Praise God for Donald Trump.
Were it not for him we might find ourselves answerable to embarrassing nastiness in ourselves.
Fortunately though, he is a walking episode of the local evening news with each blood- and-guts story worse than the next. He has gifted us in a moment where our moral literacy rates are crashing faster than a dislodged acorn on a parked car with a righteous indignation that actually feels quite warranted.
Symbiotic Awfulness
The “short-fingered vulgarian” continues, in what has to be only faux surprising ways, to demonstrate a heartless, inarticulate, ugliness that is utterly consistent with nearly everything we’ve ever heard about him.
But the unintended consequence of each day’s new “damning” revelations is that we bystanders are treated to a hefty dose of self-deflecting outrage which permits us to wag our fingers either at him or with him at Hillary R. Clinton, because their symbiotic awfulness seems to leech the worst out of the other.
They may shock, scare or sadden us, but in the process, they sure do make us feel so much better about ourselves. We wring our hands, shake our heads, and incredulously tweet with our disgusted thumbs and never once have to stop to self-examine or collectively consider our role in the tragedy of two political representatives who expertly embody our nation’s virally dehumanizing ways which have invariably emerged as the memory of our Maker has been vigorously wiped clean.
Trump’s aggressive, abusive, egregious speech toward women seems like a logical (and atrocious) stop on a train where people are no longer regarded as the image of the great King and where sex has been cheapened beyond recognition.
Take What You Want
If our inner desires for “it”, as CS Lewis once described lust, are permitted to become the authority in our lives, rather than the One who made us, then it won’t be too long before countless scores of women (and men!) are getting used, exploited, and injured--all sanctioned in the name of obedience to true desire. And presumably the stronger want-er will always win, dominate, and take whatever he or she wants. It’s Darwinian. And it’s not just the rule of the jungle. It’s the enthroned law of economics, politics, marriage, family, and sex. And it’s very bad news for everyone.
But Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton keep us from thinking about that which is such a relief.
The shocking extent of their ambition, ruthless disregard for truthful speech, and the expedient ways they have made every other consideration subservient to their goal of winning keeps us from interrogating our own selves, practices and aspirations.
Nothing Compares to That!
Mrs. Clinton’s illegalities, cover-ups, profiting from public office, and the like, seem so exaggeratedly over the top, that it’s easy for the tweeting critic never to ponder whether he has ever protected himself by spinning the truth, hiding evidence of who he really is, or misleading others with his speech. There’s no chance with Hillary making $1 gazillion on a private speech to people she publicly rebukes for me to wonder if my use of resources is somehow disadvantaging anyone else, or whether there are large gaps between my private and public persona, because nothing can compare to that!
Mr. Trump’s lampoonable facial disgust, verbal assaults, tax avoidance, exploiting of bankruptcy laws, stiffing contractors and calling his opponent the devil are a distracting stew whose stench covers over the body odor of our own instinct for acting as free agents in the world without any substantial regard for another, especially from those who differ from us.
And his pornographic manner of existence exonerates folks from considering their own gawking at others or leering at images of them. It liberates from a consideration of one’s own crass and careless speech, or secret thoughts, or participations in sexual relationships outside of marriage. We may never pause to wonder as we look on with 66.5 million others what more destruction will ensue as we yield ourselves in abeyance to desires that are no longer answerable to the God who beautifully created the impulse for sex for expression in the one context of marriage....a desire which has now mutated into a monstrosity.
Spotless and Sterling
But thankfully, I look spotless and sterling next to those two, and so do you! And their dinginess enhances the likelihood that most of us will keep being indignant rather than trading in our Carhartts or little black dresses for sack cloth and ashes.
I’ve got no voting advice for anyone, and don’t suppose I ever shall. But there’s a bubbling recognition in me that feels necessary to note and stunningly familiar as I listen, read, and watch.
Oswald Chambers astutely claimed, “The essence of the sin is my claim to my right to myself.” Few demonstrate the concept better than the Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton we can easily imagine.
Watching them, it’s awfully natural to pray, “Lord, I thank you that I am not like those politicians...” until we’re caught short with the startling remembrance that the morally impeccable pharisee who self-congratulated in such a way in Jesus’ story (cf. Luke 18) wasn’t remembered kindly in history or perhaps, in eternity.
But the ambulance chasing lawyer on his knees who couldn’t meet God with his eyes and played his chest with clenched fists like a drum, begged, “have mercy on me, a sinner.” He seemed to realize that whatever he did, and whatever happened in the privacy of his own heart, still occurred in the presence of Him who sees all. Realizing that makes mercy beggars of us all.
Politics is downstream of culture, as Jamie Smith has noted. In other words, he opines, politics are far more reflective of who we are than determinative of who we will be. Wendell Berry once suggested, “do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.” Could it be that our politicians are miles down the river we have polluted and are now returning the favor?
What if Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump should be looked to, not as our hope, but as a mirror?
Of course, pointing in a mirror has a troubling effect. Those fingers aimed and wagging at Donald or Hillary sure have a way of reflecting us right back to us.
But if we stand there long enough, exposed in an introduction to ourselves, we may just be compelled in desperation to entrust ourselves more deeply to Him who “sees all, but will not turn his face away.”
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Eric Youngblood is the senior pastor at Rock Creek Fellowship (PCA) on Lookout Mountain. Please feel free to contact him at eric@rockcreekfellowship.org or follow him on Twitter @GEricYoungblood.