Rev. David Holwick ZK
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 30, 2016
Judges 9:1-6
CHOOSING LESSER EVILS
I. Sometimes your options are very limited.
A. The best bad ideas.
The movie "Argo" is about a bold attempt to get hidden American
diplomats out of Iran after our embassy was seized.
The CIA brainstormed various ways to do it.
They proposed giving them IDs as teachers, but all the foreign
schools had been shut down months earlier.
They thought they could make them humanitarian aid workers,
but they weren't sure if Iran had any starving kids.
Then someone came up with the idea of smuggling bikes to them
and letting them pedal to another country.
Finally one of them proposed setting up a fake movie to be
shot in Tehran.
The diplomats would become the film crew, and after doing
setup work around the city they would fly out.
They presented their idea to the director of the CIA.
He thought it was pretty far-fetched.
The CIA agents defend the plan by saying, "We think everybody
knows Hollywood people.
And everybody knows they would shoot in Stalingrad with
Pol Pot directing if it'd sell tickets.
There are only bad options.
It's about finding the best one."
The director asks, "You don't have a better bad idea than this?"
The agents respond, "This is the best bad idea we have, sir.
By far." [1]
B. Our election has a lot of people unnerved.
1) One article said 41% of Americans have election anxiety.
2) Americans elections are much longer than most countries'
and a lot of negativity spews out 24 hours a day.
3) Both candidates have had dirt dug up on them.
a) Significant numbers of voters don't like either of them.
b) Yet we realize a great deal is at stake: the economy,
global conflict, worldwide trade, the Supreme Court.
4) What do you do when you face lousy choices?
a) How do you decide on the best worst option?
II. We live in an imperfect world.
A. Unless Jesus is on the ballot, you will be voting for a sinner.
1) Every human has sinned and falls short of the glory of God.
2) This is true for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.
3) Therefore every election is a choice between the lesser
of evils.
4) And every personal decision YOU make is made by a sinner.
a) Politicians are not the only ones who sin.
B. We cannot forfeit our responsibility.
1) Citizens are an office in a democracy.
a) We all bear responsibility for the actions of the
leaders we elect.
b) They may lie to us, and misrepresent themselves to us,
but we are still obligated to choose the best one.
2) In elections, we have to make a choice, and we have to
consider morality and values.
a) Just because we are all sinners, doesn't mean sin
doesn't count.
b) Baptist leader Russell Moore points out that Jesus said
that all who lust are adulterers, but that doesn't
mean a wife shrugs her shoulders when she finds out
her husband has been repeatedly cheating on her.
[2]
C. Elections have consequences.
1) Abimelech's campaign was similar to an election.
a) This man, who was the son of Gideon, wanted to rule
his section of Israel after his father's death.
b) Israel did not have kings at this point, but God had
raised up leaders from the people - Judges.
2) Abimelech wanted to shorten the process.
a) He proposes himself as their new leader.
b) He assumes that his family will take a leading role,
which would result in a multitude of leaders.
1> Local leadership in Pakistan follows this principle
today.
2> Descendants of ancient holy men inherit leadership.
3) He gives reasons why he is preferable.
a) He has a close kinship with Shechem.
1> His mother was from the area, unlike the mothers of
his half-brothers.
2> (Every politician wants a tie-in like this - "I am
one of you!")
3> He is suggesting one leader would be a lesser evil
than a mob of leaders.
b) They elect him by acclamation.
c) They also give him money to hire a staff.
1> They do some dirty tricks.
2> This being the Old Testament, the dirty tricks
involve murdering all 70 siblings of Abimelech.
A> As has often happened in history, one gets away.
4) It doesn't end well.
a) The citizens get tired of him and attempt to overthrow
him.
b) He slaughters them in return, but ends up getting
killed himself when a woman drops a rock on him.
c) In the end, the Israelites go back to God's system
and have judges.
1> Elected officials are too much trouble!
III. Some avoid evil by never compromising with it.
A. The best choice might be to not choose at all.
1) A good number of Americans never vote in any election.
a) The number who participate has been steadily declining.
b) We may drop below 50% this election.
c) The Australians achieve a voting rate of over 90% but
they do this by making voting mandatory (they are
fined if they don't), they do it on a Sunday,
and they throw beer parties for everyone.
2) It is also true of churches.
a) Our business meetings barely make a quorum, the minimum
number needed to make decisions.
b) It is a low number - only 10% of members.
c) Yet this small group decides who will lead us, how we
will spend YOUR money, what projects we will take on.
d) It doesn't seem very fair, but that is our system, in
this church and in the nation.
B. Spurgeon's advice.
1) Spurgeon was the star preacher of Victorian England, much
like our Billy Graham.
2) A quote of his has gotten a lot of play on the internet
recently: "Of two evils, choose none."
a) The gist is, instead of choosing the lesser of evils
we must reject both evils.
b) An American revivalist named Michael Marcavage, who
began the ministry called "Repent America," has
expanded Spurgeon's idea:
"Of two evils, choose neither.
Christians must turn from the endless cycle of voting
for the lesser of evils and expecting an
unrighteous act to produce a righteous result...
Choosing the lesser of two evils is still evil, and
never should we do evil that good may come." [3]
c) This comes from a man who has been jailed for preaching
against abortion and homosexuality so he takes it
seriously.
1> Is he being too extreme?
2> After all, depending on how strict you are about
evil, we would never be able to elect anyone,
in government or in the church.
