Put No Confidence in Princes

I was born into a Republican family, the grandson of a businessman who had voted -- as did nearly every other white man in the South -- for FDR in 1932 and, upon seeing the creeping socialism of the New Deal never did so again at the national level and lived to see being a Republican become acceptable at the local level; his son, my father, viewed voting a nearly if not exclusively straight Republican ticket as being a duty (something that hadn't changed when I spoke to him this afternoon). When I was 14 I volunteered for the re-election campaign of Ronald Reagan and the associated races (I've said, not completely jokingly, that every Presidential election has been downhill since then) and was involved with Republican Party politics to a greater or lesser extent until last year when the ease with which my fellow Republicans gave the vote to Mark Sanford in returning him to Congress following his ending his gubernatorial term in scandal made me uncomfortable with continuing to so identify myself, although as a Conservative I predominately vote Republican.

Twenty years ago tonight -- give or take a couple of days -- I was in my junior (first) year at Erskine Theological Seminary and sitting in my apartment in Abbeville, South Carolina, as I watched the Republicans do what they have just done tonight -- take control of both houses of Congress for the first time in my lifetime, turning back the tide of Bill Clinton, whom I was sure represented all that was evil and bad in the country. I was sure that this was a great move of God, after all, the G.O.P. was "God's Own Party", right?

I walked across the street from my apartment to the Abbeville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church  (I knew where the key was, and likely still is, hidden) and thanked God for his goodness. I took a copy of Bible Songs, the green-bound quasi-Psalter then used in many ARP churches (now much less so, as they've been replaced by a Psalter that is a marked improvement) and sang number 313 "Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah" (based upon Psalm 148) in celebration of this sea change. It is perhaps unfortunate that I didn't sing the more traditional albeit slightly less textually accurate version from The Psalter, 1912 which includes the injunction to "Put no confidence in princes, Nor for help on man depend; He shall die, to dust returning, And his purposes shall end."

And so, 20 years later, I find myself sitting at home, watching the news as the Republicans control both houses of Congress while a Democrat occupies the White House, albeit at the end of his tenure and not at the beginning. I hope that this will stem the tide of his liberal agenda that promotes many things that I am convinced are antithetical to a Christian world and life view and protect the preborn and, seemingly impossibly, reverse the trend toward the Federal redefinition of marriage, but I'm not nearly as exultant as I was 20 years ago.

Elections are important -- very important -- but even more important is that the Church faithfully proclaim the whole counsel of God, that Christian parents disciple their children and that individually and corporately Christians live transformed lives that will have far more impact than the results of any election.