Well, it’s official. Recently, we learned as a nation that some people are above the law. Trusting our government is no longer a recommendation.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate in the race for president, will serve no penitence, much less justice, over her use of a private email system for government work. This was announced by FBI Director James Comey. His bombshell announcement was that he would not seek criminal charges against Clinton and therefore, she will continue riding the campaign trail. The outrage and disbelief poured in all over social media, and around the table at dinner for many American families. Many are livid, rightfully so, for such a time as this, as our country continues to spiral out of control. Again and again, we see the depths the Clinton Cartel drowns itself into. We see there is no justice in any branch of government. No charges for Hillary because, after all, only state secrets were abused, nothing else.
Again, it looks like man gets it wrong.
I look at my three children as they wake from sleep every morning and realize how blessed I am to be endowed with such a responsibility, to be a steward of their well-being, of their instruction and walk with the Lord. My children’s lives are not grieved with the after effects of wisdom quite yet, for Ecclesiastes reminds us just what that entails:
“For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” Ecclesiastes 1:18
Grief and sorrow are by-products of wisdom and increase in knowledge. It’s no wonder that Christian parents are fraught with apprehension about the condition in which our country finds itself. Our nation’s moral compass has been lost at sea, and those of us inclining an ear to the current philosophies of man will need to brace ourselves for an impending shipwreck is at hand.
At this time, my children find respite from the toil of their parents’ anxiety by attending swimming lessons, visits with grandparents, art shows, playtime in the park. Distractions. Occupations. Activities. Busyness. They’re aware of what’s going on with the troubles of our nation, whose side we’re on, what principles we stand on, what threatens our religious liberty and our constitutional rights. My husband and I openly discuss the relentless headlines that consume our country with the many pronouncements an election year holds in the balance, fate which will turn the course of our lives as homeschoolers, Christians, and Americans. These conversations are lessons in civics and government and faith.
The glass ceiling may need to break in order for us to see heaven more clearly.
I spoke with a relative the other day who rejoices in the mark of history that’s been made: a woman is a candidate for the presidency.
I can just hear it now, the platitudes in schools across America evoked by many little girls in their classrooms. If Hillary can become president, I can too. There’s nothing I can’t do. Nothing will stop me now. This, from the mouth of babes.
From women in my generation, I hear similar proclamations: it’s about time a woman took the lead office of the free world. America, they say, is ready for a female president.
All this and more from women I know who only look at a woman’s face on television, and nothing more. There is no scrutiny of any sort. Just a woman running for president is good enough for them. I even see Christians supporting this poster child of female leadership, this monument of progressivism and ambition edified by many across the stratosphere of media, class, race, gender, color, ideology. Fans of Hillary are ever so forgiving that they are struck with amnesia about the past, present, and ignore the future she wants for America. Her pathology, her husband, or her legacy are overlooked—sadly, none of it seems to matter when the cheering and adulation from the crowds stifle any sense of logic. No one seems to be concerned about the possibility of being on the wrong side of history? Character, in the 21st century, now counts for little in the average person, let alone for a nation’s leader. It doesn’t matter anymore how women climb up the ranks to positions of power, influence, and leadership because the message today to our young girls is no matter the means, no matter the cause, no matter how many dead bodies are left in the wake, one should climb over that to get to success.
Women have long fought for equality and honor through the course of history so why then do women say that Hillary Clinton should be president, simply because she is a woman? Doesn’t her gender (as a qualification to be president) feed into the bias women have fought to overcome? How is voting for a woman—just because she is a woman—a credible standard for any position in leadership? It shouldn’t be the standard because that only reduces gender to a novelty. For now, I am going to put aside the entitlement Clinton believes qualifies her for high office, because at the end of the day, her character is what matters most.
For the #DNCinPHL to broadly brush away legitimate reasons for concern as biased and bigoted verges on ignorance. Hillary and her platform pander to a niche population (women, people of color, immigrants, etc) that have been told over and over again that they are victims of society, of circumstance, that capitalism is the enemy and it must be destroyed, that there is a force above them that could help them rise up. They are told that they need a government to intervene and save them from a nebulous predator out to get them, out to see them fail. This predator is the Republican party and all conservative minded individuals. Given that, we ought to read a bit of history:
The title of Democrat has its beginnings in the South, going back to the founding of the Democratic-Republican Party in 1793 by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. It held to small government principles and distrusted the national government. Foreign policy was a major issue. After being the dominant party in U.S. politics from 1800 to 1829, the Democratic-Republicans split into two factions by 1828: the federalist National Republicans, and the Democrats. The Democrats and Whigs were evenly balanced in the 1830s and 1840s. However, by the 1850s, the Whigs disintegrated. Other opposition parties emerged but the Democrats were dominant. Northern Democrats were in serious opposition to Southern Democrats on the issue of slavery; Northern Democrats, led by Stephen Douglas, believed in Popular Sovereignty—letting the people of the territories vote on slavery. The conservative Southern Democrats, reflecting the views of the late John C. Calhoun, insisted slavery was national.
