Pastor and author Max Lucado has written lately about decency as it relates to the presidential election. Decency is sort of a minimum demand we make on many of our relationships. Max Lucado writes of his three daughters and how he “reserved the right to interview their dates.” He’d want to know: Did the young man “behave in a decent manner? Would he treat my daughter with kindness and respect? Could he be trusted to bring her home on time? In his language, actions, and decisions, would he be a decent guy?”
Decency mattered to Max Lucado as a dad. And it matters to all of us simply in how life is conducted. For example, he writes, “We take note of the person who pays their debts…the physician who takes time to listen…(w)hen the husband honors his wedding vows, when the teacher makes time for the struggling student, when the employee refuses to gossip…when the losing team congratulates the winning team.”
Max Lucado then pivots to the presidential race. As in other areas of life and relationship, he asks the reader: “decency matters, right?” He also wonders: “Can we not expect a tone that would set a good example for our children? We stand against bullying in schools. Shouldn’t we do the same in presidential politics?”
Hopefully the assault on our sense of decency that characterizes presidential politics right now will recede as the campaign season winds down. Even better, when the primaries wrap up. The rough and tumble of the campaign will end and give way to our having a new president running the country. We can then expect more decorum, right?
Or — maybe this is a moment in our history that everything changes. Perhaps there’s a political realignment taking place. Perhaps people’s enduring economic pain is so deep they’ll throw out certain values that used to matter. Max Lucado’s blog has been quoted in at least one political campaign. But will people of faith really consider voting for someone on the basis of decency, when so much is at stake? When so many feel betrayed by their own party and its leaders?
Many conservative Christian Republicans are tired of a party that voices their values and seeks their votes but often ends up treating their concerns as a liability. Bible-believing evangelicals and Catholics are not immune to the sense of betrayal that’s out there. Some are angry, and rightly so.
Anger is a valid motivator in the political process. And our system allows us to channel it in constructive ways. But as one conservative, Zach Dasher, writes at Breitbart: “Don’t be blinded by anger. Not all anger is righteous.”
Christians care about the economy, foreign policy, and security here at home just as much as everyone else. We are passionate about the sanctity of human life and very concerned about deviant agendas and threats to religious liberty. These things really matter. Decency also matters.
