This is a frightening time for Americans.  The news touts the number of new COVID cases each day, solemnly warning us to social distance and wear masks because we could be next. The centers, and now even the suburbs of major Democrat governed cities are on fire and innocent people have been beaten and shot by the mobs of Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Even Eastern Illinois University has been hoodwinked into putting up a new flag pole to fly a Black Lives Matter flag next to the American flag.  Do they not know that BLM is a group of Marxists, steeped in the same ideology that gave us communism and Nazi Germany?  Or do they just not care in their attempt to be “woke.”

We are told that if our skin is not white we are victims. And if we have black skin, we are the greatest victims of all.  If our skin is white, we are the racist victimizers.  What we believe, what we do – these have no meaning.  Our skin color determines our destiny:  victim or oppressor. The illogic of this is astounding, but the media pushes this narrative daily and like all propaganda, it worms its way into our minds until we begin to believe it is true.  It isn’t.

Life for people of faith, especially Christians and Jews, is especially hard now.  Churches have been ordered closed by Democrat governors while marijuana stores, bars, restaurants, and casinos have been allowed to open. Many have since opened, often in defiance of gubernatorial decrees.  Some pastors have been fined.  In once city thousands of non-church goers turned out to protect those who chose to worship in their church. One of them, carrying a sign declaring himself as a conservative atheist, even talked to the pastor, assuring him that even though he didn’t believe, he supported the right of others to believe.  The two men shook hands.  Mayor de Blasio of New York City was enraged to see a Jewish funeral during the pandemic.  How dare these people practice their religion without his say so!  Anti-Semitic attacks have increased and the media and Democrats have intelligently blamed it all on the President who has a Jewish daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren.  Now that makes sense!

But as we approach the election that is only three weeks away, conservatives of all stripes worry.  The polls seem to constantly tell us that Joe Biden, whose mental lapses are concerning, and whose far left agenda would destroy the country as we know it, is ahead of President Trump.  Yet there is hope. In 1 Kings chapter 17, we read of Elijah, running from King Ahab and his wife Jezebel who were enraged when he delivered God’s rebuke to them.  God sent Elijah to the stream Cherith where he was fed by ravens.  But sitting all alone, knowing he was being hunted, Elijah began to feel that he and only he in all the kingdom was still faithful to God.  Then God reassured him with these words:  “Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

And so it is with us.  We have hope. As Paul writes in Hebrews 10:23 “ Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”  There are signs that encourage that hope, that as in all things, God’s hand is on this election. RV owners crossing the country  report having seen lots of Trump signs and very few Biden signs.  Biden/Harris held a rally in Duluth, MN to which 48 people showed up.  A few days later, Trump held a rally in Duluth to which 20,000 people showed up, 60% of whom claimed not to be Republicans.  Polls are still skewed in an attempt to depress Trump supporters into not voting, but most polls still question more Democrats than Republicans, often choose suburban Republicans who are more likely not to be Trump supporters, and poll all voters rather than those who are likely to actually vote this year. Even then, a few of their polls are showing Trump and Biden to be dead even and some polls are showing Trump to be ahead, nationally, in must-win states, and in the electoral college.

There is also  an understandable phenomenon this year called the shy voter. These are Trump supporters, especially urban black women and suburban white women, who are afraid to tell anyone of their support for the President lest they become ostracized or worse in their communities.  When conservatives are run out of restaurants and vilified, beaten up or even shot to death for wearing a MAGA hat, is it any wonder that many voters find it safer to keep their political opinions to themselves.  These are our “seven thousand who have not bowed their knee to Baal.”

Ignoring the lies and the hatred is not easy.  We Christian Americans have never before lived in a country before where our faith is made fun of and slandered.  And today’s Jews are largely too young to remember the death camps of Nazi Germany nor the lies, the propaganda, the slurs, and the jack boots that preceded the ovens.  It would do us all good to read what Germany was like for Jews in the early 1930s for it reads like a playbook for what is happening in America today.  Let us not fear, though, for as ever God is in control.

In the 33 Psalm, David penned these words:

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope in His mercy,
19 To deliver their soul from death,
And to keep them alive in famine.

20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in Him,
Because we have trusted in His holy name.
22 Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us,
Just as we hope in You.

Amen!