The Russian Election
Russia just had their latest election. Just like the previous elections, Putin's part was resoundingly re-elected. The majority party took 349 out of 450 seats in the lower house of their parliament. The result surprised no one in our out of Russia.
The war on the Ukraine is very unpopular. Monthly troop casualties have been mounting and are currently estimated to be 30,000 to 40,000 per month. The estimates vary depending on the source, but dead and injured in the war are put at 1.4 million as of the time of the election, with some estimates higher. Of that around 450,000 have died.
To put that in perspective, 450,000 deaths is greater than the combined total of U.S. fatalities across all major conflicts since WWII. From Wikipedia, fatalities include Korea 36,574, Vietnam 58,220, Gulf War 294, Afghanistan war 2,325, Iraq 4,492, Inherent Resolve 120, and many other skirmishes that didn't quite make it to the war category but still far under the 450,000 count.
Any other country would want to stop the conflict at the voting box, especially when most don't see the purpose in it in the first place. But that is difficult in Russia. The anti-war Yabloko party was simply barred from running on the federal ballot by their Supreme Court. So there wasn't even a token of genuine resistance that was permitted. It's convenient when the ruling party controls the Supreme Court of the land and can simply call something legal or illegal at will.
Many observers of the election process have reported large numbers of searches and seizures, detentions, fines, imprisonment, and the disqualification of candidates of opposing parties. This isn't new. To stand out as an alternative candidate that opposes those in power has long been difficult in Russia.
Many have died. These have included Boris Nemtsov, Anna Politkovskaya, Alexander Litvinenko, Alexi Navalny, Denis Voronenkov, and Yevgeny Prigozhin from a quick Google AI summary. Opposition simply isn't tolerated.
There is also now video surveillance of the entire voting process including the vote counting. You'd think that this would keep there from being any cheating, and that may be a side effect. But think of the chilling effect of possibly seeing who votes for whom. The officials may say that they can't see those details, but this is Russia with a long history of oppression of opposition. Do you think those cameras with an unknown position and resolution don't have a chilling effect on those thinking about voting for the opposition?
I mention Russia, because they just had an election. But there are governments around the world which suffer from similar strong men or strong parties where opposition isn't allowed. Russia isn't unique. It is also said that the Russians are starting to take icons of the Christian church to the front lines in the hopes that the lip service to God that is rife within the country will make a difference. Whether this will end up any different than when the Israelites took the ark of the covenant into battle without God's orders remains to be seen. All I know is that Christ called on His people to be peacemakers and invading another country doesn't seem to fit that bill.
MAGA
The United States has another election coming up, just like clockwork. The Russian elections pretty much run on like a clock to, by the way. I'll start this conversation by saying I'm still a Republican. I have been my whole life. I'll probably still be a Republican when I die. But that doesn't mean I always vote as a Republican. I've even been known to write in an independent or Democratic candidate on the primary ballot if the Republican candidate the party selected to win was particularly offensive.
But as an old man, I've seen many changes in the party come and go. And the biggest change that gives me the most sadness is the rise of the MAGA movement that glorifies President Trump. Make America Great Again. I've got news for you. America was already great. And so are a few other countries - we aren't at the pinnacle of the world and haven't been for a long time.
Somewhere along the way, the Republican party has stopped being a party that had ideals of small government, balanced budgets, staying out of foreign political conflicts and wars, and trying to lift up everyone who lives in the country to a better standard of living. The party has started hating immigrants who made this country great in the first place. They're in full support of the health and drug industries and don't care about all the people going bankrupt due to medical bills.
They aren't standing against the ridiculous tariffs, the Iran War, the attempts to federalize what should be state controlled elections, the pardoning of those who sought to overthrow the political process, all of the revenge against political enemies, the whitewashing history to make the country look better, or all of the ways Trump is trying to force his name onto everything in the country. Nobody should complain about Biden's son looking at all the things going on with some of Trump's children and his related business enterprises. But none of this matters to the party because - blather, blather, blather - ridiculous reasons.
