I did not want to write about politics. Political analysis is not my strength. My strength is in storytelling – this is what people tell me. I don’t have the insights nor depths to convince anyone to follow one ideology over the other. I dabble, and I jump bandwagons; it all depends on who is louder. I wrote in an earlier post that I am docile, so I am the last person you want to listen to on the topic of politics.
But, as I do so well as a storyteller, I will tell it as is. And it’s not a rant. I exaggerated to get your attention.
A Political Idiot
After four years of college in idyllic Ithaca, I returned home to Brooklyn to take my citizenship test. I crammed for it by studying the Chinese-English test booklet my mother found in Chinatown. One day before the test, I was stunned when I found out David Dinkins was no longer the mayor of NYC. I was upset. It’s not because I had anything against his replacement. I was upset because no one bothered telling me we had a new mayor and that I would have almost missed a perfect score.
They say higher education is a hotbed for the advancement of liberalism. My biggest takeaways from four years of college are one, how to walk through icy, hilly campus in single-digit temperatures without tripping and falling, and two, how to maneuver a small car in snowy, unplowed, zigzagging mountain roads. It might have to do with my field of study. I was a political idiot with pathetic language skills. Trapped in the land of geeks, I couldn’t tell you the meaning of Progressivism and Liberalism. All throughout college and the few years after college, I was neither a democrat nor a republican. I didn’t know the difference. I would skip all the news channels and watch only sitcoms and chick flicks. Cable news and their hotheaded pundits would bore me to tears.
Then I met my husband in 1997. He tried many lines to impress me, but this one stood out. “Guess who I served popcorn to when I worked at Sony Theater in Union Square? DONALD TRUMP!! He was with Marla Maples!”
He would go on to tell that story many, many times. So, I married another political idiot.
The Rising of the “Religious Right”
Little did I know the moment I was born into the world, there were epic battles behind the scenes to win my vote.
It’s not an overstatement to say that a nation is weaved together by its religious fabrics, especially in the United States of Melting Pot. You can more accurately gauge a person’s political persuasion by his or her religious beliefs than the color of their skin.
Jesus’ last word to his followers was to go and make disciples of all nations. Christianity by nature is evangelistic. Its adherents are taught to promote it and sell it even when there is no demand. It is not so with other world religions like Islam, Buddhism, or Judaism. It makes Christians the unwelcomed pests. You see them lingering in parks with small booklets. You hear them with a microphone and a boom box on city streets. Jehovah’s Witnesses as a sect got smart; they made mission work mandatory. It’s surprising how people can be morphed and shaped to adopt all sorts of practices under constant brainwashing.
That is looking from the outside. From the inside, Christians that care to evangelize are the most loving people you can ever meet. They love by sharing their faith. What kind of human beings are they if they look the other way and keep their faith within the churches’ four walls? How can they not when people are drowning in sin and hopelessness, even if that is a subjective reality? These Christians would risk having tomatoes and rotten eggs thrown at their faces. They would also risk having their relationships with the irreligious friends and family severed, their presence shunned, and voice silenced.
Despite it all, ever since the founding of the country, Christians of all denominations have not stopped spreading the message of Jesus Christ. Now we’ve got a land full of them – some nominal, some cultural, and some are downright radical. One would think that the increasing number of Christians will somehow improve or change society and make it more peaceful and Christ-like. But numbers do not always equate influence. Rural America densely populated with good church-going people can do little to stop the urban secularists from expounding and spreading their liberal, progressive ideals.
Therefore, the assumption that society will improve simply by having more Christians is no longer valid. If a believer cares about having an influence on society, evangelism alone is not enough. The nation that has seen the moral decay could no longer depend on its churches to turn things around. The 60s and the 70s were a period of liberation. The world wars finally ended. The wealth of this relatively young nation catapulted its people into the swamp of consumerism and individualism. As money could now solve most of their problems, the desire and need for religion and churches waned. In fact, religion and churches became an inconvenience and hindrance. The cultural narrative had to be rewritten with the message about self-reliance, tolerance, and diversity.
A form of spiritual decay and the increasingly secular society blared loudly into the ears and hearts of the Evangelicals. Then came a Southern Baptist pastor – the late Jerry Falwell, Sr.
Falwell and his associates saw America was fast abandoning its moral values. While the diehard JW devotees would continue to knock on doors, these Evangelicals were impatient and edgy. They realized it would take too long to preach to a group of ten or twenty when they can fund a campaign to put someone they agree with inside the Oval Office. In the 70s, Jerry Falwell led conservative Christians to become a political force within the Republican Party. A wing of Christian worldview emerged in the United States, and it has been branded as the Religious Right. Their influence through the pulpit would dictate policies backed by the most powerful man in the world. They want traditional marriage, and they are unapologetically pro-life. Yet, besides the biblical stance, the Republican Party also supports small government and big military, less tax, less welfare, and less immigration. It would be a package deal; the Religious Right would have to share these views too.
So it was said that Jerry Falwell Sr. and his conservative bloc voted Ronald Reagan into the oval office in 1981.
