Op Ed
Ever since the Conservative Resurgence during the Moral Majority days of the Reagan Administration, conservatives have worked tirelessly in between election cycles to find the “perfect” candidate to support for office. If one of the perfect candidates we have chosen to represent our moral high ground suddenly appears anything less than God-like, we quickly toss him or her aside, terrified that the Democrats will use the revealed shortcomings as a weapon to defeat us. This cycle repeats itself at every level of elected government, from the White House to City Hall.
Then came Donald Trump. A man deeply flawed, twice-divorced, children by three different wives, and a known playboy of the highest sort. A crude, unpolished, morally flawed man who turned out to be the right candidate at the right time. The danger we face now is going back to the days of searching for the perfect candidate again to continue Trump’s legacy, and that would be disastrous.
My friends, the days of looking for the perfect candidate to represent us need to die…yesterday.
What matters is not someone who is still married to their high school/college sweetheart, has 2.3 children, lives in a nice neighborhood, has a perfect, successful career, and just gleams with political polish. What we need now is men and women of character…and that is often times (if not most times) found in someone other than the perfect candidate.
Character is not formed by living a perfect, safe life. The deepest character is often formed through falling flat on our face, realizing our sin, and repenting.
Proverbs 24:16 states, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” The number seven is significant in the Bible. It is the number of perfection. In other words, what the Psalmist is saying here is that the righteous man perfects the art of falling. The difference is that the righteous man or woman always rises one more time than they fall. The wicked man just makes an excuse for their falling and stays down in the mud.
Romans 3:23 states that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” 1 John 1:8 states that “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” By that standard, then, the “perfect” political candidate is flat-out lying to all of us by keeping their weaknesses hidden.
So according to a Biblical standard of righteousness, the right candidate should be one that has perfected the art of screwing up. Who recognizes his/her deep flaws, doesn’t try to hide them, and allows God to do a restorative work in their hearts and lives. THAT is a person of character. Yet by our own pious standards, not even King David (a thief, adulterer, and murderer), the Apostle Paul (a murderer and persecutor of Christians), or about half of Jesus disciples would qualify to run for office. If that’s not hypocrisy, I don’t know what is.
We’ve seen this time and again. Both President’s Bush appeared to be the perfect conservative candidate, only to prove themselves to be globalists bent on bringing about a one world government. Barak Obama appeared to be a devoted husband and father up front, only to turn out to be the worst President this country has ever had (until the current one). Even Bill Clinton appeared to be a great guy with a great family at first, and look how THAT turned out.
The same holds true for some of our own elected officials. Senator Lankford has long appeared to be a model conservative politician, only to be found completely devoid of character and courage when the Republic depended upon him to defend it against a godless Communist overthrow. Even our own Mayor Holt appears, by all accounts, to be a great guy. Lovely family, great kids, successful career, etc.; however he has, and is, flat out selling us down the Marxist river.
If we want to have a shot at actually reclaiming the Republic that now lies in ashes at our feet, we must abandon this notion of searching for the perfect candidates to represent us, and start looking for people whose character has been forged through the Refiner’s fire, who know well the path of repentance, and who know how to get on their knees before a Holy God and ask for forgiveness.
This organization will always stand by, and defend, the candidate with the most character and the greatest amount of moral courage that is qualified for the job, regardless of their past. There are obvious exceptions for crimes of moral turpitude, because that does go to show a person’s character, but we will not summarily reject a candidate because they have a marred or checkered past.
As we saw with President Trump, they may just be the exact kind of person we need to lead us at the exact right time. If this Republic is to be saved, we must all embrace this – NOW.
Copyright, Ignite Liberty, 2021