Many of you are probably laughing at some of that as the Republican party has rarely lived up to those goals, and the support of capitalism has been rife in both the Republican and Democratic parties for a long time. And I agree. The difference between the two parties is that when the Republicans are in office the military industrial complex tends to do better. When the Democrats are in office the health care and social industries tend to do better. But we are rife with capitalism, regardless of party. That's another sermon.
But what has come about in the Trump era is that unless you are a MAGA candidate that supports Trump regardless of what policy he is trying to illegally implement by executive order, or whatever thing that comes out of his mouth or that he texts (steam catapults on aircraft carriers, resurrecting battleships), or whatever war he is trying to fight or whatever foreign relationship or treaty he's trying to destroy, you may as well not even run as a Republican candidate. If you are in office currently, you better not vote against what Trump wants, or you will find yourself removed from positions of power or lose in your primary the next election cycle.
And that, my fellow Republicans, is wrong. Not every politician is a bad person. Some may disagree, but there are still a few left. Many people who get into politics are corrupted by a system that gives too much money to candidates who support business or, recently, a particular leader. And the longer this goes on, the more the MAGA group starts to look like the United Russia party.
Vote to support our leader. Don't even think of voting with the opposition - as either a party member, candidate, or political action figure. Support Russia, ignore the Ukraine. Don't worry about the 40 trillion+ dollar debt, that's largely there due to foreign wars -- the war on terror's estimated cost is around $8 trillion. The Iran War is approaching $45 billion. Trump's drug interdiction costs are approaching $5 billion and the total war on drugs has added around $1 trillion to the debt. Think of that amount. If it had been distributed to the drug users directly through medical and financial help would the cost have been as high?
Another part of the national debt comes from Republican tax plans that provided tax cuts for industry and the wealthy and reductions of the tax burden for others, which are currently approaching $10 trillion. COVID-19 related expenses totaled around $5 trillion. The blame there falls on both Trump and Biden. Whether the nation would have survived without the payments is an intellectual exercise. Certainly, the COVID-19 vaccine helped, but so did masking up as much as everyone hated it. Inflation is a real problem, not helped at all by tariffs, and interest rates are hurting everyone - although they are still historically low for mortgage costs, credit card rates are crazy.
But what is clear is that Congress has toed the line in supporting these policies and is continuing to do so. This last Congressional session has been one of the most worthless in terms of getting anything good accomplished in my memory (which admittedly isn't as good as it once was). Lots of popular pork - no taxes on tips which is great for those who get tips and actually reported them in the first place, perhaps reduced taxes for seniors - unless you made too much money. To put the $10 trillion increase in the debt that we've seen so far, the big beautiful bill is expected to add another $5 trillion.
The blind allegiance to one man's whims in the Republican party needs to change, and it needs to change from within the party. The poor legislation that is bankrupting the country needs to change. I'd like to think a few candidates will break from the MAGA block if elected this year, but I fear that the social distancing from Trump some are exhibiting and their words during the midterm election cycle are only the normal platitudes in order to get elected, and will vaporize from their memory once they are in or back in their seats in Congress. I fear they will go back to blindly voting the way Trump wants them to vote. Just like the United Russians.
What to Do
I've advocated praying about who you vote for, and I can't stress that enough this election. The most righteous candidate there is can fall to temptation just like anyone else and become a force for evil. The worst politician you can imagine can be saved during their time of office and do more good for God than anyone would have believed possible. Only God knows the probability that either event will happen. So first and foremost, pray about who you will vote for. And then vote the way that God directs. Vote for who He tells you will be the best man or woman to take the office, regardless of party.
The Christian majority in the country is a diminishing thing. So the next thing to pray about is that the Christians who are left will draw closer to God, regardless of what party wins the election. Pray for the same thing for Christians around the world. Pray for the Holy Spirit to fill every believer with a fullness like in Acts. We need the power to witness, but we also need the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance in case there is doubt) and the gifts of the Spirit (healing, miracles and faith, discerning of spirits, imparting of divine knowledge and wisdom, and words of prophecy and the ability to speak and interpret foreign languages) to show the love of God and the power of God to this world today and every day.
