Gil Caldwell (STH'58) reflects on Clinton and UMC Voters

The Defeat of Hillary Clinton; United Methodist Voters, Evangelical Christians, and the United Methodist Church

(Please note my full disclosure statement at the end of this writing)
Google provides three definitions of the word, INAUGURATION; “A ceremony to mark the beginning of something.” “The formal admission of someone to office.” “The beginning or introduction of a system, policy, or period.” The first two are inevitable on January 20th, the last definition must NOT be the beginning, result, or inevitable on January 20th!
Again, the title of Robert Raines’ long ago book, LIVING THE QUESTIONS, informs and shapes my following questions that United Methodists and others might consider. Over the years I have used Raines title to inform my writing. Writing that for some persons is a wee bit provocative. Smile if you want.
1. The 2016 presidential election in the media and in the minds of many, there was a tendency to bend over backwards to make the flaws of Hillary Clinton equivalent to the flaws of her opponent. Church membership and involvement is not a flaw. Could anyone dare suggest that the Church involvement of Ms. Clinton’s opponent was comparable to her involvement in the United Methodist Church?
2. In the Rust and Bible belt states that Hillary Clinton lost, how did United Methodists vote? And, in the most populous Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church, for whom did United Methodists vote? Is the UMC the Republican party, at prayer?
3. Will January 20th “inaugurate” the “situational” commitment to values that those who boast of being evangelical Christians revealed in their voting? Jerry Falwell, Sr. fostered a “Moral Majority” in the nation. Has Jerry Falwell, Jr. revealed how flexible are those values, as he endorsed Hillary Clinton’s opponent? Our President-elect has said that the decision of the Supreme Court re; same sex marriage is “settled law”. How will the Vice-President-elect who does not agree with this, respond?
4. Church membership and involvement were crucial to some as they created negative impressions of Barack Obama’s Chicago pastor and Church. Their negativity was responsible for President Obama leaving that Church and distancing himself from that pastor. Our silence as United Methodists and the silence of other faith traditions as well, in the presence of the “Religious Freedom” as expressed by that Church and pastor was being demeaned, will be a source of wonderment as Historians write of that moment in history. Could the silence of people of faith regarding a Chicago Church and pastor, in 2008, have “set the table” for the impotence and timidity of people of faith during the election of 2016?
5. Finally a series of questions; How can the just announced presence of Hillary Clinton and her spouse at the January 20th inauguration be seen as a commitment to a smooth transition in our democracy, but NOT an endorsement of the systems, policies and practices of the one being inaugurated?…Is the economic “aspirational component” of capitalism responsible for the normalizing of the President-elects behavior, and of the quick turn arounds of the members of his party who once were critical of him? Does millionaire/billionaire status and the celebrity celebration it evokes, suggest that the desire to “be like him and his family” is as “American as apple pie”?… And that it is “normal” to forget and forgive all that we view as negative?…Is the “gift” of these moments a “mirror” that reminds all of us to see in ourselves, some of that we see as less than positive in others?…
And, could the presidential election campaign, primaries and the general election of 2016, provide a “teaching moment” for the United Methodist Church that had a General Conference in 2016? While we are debating and talking about dividing over whether or not our anti-“practice of homosexuality” legislation is biblical or discriminatory, the nation and world according to the little boy, “Are in a mell of a hess.” “Come on United Methodist Church”, we know that in proportional terms, our 45 year effort to build a wall to keep same gender loving people outside, pales in comparison to, as the Spiritual says, “The troubles of the world.” Whether the virgin birth of Christmas, and the bodily resurrection of Jesus or factual or mythical, or both, our negatively punitive response to same gender loving people, diminishes the Love motif of both Christmas and Easter.
There is no question about the truth of that. Are we Able, UMC and USA, to be better than we have been? I believe we are!

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