Bob Schwartz

Political power is one of the great temptations. Read ancient or modern history, read the Bible, read today’s news.

That news includes Nikki Haley, who not long ago called Trump dangerous and demented, now says she will vote for him. This is only the latest example of these kinds of turnarounds. A roster of Republicans brutally criticized Trump while they were vying for the 2016 nomination. The moment he won the nomination and looked like a potential president, they changed their tune. None more radically than Lindsey Graham, whose unwavering support of all things Trump has led to speculation that Trump has some secret personal evidence about him. Pure speculation.

Democrats are not strangers to political expediency, equivocation and hypocrisy. Plenty of examples. But Republicans have taken it to a new level. The Trump phenomenon has laid bare that in the Republican domain, with a few exceptions, all elements of integrity are gone. Maybe sleeping, maybe on vacation, maybe wounded, but more than likely dead for now.

For those of us who are not politicians, just citizens and political observers, the question loudly arises: Is political office and power really so important that all vestiges of integrity can be sacrificed? There were moments in the Nikki Haley campaign when she sounded like she actually meant what she said. We now know she didn’t. Or if she did at the time, she has found something more important, like being president someday.

There are so many Christians who support Trump and so many Republican politicians who are faithful Christians. Which means they may have read the Gospel of Mark thousands of times, and quoted it just as often. Whether they understood it is a different question, as is the question of how closely they follow it.

It is worth, for them and anybody, recalling the words from Mark 8:36:

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? (NIV)

There are a lot of souls forfeited along the Republican trail.

© 2024 by Bob Schwartz