Prologue: I’ve been wrestling whether or not to publish this post as the partisan divide is so acute. Yet MLK’s observation that “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” seems right. So the following post about post-election myths is the first of several posts where I’ll be exploring, hopefully together, about our descent into worlds of alternative truths.
Did you know that a supercomputer hacked the 2020 election through two CIA computer programs, switching votes from Trump to Biden? One program, called Hammer, cracks into protected voting networks, while another, called Scorecard, changes vote totals. Or that Smartmatic voting machines switched votes from Trump to Biden using technology reportedly founded by Cesar Chavez in 2005 for the specific purpose of fixing elections. Or how Smartmatic leads to Dominion Voting Systems where the conspiracy stories then diverge like a shotgun blast.
Team Trump’s claims of election improprieties have been an impressive tribute to the wild and boundless imagination of God’s creation. And they are all about to be proven with the imminent “Release of the Kraken,” a cyber warfare program that will reveal the treasonous activities of the Deep State.
On a different battlefield, Team Trump’s many and varied public claims of fraud run head-first into that critical and integrating part of our spiritual armor: Truth. You can lie to the public, but can’t lie to a judge without incurring serious consequences. Witness Federal District Court Judge Brann’s reprimand of Rudy Giuliani’s never-ending fraud assertions in Pennsylvania: “[T]his Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence.” On appeal, a Trump-appointed Third Circuit judge further chastised the Trump legal team: “Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.“
This gaping chasm between Team Trump’s public and legal representations is a common refrain across counties and states as Trump attorneys have been forced to deny again and again any meaningful evidence of voter fraud, impropriety or misconduct. The reports of widespread fraud allegedly proven through hundreds of affidavits wither in court when confronted by the rule of law.
In one of these cases, Michigan’s Judge Cynthia Stephens wrote: “This “supplemental evidence” is inadmissible as hearsay. The assertion that [the poll watcher] was informed by an unknown individual what ‘other hired poll workers at her table’ had been told is inadmissible hearsay within hearsay, and plaintiffs have provided no hearsay exception for either level of hearsay that would warrant consideration of the evidence. See MRE 801(c). The note—which is vague and equivocal—is likewise hearsay. And again, plaintiffs have not presented an argument as to why the Court could consider the same, given the general prohibitions against hearsay evidence.”
“But shouldn’t Trump be able to explore all legal options?” A friend recently asked this and there’s some merit to this question even if the batting average of Team Trump is 1 for 39. But that’s not the issue and it misses the core point. Their relentless and shameless lying about this election coupled with flirtation of conspiracy theories inflicts serious damage on our country, plunging many Americans into a dystopian understanding of reality and doing real damage to their perception of foundational American institutions: surveys consistently show that between 70 to 80 percent of Republicans say the 2020 election was not free and fair, reflecting the high degree to which Republican voters believe Trump when he tweets out statements about election improprieties.
These dystopian understandings are invading the church and are doing serious damage there too as I’ve observed my faith community eagerly embrace widespread fraud theories and watched conspiracy theories course through Christian circles on social media. An example of this was the passionate promotion of massive vote switching by Dominion voting machines, concluding: “that the wickedness in the dark places in this country was deeper and more wide-spread than we could have ever imagine.”
Or a post about a Republican hearing in Gettysburg alleging election irregularities, with the poster lamenting how the hearing would not be covered by MSM, much less investigated. A Christian friend jumped in to assert that those regurgitating the “no credible evidence” mantra have been brainwashed. He then became excited when some Pennsylvania legislators offered a resolution to turn over sole election authority to the legislature with the hope of re-assigning electors to yield a winner of their choosing – giving no credence to the disenfranchisement of millions of Americans, many of whom are minority voters of color, without a shred of proof or evidence able to withstand a truth test by the court.
This post-election period presents a moral test for the nation and particularly for the white evangelical church too. It’s a test about objective truth, but also a test about the witness of a church called to show the world what their God is like. The fantastical election conspiracies, the reckless assertions of meaningful fraud, and then the call for wholesale voter disenfranchisement, all unsupported by multiple court findings, are exactly the sort of “foolish and ignorant speculations” scripture warns us about. Then the passion in the advocacy of these unsupported speculations reveals where one’s citizenship truly resides for “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
As evangelical radio host Erick Erickson deplored: “When you believe Dominion Voter Systems stole the election or more people voted than were registered to vote, both of which are lies, you harm your ability to share the truth of the gospel because one who so easily embraces lies will be treated skeptically.”
The Joshua Declaration
The damage to the gospel witness from the plunge into a world of alternative facts is one of the primary reasons I’ve started this blog. I’ll be addressing these truth issues in the coming weeks and months through a series of posts that follow Joshua’s declaration “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
That declaration, once given to the Israelites of old, and following an admonition to throw away false gods, is still very much needed today. A new set of gods have invaded the white evangelical church through sociopolitical pressures divorced from the gospel. I will explore how populist, nationalistic, and Manichean worldviews run rampant throughout that church, changing our identity, tarnishing our witness, and opening the door to dystopian understandings of the world.
For: If the people of God become known for spreading conspiracy theories and misinformation, then the world has no reason to believe us when we proclaim Jesus as Lord.