Kamala Harris failed, why 434 was an effective strategy against the pro-abortion industry’s desires to capture our state, 434 also overcoming the strange attacks from a collection of contrarian, abolitionist pro-life people, and what this all means for an American Christian’s answer to the question, “And so what now?”)
1) Yes, I am sighing with relief today. And it’s a continuation of the sigh that began about 2:30 Wednesday morning when Claire and I saw the late vote counts turning for Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Adding to our comfort that morning were the late vote counts that assured a Nebraska win for Amendment proposal 434, for Senator Deb Fischer, and for the...uh...usually conservative Republican, Congressman Don Bacon.
Yet along with the sigh of relief, there is a more poignant, painful, and continual sigh caused by deep regret and spiritual challenge. For the stark evidence from those election numbers emphasize how terribly soiled, torn, and rotting is the cultural fabric of our nation. For instance, those numbers show that nearly half of American voters knowingly voted to expand yet further the slaughter of the innocents through chemical poisons, surgical knives, and violent suction machines that tear preborn boys and girls to pieces. Nearly half of American voters knowingly voted for lawlessness in our cities, on our borders, and in our White House. Nearly half of American voters knowingly voted for elitists being allowed to criminalize free speech, deny rights of conscience, override parental rights, and audaciously deny the most basic of biological realities. And nearly half of American voters swallowed “whole hog” the lies, hatred, and outlandish conspiracies that were so irresponsibly and incessantly preached by leftist political officials and their media henchmen.
Thus, that second and ongoing sigh. Our work, brothers and sisters, is far from over.
2) In light of this, let’s be sure to recognize the limits of government. I certainly believe that the election of Donald Trump is a blessing to America and to the world. And so I am both quick and keen to thank the Lord for answers to our prayers regarding the election and for all of His other abundant graces to our nation. However, Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Senate and Congress cannot do what is the job of the Church. So don’t expect that. Oh, no; let that sigh of relief be but a brief thing and then let’s you and I get to those critical culture duties that are laid down in Holy Scripture: to occupy until Jesus comes, to strengthen the things that remain, to shine our light into the darkness, to overcome evil with good, to defend those being dragged away to slaughter, to hold forth the word of truth, to pray without ceasing, to do justice, to disciple the nations, to preach the gospel to every creature, and so on.
Indeed, in these last days, let us intensify and make more frequent our prayers, even as we freshly commit our efforts to better serve the Lord Jesus as His ambassadors in this bleak and oh-so-desperate world.
3) In Nebraska, the proposed ballot amendment (439) that would have enshrined unlimited and unregulated abortion into our state constitution was defeated. But please note that it wasn’t defeated by a whole lot. And there were three reasons why. First of all, sad to say, but Nebraska’s citizenry is not nearly as pro-life as we have often fooled ourselves into thinking, let alone as pro-life as we would desire. Let’s face the hard truth. 50 years of Roe v Wade, 50 years of abortion propaganda from media and government schools, and 50 years of an irresponsible lack of pushback against abortion by Church leaders have taken a terrible toll. And so it shouldn’t shock us all that much to learn that the in-depth research done here in Nebraska early in the year revealed how impossible it would be to pass the kind of laws that all pro-lifers desire; namely, a ban on all abortions.
Thus came the wording of 434 which protects as much as possible the pro-life gains achieved over the years AND creates means and momentum for further pro-life laws. But furthermore, 434 was carefully, prayerfully designed as the best chance possible to defeat 439, the extremely pro-abortion measure which was very much like those passed in several other states in Tuesday’s elections -- as well as 7 states before that.
The second reason that 439, “the abortionist’s delight,” failed was that the efforts of Nebraska pro-lifers to counter the lies and cold-heartedness behind 439 proved successful. Way to go everyone -- but a special shout-out to those lovely female athletes who presented an absolutely stunning pro-life ad. Wow! The battle to secure Nebraska’s pro-life gains and to keep unrestricted abortion from becoming the law here was a very tough fight because big, big money came in from Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and other deep pocket abortion proponents invested heavily to spread the most dastardly and devious lies. And yet, thank the Lord, the pro-life prayers, efforts, and that provision of a strategic alternative gave Nebraska babies and their moms a huge win.
But 434 had one other obstacle to overcome. That was the naive, counterproductive, and extremely harsh criticism of certain pro-life people in our state. That’s right, believe it or not, 434 was strenuously opposed by a group of contrarians who insisted that the only truly pro-life position was the absolutist/abolitionist (I’m using their terms, by the way, not mine) one they had drafted last spring. But that effort had been a complete failure. It was never even remotely close to making it on the ballot. Nonetheless, this minority collection of pro-life people chose a most irresponsible, dangerous way to express their disappointment. They decided to do all they could to discourage Nebraskans from voting on 434 -- even though they knew this could well backfire and allow 439 to secure more votes than 434. Indeed, these people vehemently scolded pro-lifers intending to vote for 434 that they would then be guilty of sin, being a traitor to the unborn babies, committing an evil and pro-abortion act. Good grief.
