If Joe Biden were his party’s presidential nominee this fall, he would speak at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday. Instead, that honor goes to Vice President Kamala Harris, while Mr. Biden addressed the convention last night instead. Often interrupted With chants such as “We love Joe,” he referred to his shared successes with Mrs. Harris as he passed the torch to her.
Were the Democrats unfair to the president? Joe Biden won his party’s nomination in the primary, but then withdrew from the race on July 21. According to Robert Draper’s detailed New York Times Profile, he still feels Anger and pain towards the party leadership, which advised him against running for re-election.
Negatively speaking: his political allies supports They then turned against him when they felt he could no longer serve that purpose.
Put positively, politicians must be elected if they are to do their job. If, as Democratic Party leaders believe, their program best meets the needs of the nation, they must gain power to do so. Running candidates who have the best chance of winning is a necessary means to that end.
Lest you think I am biased, the same goes for the Republicans. Donald Trump was widely unpopular in his party until it became clear that he would win the nomination in 2016. In the years that followed, many of his political opponents became his supporters. The same negative/positive calculation applies.
“The arc of history bends towards justice”
I often quote the work of sociologist James Davison Hunter, whom I consider to be the leading evangelical cultural interpreter of our time. In his new book Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America’s Political CrisisHe argues that America was born in the tension between Enlightenment values – belief in individual reason, deliberation, and neutral social institutions – and religious belief.
As New York Times Columnist David Brooks Notes in his response to Hunter’s work:
The Bible has given generations of Americans a foundation of moral values, a conviction that we live in an objective moral order, a belief that the course of history tends toward justice. Religious zeal has been the impetus for many of our social movements, such as the abolitionists.
But as Hunter reports, America began to become less religious in the 1960s and subsequently began to privatize religious beliefs. In response, public life in America, especially among the highly educated classes, became largely secularized. Moral relativism then displaced religious doctrine.
How does this work for us?
“Love things and use people”
The so-called sexual revolution of this time, coupled with the introduction of birth control, soon led to the normalization of Divorce without blame, pornography, homosexualityAnd abortionThis was followed by same-sex marriage and social support for the LGBTQ community, as well as growing support for polygamy and euthanasia.
What all these problems have in common is that they turn people into commodities:
- Birth control allows unmarried people to have sex with strangers and reduce fear of pregnancy, even though God created sex as a celebration of marital intimacy and childbearing (Genesis 2:23-25).
- Without fault, divorce and polygamy undermine the unconditional nature of the relationship that God intended for marriage (see Genesis 2:24).
- In pornography, the bodies of others are obviously objectified for the purpose of selfish pleasure.
- LGBTQ activism characterizes people through perceived gender and sexual orientation instead of calling them to celebrate their identity within the framework of biblical truth and morality.
- Abortion treats unborn children as objects that the mother can kill and remove from her body at will, even though they are considered sacred by God from the moment of their conception (cf. Psalm 139:16; Jeremiah 1:5).
- Euthanasia values life only insofar as it serves utilitarian purposes for the individual or society as a whole.
As you can see, the fact that we use people as means to our ends is not limited to political parties. From Cain and Abel to today, it is a symptom of our fallen nature and our urge to be our own gods (Genesis 3:5).
And like the old gospel song says“Loving things and taking advantage of people only leads to unhappiness.”
Why “God will make us good”
If our society is ever to move beyond the commercialism and transactionalism that dominate our relationships, we need a source beyond ourselves. We need the strength to choose love over lust, sacrifice over selfishness, and forgiveness over revenge.
The good news is that Jesus, the only person in all of human history who best embodied these qualities, can recreate us in His “image” (Romans 8:29). His Spirit can reveal in us the “fruit” of His character: His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
How?
- Settle for nothing less than Christlikeness: “As he who called you is holy, you also must be holy in all your conduct.” (1 Peter 1:15)
- Practice Christ’s presence in your daily life. Read and memorize the Bible; express gratitude for His gifts; pray for your needs. Imagine yourself in His presence, for you are. (Matthew 28:20)
- Submit to the Holy Spirit every day and ask Him to make you more like your Lord than you ever were (Ephesians 5:18).
CS Lewis noted:
“The Christian does not believe that God loves us because we are good, but that God makes us good because he loves us.”
How much do you want God to “make you good” today?
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News worth knowing from Tuesday:
*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.
Quote of the day:
“Character is what a man is in the dark.” —DL Moody