The governments and nations of the world, and the United States is no exception, have gotten to be the way they are because people have largely come under the impression that there is no God or that if God exists, He doesn't pay any attention to what is going on, because if He did He would somehow put a stop to it.
Well, the day when He will put a stop to it is coming, and it will definitely surprise the majority of the people living. But as Christians, every one of us needs to pray that God will use us as He did Paul, or Peter, or any of the other leaders who God would call great through history. I'd rather let Him be the judge than who we, as Christians, might pick.
From the end of Solomon's reign to the Assyrian captivity was a period of 209 years. During that time, not one king of the northern Israel ten tribes was described as doing good. They were all described as doing evil. Some were worse than others, but all failed God's requirements. At the start, God had promised the same blessings He had given David, if they would follow His laws. 2 Kings 17 describes how they chose otherwise and continued to worship idols, even going so far as to set up their own pair of calves to try to keep the people from going to Jerusalem as they were supposed to because the king didn't want to take the chance the people would return to the southern kingdom of Judah.
But 2 Kings 17 also describes a curious thing. As the Assyrians pulled the Israeli tribes out, he replaced them with other people. I assume some might have been native to his empire, but most were other captives. They set up their own idols in the land and God sent lions among them and began to kill them. They pleaded for help and the king of the Assyrians sent one of the captive priests back to the northern areas to teach the people the laws of God in order to appease Him.
He was apparently successful to a point, but the thing is the people only paid lip service to the new religion. They kept on with their previous idolatry and just added a veneer of following God. I gave that bit of Biblical history to say this. We've been a country now for 239 years. I know we celebrated the birth of our nation at 250 years just this year, but the Constitution wasn't ratified till 1787. We've existed for a bit longer than God put up with the northern tribes of Israel, and not quite as long as the 325 or so years between Solomon's death and the first deportation of Judah to the Babylonians.
The question to ask ourselves is are we any better than the captured people who occupied the area of the northern tribes? Are we really living like the New Testament church did or are we paying lip service to Christianity? This isn't a question of salvation. How much you do for God - works - doesn't save you. The blood of Christ was a free gift to humanity to bridge the gap between God and man and provide free salvation. Works don't save.
But by the same token, we are each expected to make a difference. When the church was formed, the 120 or so who were baptized in the upper room [Acts 2] started a church that has lasted 2,000 years. They were a tiny minority in their Jewish land and an even tinier minority in the Roman empire. They were persecuted and killed. But the strength of the religion they founded has lasted in one form or another for a long time. Are we making a difference to our world today? We aren't the tiny minority that they were in their day, but the trends are down in much of the world. God hasn't changed in power or expectations for His people. Is your choice to do lip service like the Assyrians or to let Him work through you.
Pray that God will fill each of us to give us both the desire to witness of what God has done in our lives, what we have seen Him do in the lives of others, and that we will let His power flow through us in the gifts of the Spirit and that His nature would flow through us in the fruit of the Spirit. I'm not big on boycotts or protests or any other form of direct opposition to evil. I have enough difficulty trying to not make God mad by my own life. But Christianity needs to get back to its roots. And to be clear, all Christian leaders should re-read Jesus Sermon on the Mount and some of His teaching about not worrying about politics and get back to Jesus' basics.
You can't tell me that if people were letting themselves be used of God like the early church did, that it wouldn't get people's attention, and maybe even the attention of a few politicians. I don't think that even miracles done right in front of a few of them would make a difference, but I'm a pessimist that way. The first step in making the country and the world a better in which to live is to get people to realize that God is, and that He is watching what everyone does, that He is merciful but eventually that mercy gives way to judgment, but His basic nature is to willing to intervene in ways that politicians can't to make believer's lives better.
So pray that you will know who to vote for, and follow through, even if it means voting for someone in the opposing party. We aren't to the place where that will mean you are going to prison yet. Pray that God will change the hearts of the people in office. Remember that Jesus declared "Blessed are the peacemakers". We definitely haven't had many peacemakers in the government in a long time - the art of compromise seems dead. Finally, pray that God will change you to be a better servant of the living God.