The U.S. Election Through American Eyes with an Eternal Perspective
An American serving in Teesside
Web Blackmon | Thu 21st Nov 2024
“What are your thoughts on the 2024 US election?” As I am usually the only American in the room, I have been the constant recipient of that question the last few weeks. The sage advice I was given before moving to England was to avoid discussing American politics at all because it might be considered a “controversial” topic, yet I don’t really buy that. I have been at Jubilee less than 4 months and it already feels like family, that is why I don’t shy away from answering such questions. Back home me and my family would talk about such matters at the dinner table, I believe it should be quite the same here when we gather as a family of faith at Jubilee.
While politics (American politics specifically) is often a divisive topic, I don’t believe it has to be, especially among believers who trust the Bible to be authoritative, are guided by the Holy Spirit and let the love of Jesus rule in their hearts, minds, conversations, and relationships. People have genuinely and kindly asked me what my thoughts on the US election are and I have been delighted to answer genuinely. I answer from experience, I answer from conviction, and I answer knowing that I represent not just myself but Christ.
While politics (American politics specifically) is often a divisive topic, I don’t believe it has to be, especially among believers who trust the Bible to be authoritative, are guided by the Holy Spirit and let the love of Jesus rule in their hearts, minds, conversations, and relationships. People have genuinely and kindly asked me what my thoughts on the US election are and I have been delighted to answer genuinely. I answer from experience, I answer from conviction, and I answer knowing that I represent not just myself but Christ.
I have been privileged the last 8 years to live under two different presidents of the United States, both the Trump administration and the Biden-Harris administration. Before diving into my actual thoughts on the matter I must say that this is the true beauty of American democracy: choice and perspective. I have seen both the good, the bad and the ugly of both administrations, but the blessing is now I have a very down to earth perspective on the matter. I must mention as well, for the sake of context, that I come from a working class family that was hit hard in the recession of 2008 and even harder during Covid so a lot of my opinions are framed in that regard. My interest in politics and my opinions thereof arose and developed from a place of very practical concern: can we afford enough groceries this month?, are we able to travel for holiday with the price of gas (petrol)?, can we pay for health insurance?, etc. People like to talk about what is happening politically in Washington, I hope to speak of what is happening personally in hometowns across the US.
While there were many different issues at stake in the 2024 U.S. election such as economics, global impact, and various social issues, as I pen these words, the 2024 US election is already past and life is back to normal for most Americans. Therefore i feel it would not be right to comment on specifics, people may be excited or disappointed, there is much noise and meaningless rhetoric floating about, but at the end of the day they still live in about the safest, freest, and most democratic nation you can find in the Western Hemisphere. The biggest political “issues” in the US are but first world problems and I am grateful neither myself nor my family grew up to face what so many around the world have known since birth — war, starvation, slavery, oppression, tyranny, and fleeing ones own country. Surely America has her issues, they are indeed many, but they are small in comparison with what so many suffer each day around the globe.
MY biggest conviction and take home from the presidential election is that there is much left to be done, not by the president or by politicians, but by the Church.
MY biggest conviction and take home from the presidential election is that there is much left to be done, not by the president or by politicians, but by the Church. For it is, and has always been the Church that has provided for the poor, cared for the oppressed and marginalised, welcomed the immigrant and foreigner with open arms, fought for the abolition of slavery, opposed tyranny, and pioneered social justice. It is in Christ and His Church we should place our trust, not politicians. If you were to ask me my thoughts on the election, this would be my answer.
I will conclude with a bit of history. I am from the state of Alabama, once a strong hold of the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War and a prominent slave state. Even more importantly however Alabama was the birthplace of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Martin Luther King Jr. pastored a church about an hours drive from my hometown in Montgomery, Alabama, and it was him and other church leaders who fought for equal rights and social justice for all Americans regardless of race or ethnicity. I mention this because many Americans are looking to politicians (especially the president) for answers to social issues and injustices and then also blaming them when such issues are not fixed. MLK Jr. had neither political power nor a political voice yet he started one of the most significant movements in modern history. How? Because he saw what many today fail to see, it is the Church and the people of God who are to solve these issues. Our hope and trust should be in God not the government, I write this not just because it sounds nice but because many Americans need to here this as well as many people here in the UK. Are we looking to the government for that which is the Church’s responsibility? Martin Luther King Jr. wisely said:
“There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what the believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principals of modern opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society” - Martin Luther King Jr
The 2024 U.S. election has passed. Trump is not an American savior, nor would Harris have been. Only Jesus is. While we yet have religious freedom in the Western world how will the Church respond to the many problems faced by humanity. Will we be a thermometer or thermostat? Will we merely voice words and empty rhetoric or will we be strong in the Holy Spirit, guided by Scripture, and live our lives in such a way as to be the hands and feet of Christ in a fallen world? How shall we as the people of God respond to war, violence, oppression, injustice, poverty, and corruption in the world? Let us look to Christ and His Church.
Web Blackmon 11/21/2024