To be sure, the majority of this contrarian group (not all, only most) were people whose service to the pro-life cause over the years ranges from minimal to missing altogether. That’s sad enough. Yet, from many of these armchair quarterbacks (again, not all) came the most unjust, mean-spirited, even slanderous charges against not only the strategy behind 434, but the character and motives of anyone who supported it. Believe me, some of those criticisms were ugly. And they were leveled at such dedicated, noble pro-life veterans as Nebraska Right to Life, the Nebraska Catholic Conference, Vital Signs Ministries, Nebraska Family Alliance, Assure Women’s Center, Students for the Life of America, Essential Pregnancy Services, Abortion Dialogue Academy, Business and Professional People for Life, a few hundred churches, and still more. To make such a wholesale, vindictive denunciation of this whole band of heroes shows...well, some pretty remarkable gall.
So, let’s consider the future. Will the absolutists now lay down the ugly words and weapons they used against the pro-life heroes representing the organizations and ministries I’ve named above? Will they apologize (not for honest differences in opinion about the best strategy, that’s more than acceptable), but apologies for the needless, heedless smears against reputations that were publicly spread abroad? After all, we (for I’m one of those roundly criticized) not only had to deal with gross distortions of our positions from the absolutist folks, but also slanders against our personal character, motivation, and sincerity. I surely hope reconciliations will start taking place. And soon. But, given the depth of animosity some of the abolitionists demonstrated in their fight against 434, I fear that the harm done to the pro-life movement in our state may be profound and enduring. Lord, please help us repair the damage and get a fresh start -- together.
4) Another point. One of the most crucial of all prerequisites for American Christians improving their service to the Lord Jesus is the development of a purer, wiser worldview. And a simple step towards that is that we stop watching, reading, and listening to the Democrat Party media! And yes, this includes your hometown newspaper and your local television news. Guys, they are all in the tank. They all blather about inconsequentials; they all lean left; and they all exclude the most important news and most truthful of perspectives. So, instead of continuing your dependence on the State media, please utilize the wide array of alternative sources of news, information, and commentary that are now available to you. There are way too many websites, podcasts, and publications for me to list here. But the fact is that quality news and information are there waiting for you. Therefore, unplug yourself from media that misinforms, misdirects, and manipulates you and your family. And then, kindly and respectfully encourage others to do the same.
5) I drop in a very brief word here about preachers and pastors that I believe relevant to the election. This has been one of the subjects my good friend and pro-life colleague, John Malek, and I have talked about for some long while at our Thursday morning coffee. It is simply this. Pastors should be diligent in taking care of their sheep, don’t we all agree? Of course. And we normally think of the duties therein to be feeding and comforting said sheep. That’s spot on as well. But comforting counsel, intercessory prayer, and teaching the rudiments of Christian doctrines cannot be the only responsibilities of the shepherd -- when there are wolves in the vicinity. And, my oh my, pastor; do we have plenty of wolves lurking about! And those wolves not only tear apart their prey in literal ways (abortionists, drug dealers, murderers, sex traffickers), they are destroying innocence, justice, and the historic ideals of Christian-based Western Civilization. They do so through the aforementioned media but also through Marxism, Darwinism, hedonism, and other thoroughly pagan philosophies -- all of which are standard (almost unrivaled) features of the media, government schools, and their allies in the museums, PBS, pseudoscientific publications, libraries, pop entertainment, Big Business and Big Tech, and the social media giants like Google and Facebook and tiktok.
Consider the weight of a 30-minute sermon, a few songs, and maybe even a Sunday School class to the untold hours your parishioners are spending every week with these wolves. Think of how their minds and emotions and habits and priorities are being shaped. And, with that being the case, do we really think we have been serious and skilled enough about teaching Christians what God says (and in specific, meaningful, prioritized ways) about His order of creation, evolution, sanctity of life, modesty, sexual chastity, marriage, family life, honoring our elders, the seductions posed by the world’s system, financial saving and giving, freedom, Christian apologetics, history, the furniture of one’s mind being what is beautiful and true, and so on. The answer, of course...well, you know the answer. And it should motivate us to start doing much better. Wolf patrols, assemble!
6) Okay, back to the election itself for these last couple of points. The Democrat candidates ran primarily on three things: a) against the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, b) against the truths quite obvious to most of the country’s citizens regarding theDemocrat's own disastrous tenure in office, and c) their unlimited appetite for more abortion and sexual perversities.