From Adorable to Deplorable: How I Got Sucked In
After my husband’s miraculous conversion to Christianity in 1997, I decided that it would be a good time to marry. (But he decided he’d make me wait three years.) We were both fresh out of the Green Card status. And separately, we were sworn in as naturalized citizens in the mid-90s. As we became a new Christian couple, we felt we identified with the above-mentioned “Religious Right.” After all, people say we are deeply religious, and we think we are almost always right. Without a second thought, we registered with the Republican Party – not realizing most immigrants, by default, are democrats.
And it’s not enough to be a registered republican, people labeled me as a…conservative.
Conservative?!?!
Well, I kind of like the sound of it. It has a connotation of maturity, not flippancy. It suits me as a modest and humble woman.
I follow the conservative commentators on Fox News and YouTube. I subscribe to Right-leaning publications. I live in an echo chamber. The constant reinforcement of what I thought to be right makes an addictive medicine. Yeah, call out the lunacy of the left-wing extremists! Expose the despicable Marxists that were wreaking havoc in democrat-run cities!
I became unbalanced. But since I do have a brain, I have wondered about a few things. I don’t get why Fox News calls itself Fair and Balanced when it would very rarely invite a democrat to speak on their news programs. I also find it strange that they refer to their competition as the mainstream media as if they are a regional news outfit with a small following.
Thankfully, there is another man with a brain in my home. My husband wondered about a few things too. He is famous for saying something as profound as “It’s all politics.”
My 11-year-old daughter would scream at my husband for watching CNN, “Fake News, Dad, stop watching the fake news!” Meanwhile, my 13-year-old daughter would insist that we see the other side. She makes it her job to disagree and roll her eyes at the talking heads on Fox. (But she’d be very kind to Ben Shapiro. Maybe he talked too fast for her to keep up.)
This is what I think as a mother. Their polarized reactions are not an issue of partisanship; it’s a personality thing. My older daughter is a born skeptic and does not trust people easily. She does not instantly believe what is said to her, and she has to challenge it. And as a challenge, she downloaded a copy of Mary Trump’s “Most Dangerous Man” without my permission…while enduring my deathly stare. On the other hand, my younger daughter is easily convinced and is eager to please. She would go along with my ideology just because of our relationship. No debates and analyses needed.
Over the past few months, I have gradually lost faith in the “Religious Right” of GOP. Our echo chamber now screams, “It’s all politics!!!”
The Jesus Angle
Would Jesus be a democrat or a republican?
According to an account in Luke 20:21-25, the high-ranking Jews would spy on Jesus looking to trap him with trick questions.
“Teacher, we know that you’re honest and straightforward when you teach, that you don’t pander to anyone but teach the way of God accurately. Tell us: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
If Jesus is a democrat, he’d probably say, “Yes, as long as you have a job and make more than the minimum wage.”
If Jesus is a republican, he’d defiantly say, “Absolutely not. You should make a trade deal with Rome.”
But Jesus did not think policies. The Bible says that Jesus “perceived their deceit” and replied, “Show me a coin. Now, this engraving, who does it look like and what does it say?” “Caesar” was the reply. Jesus then coined one of the more famous lines of the Scripture: “Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
As radical as Jesus was, he was not interested in the political agenda of canceling Caesar or Rome. He cared not about the horizontal of the Right vs. the Left. His whole mission lies in the vertical, the Up and Down, and he wanted Israel and all of His followers to honor God by honoring their authorities, even the despicable ones.
If you cannot relate to the historical Jesus, then consider the more contemporary Billy Graham.
As one of the most prominent Christian evangelists, Billy Graham had enormous influence and following. It was no surprise that he’d be wooed to be a political spokesperson. But he deliberately drew a line in the sand and put a distance between himself and the politics. His audience which filled the stadiums was not there for his views on Vietnam or Watergate – their need was greater. Their need would not be met by a politician or a slogan. They were restless, discontented souls seeking spiritual and emotional healing. And Rev. Graham gave it to them. His preaching transcended cultural wars and political backbiting. America was better because of it.
Churches are a Losing Business
Now is a sad time for the churches. First of all, churches were deemed nonessential, downgraded to the likes of gyms, spa, and bowling alleys. But it was a thrill to all, including Christians. Even the Christians are tired of going to church, esp. the pastors and childcare workers. They can finally remove the shackles and legitimately reclaim their Sundays. But when you lock the doors of the churches, you strip off the only means most ministers depend on for a living. Don’t underestimate how much money it could amount to if you count all the coins and dollar bills from the offering plates. It’s enough to buy a week’s worth of groceries, complete with rice and beans.
Ouch. That was a lot of sarcasm in one paragraph. Tone it down…tone it down.
While live streaming and Zoom worship was trending in early April, 70% of churches all over North America boasted an increase in their overall attendance. The number of virtual attendees then dropped over time because the novelty of video conferencing had worn out, and Zoom fatigue had kicked in. I heard that even after the very careful re-opening of the churches, only 10-15% of congregants have returned in person. The “State of the Church” research by Barna found that as of May, nearly half of church adults had not streamed online services for at least four weeks, and one in three practicing Christians had simply stopped attending church during the pandemic.