The Democrats controlled the national government 1852-60. Presidents Pierce and Buchanan were friendly to Southern interests. In the North, the newly formed anti-slavery Republican Party came to power, and dominated the electoral college. In the 1860 presidential election, the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, but the divide among Democrats led to the nomination of two candidates: John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky represented Southern Democrats, and Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois represented Northern Democrats. But the Republicans had a majority of the electoral vote regardless of how the opposition split or joined together and Abraham Lincoln was elected.
After the election of Abraham Lincoln, Southern Democrats led the charge to secede from the Union and form the Confederate States of America. The Congress was dominated by Republicans, save for Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, the only senator from a state in rebellion to reject secession.” Source: Wikipedia
The Republicans are not the bigoted racists they are thought to be. The historical record shows the Democrats were the bigoted. Today, the latter panders to the disenfranchised—that term so demeaning and devoid of dignity. Aren’t we Americans, and doesn’t that equal that we are free? Doesn’t that equal we have liberty—individual sole liberty? Freedom is not synonymous with disenfranchised. Under the law, Americans are equal. Conservatives don’t want a hand-out or a bail-out from the government, for there is no freedom gained in that, but rather freedom is withheld.
Why do we need a rescuer to lead the charge for a better America, who will make our country great again, who will be our change maker, as it were? All this is not necessary because Christ is our only Saviour. He is our lifeline. Our heavenly Father hand selected a number of individuals to lead armies, to lead people, to lead change and judgment. He called these individuals in order to magnify His name—a far cry from where we are today! The leaders of our free world today don’t stand a chance next to those of biblical generations. They pale in comparison. They lack character and fear of the Lord. They don’t inspire hope in the people of this land because sooner or later, we see them serving themselves and making room for their cronies.
This is why Hillary Clinton is not the pattern for my daughter to follow:
Hillary Clinton stood by her philandering husband, who was accused of rape, who had a list of affairs with women who revealed the truth about him. Clinton says she fights for the rights of women but she conveniently forgets those women who have become her husband’s victims. She forgets her husband’s abuse of power during his administration, as she enabled him. Her husband was impeached as president and that legacy burns deep in the fabric of a country that stands for liberty, equality, and justice for all.
There is no integrity in the political landscape today, as fallen man behaves as fallen men do: with pride, arrogance, for the love of money, power and influence. Now, years after Bill Clinton presided over the United States of America, he appears to be on a downward spiral, much like King Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament, in which he became mentally deranged and went mad, groveling the earth like a beast. God’s judgment is clear for Nebuchadnezzar and He doesn’t withhold His judgment today either.
Knowing this, we ought to try the spirits, to see if they are of God, discerning everything with all vigilance (1 John 4:1).
I shudder at the thought that we are entering a new era as believers, in which God’s hand of mercy is getting pulled away because America has strayed so far away from God. We know God appoints the kings of nations:
“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.” Daniel 2: 20-22
Since God deposes kings and raises up others, it should be no surprise that we have two candidates who are vile and corrupt, double-minded and unsteady in all their ways. If Hillary Clinton wins this election year, let it be known that she will break the glass ceiling—but only for us to see heaven more clearly. Let God’s judgment draw us closer to Him, instead of further.
A Few Good Women
Given the climate of our country, we need to hold fast to God’s word and His teachings. The times are perilous and the stakes are too high. Because it is important to seek God for answers to all things, let’s turn to Him for such a time as this.
My daughter doesn’t need the current culture or doubt-filled believers to tell her who to look to as role models. She simply needs me—her mother—to point her to a few women she ought to know, women who are far above rubies, far more influential for eternity’s sake, and who master the role of femininity (not feminism) and delight the Lord.
Esther risked her life to save her people, the Jews, during the Persian empire. Her people had been exiled from Israel, their homeland, and were scattered throughout. She lived in the region that stretched from India to the edge of Europe under the Persian Empire’s rule. Through a series of harrowing events, she became the Persian king’s bride, but a wicked official in the Persian court had other plans. His name was Haman, and like all those that oppose Jews, he was looking to eradicate this population. Esther’s relative Mordecai encouraged her to use her position as queen of Persia to deliver her people from Haman’s plot. She persuaded the king to carry out the will of justice. The king executed Haman and saved the Jews, approving their defense against any who tried to carry out Haman’s plan. Esther risked her own life during a perilous time in which her people were threatened, and she was in a delicate position to do so because the Persian Empire was a force to be reckoned with. She stood for social justice and was influential as a wife to her husband for that which was good and righteous.
Deborah was an influential leader. She worked as a judge. People came to her to have their disputes settled (Judges 4: 4-5). She was an obedient prophetess. God made it clear to her that a man in the northern part of Israel named Barak was to lead the Israelites against the Canaanites. Barak was apprehensive to lead the charge, but because Deborah was trustworthy, he went only on the condition that she go with him to battle! They won the battle together and as a result, the hill country of Ephraim became the home to other leaders, such as Ehud (Judges 3), the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 7:15-17), and the first king, Saul (1 Samuel 9: 1-4). Deborah, bold as a lion, knew what she had to do and wasn’t afraid of what others thought about it in the process. She was not a weak individual in the face of adversity.
