OPINION:
Dear Dr. E: “Your writing is way too focused on saving America. Frankly, who cares if ’the Republic’ dies? By claiming the United States is a Christian nation, you harm our witness. The Republican Party is not the only salvation of the church. Attempts to convince Christians that our hope lies in electing the right president is idolatry. Christians should worry about their personal testimonies and not about politics.” — GEN Z CHRISTIAN FROM COLORADO
My Young Mr. Z: You have been very blunt in how you’ve asked your question, or, I should say, how you’ve made your accusation, for you really haven’t asked anything, so I’m going to respond with equal candor.
Here’s the bottom line: Your comment is selfish, insensitive, and callous. You seem to be fixated on yourself to the exclusion of everyone else. You remind me of a smug, freshly minted Ph.D. who worked for me a few years ago when I was university president.
During the 2016 election season, this young religion professor wrote an article announcing to the world that he would “gladly give up his freedom” rather than “compromise his testimony” by voting for a particular candidate that he found particularly distasteful. The social media backlash he received was overwhelming, and, as a result, my confident millennial friend cowered in his office, wondering what he said that caused such an uproar. Knowing he was feeling a bit beaten up and anxious about the whole ordeal, I walked across campus and sat down with him in his office, offering a few simple words of advice.
“The reason why people are so angry with you is really quite simple,” I said. “You’ve assumed ownership of something that isn’t exclusively yours. That freedom you’re so nonchalant about isn’t something you can give away any more than the street or sidewalk in front of your house is yours to sell. Freedom doesn’t just belong to you. America’s freedom is owned by all Americans. It’s your neighbor’s as much as it’s yours, and he’s offended by your presumption to give something away that isn’t yours to give. You have essentially just told everyone in your community that you care more about your ’purity’ than you do about them, their property, their children, their church, their town, and their country. Rather than preserve your testimony, you just sacrificed it by doing something strikingly similar to the priest and Levite in Christ’s parable of the Good Samaritan. While preserving your spiritual cleanliness by avoiding the dirty world of politics, you’ve left your fellow travelers ’lying beaten and left half dead’ on the road to Jericho.”
Mr. Z, you are doing the exact same thing. For you to say, “Who cares if the Republic dies!” shouts that you’re more concerned with preserving your religious reputation than you are with protecting your neighbor’s wellbeing.
And I’m not just talking about your American neighbors. Can’t you see how incredibly obnoxious it is for someone who enjoys all the freedoms you enjoy to say, “Who cares” about everyone else? How do you think your brothers and sisters living in North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Ukraine, Cuba, or Communist China feel when they hear your callous boasting? What are they thinking when they listen to your cocksure pronouncement of “Who cares?”
For someone so concerned about his “testimony,” perhaps you should care a bit more about what kind of government your neighbors may have to endure. Isn’t the Bible clear that we are all to “seek justice and love mercy and walk humbly with our Lord?” And what about Christ’s Golden Rule of “treating others as we wish to be treated?” When it comes to your neighbors, shouldn’t you be fighting for more freedom rather than cavalierly dismissing what little bit they now have with smug proclamations of “Who Cares?”
Finally, I can’t help but point out just a little bit of duplicity in your “question.” For someone so eager to shout, “Who cares” about politics, you sure do seem to care a lot — especially when it’s your politics you want everyone to care about.
Oh, by the way, while you are patting yourself on the back for your testimony, babies are being butchered, women are being demeaned, children are being groomed, the family is being destroyed, our borders are being ignored, property is being stolen, freedom is being degraded, and Christians are being maligned.
Congratulations on your “testimony.”
If you are seeking guidance in today’s changing world, Higher Ground is there for you. Everett Piper, a Ph.D. and a former university president and radio host, takes your questions in his weekly ’Ask Dr. E’ column. If you have moral or ethical questions for which you’d like an answer, please email askeverett@washingtontimes.com and he may include it in a future column.
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