Making going to church as easy as one tap on the phone in bed has failed to drive the masses to watch a preacher preaching to an empty audience of one – the faithful cameraman.
Some churches that seek to be relevant in the culture have become more like a social service agency and a community center. Juxtaposing that with the Tabernacle where the Holy of holies would invoke the most reverent fear of God, you wonder why the Church is losing its flavor. While alcoholic consumption, drug abuse, and domestic violence spike and run amuck during the lockdown, church members bicker over mask-wearing and all versions of conspiracy theories.
It’s like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Jerry Falwell Jr. is suing the New York Times for defamation. Allegedly, the Gray Lady printed some sensational and disparaging headlines when Liberty University re-opened their campus after spring break. The paper reported an unsubstantiated Covid-19 outbreak on its campus.
His father, the senior Falwell, was the one that decided political activism would transform America towards Christ-likeness. Not even one generation has passed, the conservatives and liberals are now down in the ditches slinging mud at each other from a distance.
How about American Nationalism for Christians?
How do I love America and God of the Universe at the same time? What does patriotism look like according to the Bible?
That was my biggest struggle in the past few months. Donald Trump’s America First nationalism made me raise my thin eyebrows. My deeply held belief as a Christian says we ought to be last, not first. The greatness of this country is founded on the Judeo-Christian principles that encourage generosity towards foreigners. America is the only country that has a colossal agency to administer immigration. They could have shut their doors long ago, but for whatever reason, which I believe was mostly altruistic, they kept the floodgate open for the immigrants, both legal and illegal. We are among the lucky few that made it; the chance for more foreigners to become Americans is dwindling.
Ironically, America has done itself a disservice with all the widely broadcasted looting and rioting. People overseas are not so sure about coming here anymore. Some even feel sorry that we got stuck in the land of lawlessness and the aftermath of Trump’s four years.
Honestly, though, the protests and riots may seem outrageous, but they were contained within a few blocks of certain city streets. Most of us living in suburban America don’t see a country ravaged by anarchists. Ordinary citizens leave their houses with three things in mind: Walk the dog, hope the line at the supermarket is short, and not to forget to bring a mask. While the activists on the Left try to educate us about systemic racism, folks of all skin tones have not stopped greeting one another and saying hello in stores. They wonder why the sudden hoopla over the color of their skin. Neighbors chat on the sidewalk – sometimes without much social distancing – about the craziness of 2020. Politics, like sports, is an exciting distraction. People go on living their lives while waiting for the next stimulus check.
That, my friend, is the reality, and they don’t make headlines.
Politics will never save us. It matters not which side you are on. Nations rise and fall, but the Word of God will stand. Look at the Jews. Their entire history was marked by oppression, deportation, and exile. They are not defined by borders and the country in which they live and work; they are defined by their lineage to Israel who worshipped Yahweh as their God. Their all-time and one-time foe, Amalekite, Edomites, and Moabites, were long gone and assimilated into various cultures and civilizations, but the descendants of the Israelites that lived 3,000 years ago now dominate banking, academia, science and medicine, media, and politics. The onslaught of anti-Semitism may not cease to exist, but the Jews have thrived despite adversity.
I am a Chinese-American, or more precisely, a Taiwanese-American. But my true identity is in who I am to God, the Creator. Among the many gods, such as Guanyin, Zeus, Shiva, Allah, Krishna, Buddha, I choose Jesus Christ. That is WHOSE I am. I belong to Him, and my citizenship is in Heaven.
The way to be a patriot in my adopted country is to love the Lord my God with all of my heart, soul, and mind!
Finally…There is Hope
How will I vote in 90 days? I live in a time and place where my one vote will not tip the election. But I will fulfill my civic duty by filling out the bubble sheet in the local school gym on November 3rd. Then I will stand on the sideline, praying to Christ.
The Two-Party System of Democracy was an ingenious invention to fight tyranny. This system buys us stability before it spirals out of control as we seem to have to choose between “the lesser of two evils” in every presidential election. Using a term in physics, it creates the tension this country needs, so it doesn’t swing too far to the right or to the left. It’s an evenly matched tug of war without an apparent winner. But who knows how much longer this rope of tension could hold?
You might not want religion, but you will want to though. A perfectly JUST society is one in which its only ruler has no ulterior motives or selfish agenda. A perfectly PEACEFUL society is one in which this ruler knows his (or her) role is a servant and not a tyrant. You will want to have such a perfect leader to rule over the land. Believe it or not, this is how the epic stories of the Bible ultimately end. A perfect and wise King, Jesus Christ, will return to rule the world.
Freedom fighters from both sides of the political spectrum will drum up passionate lingos, each with its song and lyrics for a perfect society. But if you believe in Jesus Christ, it will be a win-win situation, regardless of who becomes the 46th president of the United States.
There is hope for everyone. Cast your vote, trust God, and don’t let your heart be troubled.