But the Republicans? Donald Trump made it clear that his priorities were securing the border; restoring the rule of law; building the U.S. military; removing the red tape and other severe restrictions on business and the economy; lower taxes; stopping the overreach of the federal government into the rights of states, communities and individuals; proper oversight of government waste, including monies going overseas as foreign aid; standing with Israel; prohibiting the federal government from pushing yet further abortion and Planned Parenthood; dealing with vote fraud and election tampering; cleaning house in the corrupt alphabet federal agencies like the DOJ, IRS, FBI, and so on; increasing jobs; checking the power of international thugs like China and Iran; and renewing pride in America’s history and ideals. Those issues were winners -- every single one of them.
Along the way there were, of course, other highlights -- and lowlights -- of the respective campaigns. And, I believe they were, of course, orchestrated by God Himself Who desires to offer America yet another chance to clean up at least some of the mess we’ve made of our nation in recent years. Want me to mention a few? I do so in no particular order. Kamala Harris’ selection of Tim Walz, a pitiful fellow who turned out to be an even more lousy person and candidate than she was... Donald Trump’s brilliant stints as a McDonald’s worker and his garbage truck photo op... The dramatic and historic shift of a considerable amount of Latino, black, union member, and Jewish support from Democrat to Trump... Elon Musk and Robert Kennedy Jr... The decision of the L.A. Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, and others to refuse an endorsement for Harris... The bold strategy of Donald Trump to hold rallies even in heavily Democrat states -- this was a counter-intuitive but extremely nifty move which resonated with the whole of America, building enthusiasm and confidence in his base and heavily contributing to the invaluable momentum he achieved in winning the popular vote... President Biden’s ill-timed and inept “assistance” to the Harris campaign... Kamala Harris’ inappropriate and excessive laughter, her rambling word salads, refusing to do press conferences, skipping the Al Smith dinner, and the failure to distance herself in any specifics from the disastrous Biden presidency.
A few more? How about Trump’s interview by Joe Rogan...Tulsi Gabbard and Nikki Haley... The way-over-the-top hatred, arrogance, and fear mongering perpetrated by Harris, Walz, and the Democrat Party media... Republicans scoring several victories against vote fraud schemes leading up to the election... NBC’s unlawfully giving Harris a time slot on Saturday Night Live which not only underscored the media’s slobbering partnership with the Democrat Party, but being then required to offer Trump equal time on Sunday, time that he took not only to best Harris’ performance by far, but doing so to a much larger viewership... J.D. Vance’s overwhelming superiority to Tim Walz in their debate... Harris getting caught peddling contrary messages to the Jews of Pennsylvania and the Muslims of Michigan... The enthusiasm of the Republicans, independents, and awakened Democrats that made the vote totals just “too big to rig” this time around... Donald Trump surviving an assassination attempt and the horrendously inept performance of the Secret Service even after that tragedy... And many more which you yourselves can add to the count.
Again, God answered the prayers of His people around the world for the pagan left to fall into its own snares and therefore allow for a Republican victory that gives America another chance to repair the moral fabric of the nation, to help Israel, and to once again be a beacon of freedom, opportunity, and justice for the whole world.
7) But as I end this post-election wrap, let me again stress the overwhelming importance of you and I keeping our own house in order...to let the Lordship of Jesus Christ move us daily to love and good deeds in His name and by His mighty power...to forgive our enemies, be patient and gracious with them (without compromise) and pray for their enlightenment, correction and, when required, their conversion...to build up our spiritual disciplines to make our sanctification more consistent and appealing to a watching world...to stop the flow of lies and meaninglessness that moves into our heads and hearts and homes through the Democrat Party media and, for that matter, through the unhealthy entertainment the world dishes up for us...to become better ambassadors, better defenders of the faith, better in our prayers and personal discipleship...and to get on with our Father’s business in our homes, our churches, and yes, in the public square too.
And let me drop in before I close a couple of ways that I think Vital Signs Ministries can help you out. Please consider utilizing the free information materials offered by Vital Signs Ministries: Vital Signs Blog, the Vital Signs Ministries website, the Top 5 offered every Saturday. There are also service opportunities like coming alongside us as we testify to the sanctity of life outside Planned Parenthood, or the visitation ministries of “When Swing Was King” and our Sunday afternoon church services at Aksarben Village Senior Living, or our quarterly letter-writing parties. In fact, the next letter parties are on December 2 at our home (one in the morning and one in the evening) where we will be writing letters and Christmas cards to the newly elected public servants, the heroes that led the fight for 434 (including those Nebraska female athletes), and many others. It’s always a good, productive, and fun time so please plan on joining us. Just contact us if you’re interested.
