Pardon me, but I'm confused

Pardon me, but I am confused. 

A pastor friend of mine told me recently that Donald Trump’s admission about groping women was just locker room talk that did not concern him whatsoever. What concerned him the most was the possibility of Hillary Clinton appointing “Supreme Court Justices who might not reflect his own Christian values.” 

Pardon me, but I’m confused. What Christian values?

A man who has been married three times and running for President of the Untied States admits groping women and hitting on them, because he can, because he’s rich and powerful, is of less concern to my friend than who is appointed to the United States Supreme Court?

Pardon me, but I’m confused. 

By his own admission my friend is more concerned that newly appointed Supreme Court Justices be more in line with his own so-called “conservative Christian values” than one’s self-admitted predatory attitude towards women.

Am I missing something here? Am I just being too prudish?

Later over lunch I asked my friend what exactly he wanted from a majority of conservative justices? He replied: “There is really nothing specific other than I’m against same sex marriage.” I asked him if he thought appointing conservative justices would change anything regarding that issue. He said he didn’t think it would. 

So why am I confused?

I’m confused over the lack of ethical and moral sensitivity among many American Christians during this 2016 election cycle and just to be clear, I include myself in that number. It’s as if we Christians have become so desensitized to the ethical and moral failures of our would-be-leaders that we have lost our capacity for being offended by the inappropriate behaviors of those who aspire to lead our nation. 

This concerns me.

But let me be clear about this post: I am not condemning either candidate. They each have their issues to be sure. I am not critiquing either Trump or Hillary. I am critiquing the Christian witness that seems to be so weak in this election. So please spare me the comparisons between the two candidates. Each one is flawed and imperfect. I get it. 

I am just confused over how Christians are so willing to sweep aside what should be deeply disturbing violations of Christian sexual ethics and moral standards for the sake of political expediency, regardless of our motives (such as who might be picked as Justices on the Supreme Court). Even more troubling is when we Christians make excuses for such noted behaviors thus lending what might be assumed our implicit approval. 

I tell you old man Jerry Falwell must be rolling over in his Moral Majority grave right about now.

Look, we all fail in our personal lives. No one is exempt. Not one of us is above ethical or moral failures. But this does not give us permission, as Christians, to sweep aside the historic Judeo-Christian values that have given shape to our American culture since it’s inception, not to mention given shape to a robust Evangelical faith in America.

There is something deeply disturbing with the mental dissonance of my friend’s argument (or anyone who makes such an argument and there are plenty who do). Who he votes for is his business. I get that and regardless of which lever he pulls he will remain my friend. I am sure we will continue playing golf together.

But dismissing Trump’s predatory sexual comments as being nothing more than “locker room talk” is baffling to me. What if that woman Trump bragged about groping was your wife, or your daughter or your granddaughter? Would that make a difference in how you feel about such behavior?

Look, I understand that politicians are human, just like ordinary citizens—just like me. They are fallible and flawed human beings. There is no perfect political candidate anymore than there are perfect pastors or priests; he or she simply does not exist in either vocation. I think we somehow know this, don’t we?

So here’s the big question: 

When this election is all over, when the next President of the United States is elected on November 8, where is that going to leave us American Christians on November 9? 

What kind of ethical and moral platform will we have to stand upon then?

In which direction will our moral compass be pointing?

How are we going to explain our dismissive attitudes towards clear violations of Christian ethics and morals to our children and to our grandchildren? How are we going to explain how we have compromised many of the teachings of Jesus on moral and sexual ethics? How are we going to claim resonance with the so-called “family values” Evangelicals have defended for so long now?

The election is but a few days away and then the clean up begins in earnest. There will be a reckoning, believe me. Christianity for the most part has taken a serious hit over the past year and a half by its willingness to be co-opted into a very divisive and ugly political campaign. 

We Christians will have some explaining to do—I will have some explaining to do—if we ever hope to be relevant again in our own nation. I am worried that our credibility and integrity as ethical and moral agents of Jesus Christ have been seriously compromised. We may never recover in this generation. Yes it is that bad.

I am worried that our ethical and moral values that previously shaped us will be dismissed just as easily as some of us dismissed the unethical and immoral behaviors of our favored political candidate. Lord, forgive us.

America needs an ethical and moral compass to be sure. But what she really needs is someone to hold that compass in order to get a true ethical and moral fix. She needs voices trained in the very best the Judeo-Christian tradition has to offer. We are those compass bearers and we are those voices—or we should be.

But who is going to listen to us now?

I wonder!