sadly, the country (and the world) would perhaps not be much better off with JD Vance as president.  

But recognizing that I might be wrong, I am nevertheless sticking by my prediction that VP Harris will be elected and there will fortunately be no significant abnormalities with her as POTUS. 

What Can We Do? Most of us live in states where there is little doubt regarding which presidential candidate will get our state’s electoral votes. Nevertheless, we should vote anyway. Even if our votes will most likely not help elect our candidate, the total number of popular votes is still important. 

In addition to the presidential election, there are other important races in most states. Don’t overlook the importance of voting for down-ballot candidates. Control of the Senate and the House is also at stake, and that control will make a huge difference regardless of who becomes POTUS. 

Unfortunately, some of us live in states where there is little doubt regarding who will be elected for the two houses of Congress as well as which presidential candidate will get the electoral votes.  

Some of you might be interested in checking out VoteMaximizer.org, which analyzes what they call “voter power.” The closer the race, the higher the number (from one to 100) of one’s vote. The bad news for us Missourians is that no state race has high enough voter power to be listed. 

The only matters listed as being uncertain enough in Missouri to be listed are Proposition A and Amendments 3 & 7. So I will go to vote mainly for the popular vote outcome of the presidential election and the outcome of the three issues mentioned.*2 

It is different especially for those of you who live in swing states, such as you Thinking Friends who live in Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina. Since your voter power number is high, work hard this week for the presidential candidate whom you intensely want to win.  

“All we can do now is pray”: this is what some may say at this point since many have already voted and most have already made up their minds about who they will vote for—or since the outcome in their states is quite certain.  

That may be true, but what will we pray for? Does anyone think that if enough of us prayed in the right way we could convince God to manipulate enough voters to cause our preferred candidate to win the election? And what about those praying for the other candidate to win?  

There are some things God can’t (or won’t) do, and manipulating people is one such thing. (I plan to write more about this matter in a blog article next month.) So, I am quite sure that prayer by itself will not change the outcome of the election.*3   

However, as a means of lessening our anxiety and promoting peace of mind, prayer is quite important as we face anxieties about the future of our country during this week before Election Day.  

_____ 

*1 Here is a link to that Oct. 20, 2020, blog post if you’d like to read it (again). The words in the title were based on the slogan of the 1920 presidential campaign of Warren G. Harding. 

*2 My recommendation to you Missourians is voting Yes on Proposition A & Amendment 3 and No on Amendment 7. 

*3 Not long after I wrote this sentence, I saw this post regarding Franklin Graham’s public prayer asking God to cause Trump to win the election.