Ruth did what others rarely do. She was married to the son of Naomi and Elimelech, who moved from Judah to Moab with their family in order to escape the famine. Eventually, Elimelech died in Moab, leaving Naomi as a widow. Ruth the Moabite met Naomi’s son and they married, but shortly thereafter, her husband died as well, leaving Ruth as a widow. When Naomi decided to return to her homeland of Judah with her widowed daughters-in-law, only one, Orpah, decided to return to her mother’s home while on journey, and the other, Ruth, remained by Naomi’s side til the end. “Thy people shall be my people,” she said to her mother in law, “and thy God my God.” Ruth the Moabite, entered a new season in life, settling into a new home foreign to her in Judah. She gleaned in the fields, provided food for herself and her mother-in-law. By God’s grace, she met a man named Boaz, owner of the fields where she gleaned from, and married. Obed, their son, would eventually become King David’s grandfather. Ruth, faithful and loyal, merciful too, having the sensibility to her mother-in-law’s condition as well as her own, was blessed with a new family. She was brave to restart her life in a new place, under a new culture in obedience to Jehovah. She had nothing to lose and everything to gain for all eternity. Her obedience is measured by the abundant faith she applied in her life, in her word, and in her deed.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was wise for her years. She birthed the Messiah, one of the greatest miracles of Bible history. She is a doting mother, concerned for her son. She searched with Joseph for Him in Jerusalem during the Passover, when He was at the temple with the rabbis. She wanted to protect him from the crowds He would eventually draw near to Him and the murmurings that would follow his legacy. But in the end, she stood at the foot of the cross as Jesus hung on to his last breathing moments until He gave up the ghost and died. She was courageous to witness that brutal death and was faithful to Him, remaining loyal through His most painful moment. Mary is the quintessential mother who demonstrated the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. She was chosen and favored by God himself to carry the Messiah in her womb and endure the cost from a society that didn’t believe and had little faith. She was brave and special and is a magnificent example of a young mother who would face opposition for the sake of the living gospel, the bread of life, the Christ.
These are the women whom I will point my daughter to for inspiration, encouragement, and empowerment, despite a society urging her to believe that if you lie, mistreat people, and ignore the law you can still become president.
The stakes are way too high to leave it up to any authority, party, ideology, or leader to direct the paths of my children. We are training my daughter to live for the Lord, to seek His face, to rely on God’s deliverance, to follow after Him, to say that my God will be her God, that she lives to find favor from God and not be a people pleaser. My daughter doesn’t need a landmark occasion in history for feminists and liberals who abhor God to tell her she too can be successful and prosperous, she can leave a mark on society and build a legacy. This is too selfish. This line of thinking has the backings of only pride, greed, and fame. There’s no eternal value to any of it.
I will point my daughter to these women of the Bible because they did more than what we see women like Hillary Clinton doing today: they trained up children in the Lord, their husbands are known at the gates, they girded up their loins to work for their families. These are the women whom I will point to for my daughter to take notice of because these are women who don’t seek glory for themselves, who speak truth with conviction and courage, who aren’t afraid to lose family and friends over that which is righteous; these women stand against the opposition with a confidence that only the Lord can bestow. These are the women who do not occupy themselves with vain babblings and idle words, who do not fall apart when disappointed, who—like the Bereans—search their Bible for the truth. These women don’t follow a celebrity Pastor and lean on his understanding for direction only because whatever he says must be true. These are the women my daughter will admire for they were humble to ask for forgiveness for their sins and wait on the Lord to guide them. These women don’t take the reins out of God’s hands or usurp His throne.
Where are the women of faith, of trust, of integrity, of heroism today? Where do they stand? They stand alone, mostly, as we’ve seen throughout history. Alexander Hamilton, First U.S. Secretary of the Treasury said: “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”
Today, the Christian woman of the 21st century doesn’t need a lukewarm Christianity, or the double-minded who are unsteady in all their ways, or the doubt-filled believer who stands on sand—on the wrong side of history—to be the voice of our time.
“Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” Philippians 2: 14-15
We know that God is not mocked. As I fear and tremble for our country, I maintain my trust in God to use His hand of justice and discipline over us, just as we see California turn to tyranny where liberty weeps. Our government is disarming us bit by bit (thanks to Governor Jerry Brown), Christian higher education is under attack (SB1146), and a duo of corrupt, immoral, and abhorrent presidential candidates are racing to high office.
If Clinton becomes president, my daughter will ask me how she was able to win the presidency. I won’t know what to tell her. I won’t have an answer because I will be as puzzled as she is. We don’t know what the verdict will be in November, but she may win. And if she does, we need to brace ourselves. We need to hold on for that disastrous ride. And maybe, that broken glass ceiling will finally compel us to see heaven more clearly because we’ll be crying out to God to save us from peril.
This post was originally published here.