3> I believe an ultra-pure approach to politics is
doomed to failure. Even Spurgeon believed
Christians should vote.
IV. You can avoid direct and obvious evil.
A. We can accept imperfection but reject high-level evil.
1) The moral quality of candidates does matter.
a) Even though we are all sinners, some sin a lot more.
b) Can a Christian vote for someone who has been proved to
be an adulterer - or has enabled an adulterer?
c) What about someone proved to be a liar, or has cheated
on taxes, or avoided military service, or says one
thing behind closed doors and another to public
audiences?
2) You have to decide how much sin you can stomach.
B. Many Christians vote on the basis of "deal-breakers."
1) There are some issues that they cannot compromise on.
2) Their candidate may take some stands they disagree with,
and the candidate may have some flaws they can live with,
but on certain points we take a stand.
3) What would your deal-breakers be?
a) For many Christians, abortion would be one.
1> Killing innocent children should never be allowed.
2> Candidates themselves do not have the means to
outlaw abortion, but they have a role in picking
Supreme Court justices who can.
b) Other people take their stand on climate change, or
racism, or the right for a woman to choose an
abortion, or gun rights.
1> You have to decide where no compromise is allowed.
C. The comparing of sins can have unintended consequences.
A priest in England preached a sermon that said it was
morally justifiable for the poor to shoplift.
Father Tim Jones said that he did not believe it was right
for people to shoplift but maintained it was the "least
worst option" for people in desperate situations.
He gave the example of prisoners being released from prison
without benefits or other financial assistance.
He said it was for better for people in such circumstances
to turn to shoplifting from large retailers rather than
turning to prostitution, mugging or burglary.
He said, "My advice does not contradict the Bible's eighth
commandment [do not steal] because God's love for the
poor and despised outweighs the property rights of
the rich."
A spokesman for an English supermarket chain argued that
shoplifting affected hardworking store staff more than
the rich.
He challenged the priest to repeat his sermon before the
local store's workers and see how they responded.
#65344
V. Perhaps you can find another way.
A. We often frame our choices too narrowly.
1) We may focus on "a" and "b" but perhaps there is a "c".
2) 1 Corinthians 10:13 says:
"No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to
mankind.
And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted [or,
tested] beyond what you can bear.
But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out
so that you can endure it."
B. There are candidates other than Trump and Clinton.
1) The dilemma for Christians is that anyone else is unlikely
to win.
a) Is this "throwing your vote away"?
b) Not necessarily.
1> It is not the duty of Christians to vote for a
winner.
2> It is your duty to vote for the most appropriate
candidate.
2) Some outsiders have done well.
a) Back in the mid-1800s, the Republicans were a minor
party and only a few years old.
1> Whigs and Democrats had been the main parties.
2> But the Whigs disintegrated over abolition.
b) An obscure lawyer from won the election while getting
less than 40% of the popular vote.
1> He did OK.
2> All agree Abraham Lincoln changed America forever.
C. God determines the outcome of every election.
1) Maybe he wants to punish us... in the Old Testament some
of the kings served this purpose.
2) Whoever wins, support them as much as your conscience allows.
a) The office is more important than the person.
b) Once in office, some politicians change - for the better.
Chester Arthur was a political hack.
Throughout his career he got ahead by patronage.
In 1871 he was appointed Collector of the Port of New York and
used his 1,000 employees to further the partisan interests
of the Republican party.
His salary was $6,500 but he got to keep a percentage of the
cargoes and fines and so made $50,000 a year, more than the
President of the United States.
In 1878 political reformers cleaned out the New York political
machine and Arthur was fired.
In spite of this, the Republicans chose Arthur to be their
Vice President in 1880 because he had been loyal.
It was his first and only election, and he and Garfield
narrowly won.
A year later, Garfield was assassinated and political hack
Arthur became the 21st President of the United States.
As President he surprised both friends and enemies when he
followed his own light and became a reformer.
He called for both Civil Service reform and sound monetary
policies.
He fought to abolish the income tax and lowered tariffs.
He vetoed a Chinese exclusion bill and wasteful projects.
Going against his Republican Party, he supported the first
comprehensive United States Civil Service legislation.
It was the beginning of a new era of reform in national
politics.
From this point on, government jobs were given based on a
person's ability instead of a person's politics.
All of this made the Republican party mad and cost him the
nomination for a second term.
It didn't really matter because he had an unrevealed sickness
and died a year and a half after leaving the Presidency.
Journalist Alexander McClure later wrote, "No man ever entered
the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as
Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired ... more
generally respected, alike by political friend and foe."
#65346
D. Even in this election, trust that God knows what he is doing
- no matter who wins.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
1. Wikipedia.org, “Argo (2012 film),” <link>.
2. “Lesser of Two Evils?” by Russell Moore, Christianity Today, March 2,
2016; <link>.
3. “Misusing Spurgeon’s ‘Two Evils’ Quote,” by Kevin Williams, 8 Jun 2016;
<link>.
#65344 “Priest Says Shoplifting Is Justified,” by Rev. David Holwick,
adapted from "Priest: Shoplifting is ‘Least Worst Option’ for
Poor," by Charles Boyd, Christian Today reporter, 22 Dec 2009;
<link>.
#65346 “The Political Hack Who Turned Out Okay,” Rev. David Holwick,
adapted from "Chester Arthur," <link>
and Wikipedia.org, "Chester A. Arthur," <link>.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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