FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART
OP / ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
It is election time again. The current president of the United States has just announced that he is running for a second term. He says he wants to “Finish the work” he has started. The former president announced his election bid several months ago, and he, too, wants a second term. He is running despite numerous criminal and civil investigations and indictments hanging over his head.
What interests me is not deciding who is worthy of the job here. Such a judgment will be in the voters’ hands, or I pray that God will be allowed to decide, as we pray, “Lord, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Yes, what interests me is the amount of opposition research being done at party headquarters behind the scenes to “dig up dirt” on one person over the other. For example, in the last two presidential election cycles, we learn of the bald-faced efforts to use a dossier of many concocted stories.
We heard of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s visit to Ukraine to “dig up dirt” on the Bidens. We also learned how Hunter Biden’s laptop was stolen from a repair shop and the hard drive taken out to be analyzed for whatever can be found to bring a scandal on the Bidens. Then I read that some polls are intended to influence the electorate by misusing opposition research.
And we know, too, that some TV and Radio stations are grabbing whatever facts or factoids that come out of the opposition research to create a caricature of one person against the other so that by the day of voting, the negatives against the one or the other can be of such that people will be persuaded in the way they vote.
If we want to talk about the most prominent voices that have built their models on “digging up dirt” and “tearing down people” for their political interests, we cannot fail to mention Tucker Carlson. He was taken off the air from Fox News, and his email account shut off. There is much speculation concerning his firing. It is known that tapes released by the Dominion lawsuit focused on Carlson’s duplicitous play in the last election. Fox might have been afraid that the double-speak of telling people in the open what he was contradicting in the dark was costing them too much.
As noted, Fox paid Dominion (the voting machine company) nearly $800,000,000 to settle the lies about Dominion’s handling of the voting machines. More cases are connected with Carlson, so Fox hastened to fire him, even while negotiating his contract renewal through 2029.
I have noted what is happening in the public sphere to make the point that so much is being done to “tear down one another” instead of “building up one another” that if not corrected, we will destroy ourselves.
Let me turn to Scripture, where the apostle Paul instructed the churches, he established that they were to “Build up one another” (cf. Romans 14:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:11). Jesus said prior, “Judgenot, that you be not judged. 2 For with whatjudgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Matthew 7:1, 2 NKJV).
The instructions might be directed at church folks in the first place, but one would wish they could serve in the public square, where so much hurt is being done in the tearing down of others.
What is most hurtful is how much our children are learning from the lying, disrespect, bitterness, and lack of kindness and compassion from the frame of tearing down. In one of my devotionals, I read a very instructive thought: “God does not want us to place ourselves upon the judgment seat and judge each other… When we see errors in others, let us remember that we have faults graver, perhaps, in the sight of God than the fault we condemn in our brother. Instead of publishing his defects, ask God to bless and help him overcome his error. Christ will approve of this spirit and action and will open the way for you to speak a word of wisdom that will impart strength and help to him who is weak in the faith.” (OFC 127.6)
It is likely that if you are reading this reflection and are thinking that the latter instruction is different from how one wins elections or works in a competitive environment, then here are a few questions I would ask. 1. How effective is the tearing down of one another in any environment you have been in? 2. What has been or is the result of building up another in your home, the church, or the public sphere?
For me, building up one another has always proven to be a blessing, and I hope you can try it to see how much it will bless you. Then, let me invite you to build up somebody today.
