Uncategorized

The Christian Case for Harris

I’m writing this lengthy post for Christians who dislike former President Trump but feel obligated to vote for him due to party loyalty, a belief that Christianity equals conservatism, or a belief that Vice President Kamala Harris is of the devil. My other audience is made up of people who do not like Trump but feel that they don’t yet know Harris. I invite you all into a civil conversation. I welcome friendly dialogue: if you are a Christian who supports Trump, on what Jesus-centric or other values do you base your support?

Trapped in Media Bubbles

At times when I scroll past your posts, it feels like we are inhabiting different planets — or at least different realities. I suspect this is because we live in different media bubbles: you watch Newsmax and Fox; on the rare occasions I turn on cable news, I watch CNN and MSNBC. We likely don’t follow the same talking heads on social media, so our view of reality is constrained to information we consume from those we watch and read. 

Yet it is important to note that the line between news and opinion has blurred. The cable news hosts and their producers on both sides of the media machine make money off our collective outrage. It’s important to keep that in mind when evaluating the truth of a story. The best way to get to the truth of a matter? Read the transcript. Words are powerful records of a person’s thoughts, and examining them closely can help us understand their underlying values and their character. 

Your media tells you that Kamala Harris is evil, and Donald Trump is good. Memes like this one:

portray Harris as the devil and Trump as an angel.

Yet a closer look shows Trump’s words directly contradict Jesus’s teachings — something that likely matters to those of you who are Christians. I have taken some of the issues that are the most important to me and have broken them down. You’ll see that whenever possible, I frame my opinion around the words of Jesus or other wisdom found in the Bible.

Health Care

Jesus:  “I was sick and you looked after me…Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”(Matthew 25:36-40)

One of the first things Trump did when he became president was issue an executive order to waive or defer the Affordable Care Act. On his first day in office, he signed Executive Order 13765, which stated that:

“It is the policy of my Administration to seek the prompt repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act…To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) and the heads of all other executive departments and agencies (agencies) with authorities and responsibilities under the Act shall exercise all authority and discretion available to them to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision or requirement of the Act.”

Executive Order 13765

Trump’s intent was clear: he did not like the ACA’s regulations and wanted to stop its implementation until he could convince Congress to repeal it altogether. His administration worked to circumvent the ACA in any way it could, including “outreach and advertising cuts, shortening open enrollment periods for health insurance purchase, and promoting plans that do not provide the coverage required under the law.” A cut in advertising and creating a short open enrollment period meant citizens missed their opportunity to purchase insurance for themselves and their families. Several cities sued the Trump administration after HHS made rule changes in 2019 that were inconsistent with the law; The United States District Court in Baltimore vacated (invalidated) the HHS rule changes, finding they were arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law. 

Trump wanted to replace the ACA with HR 1628, the America Health Care Act of 2017. This bill was famously nixed by Senator John McCain whose “No” vote spelled the end of the bill. McCain broke with Trump, saying that while the bill Trump wanted “would have repealed some of Obamacare’s most burdensome regulations, it offered no replacement to actually reform our health care system and deliver affordable, quality health care to our citizens.” At the Harris-Trump debate, when asked about whether he has developed a health insurance plan, he replied that he has “concepts of a plan… there are concepts and options we have to do that. And you’ll be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future.”  

Yet Trump has been talking about concepts of plans since at least 2015. In his 2015 memoir Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America, Trump wrote,

“As I’ve repeatedly said, the “un-Affordable” Care Act has to be replaced…Many years ago, long before anybody else was talking about it, I knew we had to make changes in the system. I knew it because I saw what effect health care costs were having on the bottom line. I knew it because at that time we had more than 40 million Americans without any insurance at all” (p. 75).

Yet had McCain voted yes to Trump’s solution in 2017, by 2026, “an estimated 51 million people under age 65 would be uninsured,” according to the the Congressional Budget Office. Trump’s “solution” would have created more uninsured Americans than we had before the ACA became law. Furthermore, the bill that Trump trumpeted contained waivers which would have led to higher premiums or even an inability for the sickest Americans to find healthcare coverage. His solution did not “look after the sick,” as Jesus commands. Instead, it looked after the bottom line.

One reason I support Harris is because she supports the ACA. Several family members rely on the ACA for their healthcare, and I fear that another Trump administration would again try to circumvent the law, shortening enrollment periods and otherwise imposing capricious and arbitrary requirements that make it difficult to find and keep insurance. 

At her debate with Trump, Harris said that the United States needs to “maintain and grow the Affordable Care Act…what the Affordable Care Act has done is eliminate the ability of insurance companies to deny people with pre-existing conditions.” She then reminded viewers what it was like when health insurance companies were allowed to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. “Remember when an insurance company could deny if a child had asthma, if someone was a breast cancer survivor, if a grandparent had diabetes?” In her 2019 memoir, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Harris relays a story about her dental hygienist who had recently become pregnant in 2011 (pre-ACA) and was looking for prenatal health insurance. She was denied — over and over again — due to a pre-existing condition…of pregnancy!

“This young woman was forced to go into her sixth month of pregnancy before she received a sonogram…think about that for a minute. This is the world we could return to if they abolish the ACA: women denied health care coverage for perpetuating the species” (p. 188).

Harris is tuned into the suffering of her fellow humans — from her dental hygienist to children to cancer survivors and to grandparents. Her policies would improve — not repeal –ACA. Her policies are centered around “looking after the sick” — just as Jesus commands.

My family experienced a pre-ACA denial of insurance coverage. Our daughter suffered from chronic migraines; when we changed insurances and she had to go to the ER for treatment, her coverage was denied, and we were stuck with the hospital bill. If we did not have the means to pay that bill, then we’d be underwater like the 40% of Americans who face bankruptcy due to medical debt. So, I am voting for the one who will preserve and improve the ACA: Harris. If your values align with looking after the sick, as Jesus instructed, you should vote for her, too.

Immigration

Jesus: “I was a stranger and you invited me in” (Matthew 25:35)

An expert in the law asked Jesus what he had to do to get eternal life. Jesus asked him what the Law said about it. The expert answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[c]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” When Jesus told him he’d answered correctly, the expert wanted some clarification on the definition of a neighbor. To answer, Jesus told a story about a Jewish man, robbers, a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan:

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

Luke 10: 25-37

After telling the story, Jesus asked the expert which of the three he thought was a neighbor to the robbery victim. 

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10: 25-37)

Showing love to neighbors is one of my primary values. The priest and the Levite in the story Jesus told did not think that the Samaritan was their neighbor. The Samaritans and the Jews were like the Hatfields and McCoy’s; like the Crips and the Bloods; like Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland; like modern-day Jews and Palestinians. Their hatred towards each other was both political and religious. Yet when two upstanding Jewish religious citizens came across the naked, beaten and bloody Jewish victim, they turned a blind eye and crossed the street without offering any sort of aid or calling the biblical version of 9-1-1. Instead, the dreaded Samaritan showed love and mercy to the victim. That’s like a member of the Crips taking care of a member of the Bloods — it just isn’t done. But that’s exactly what Jesus tells his followers to do: “Go and do likewise.”

Show mercy. That’s the command.

Trump’s approach to America’s neighbors does not follow that command. In Great Again, Trump writes,

“The countries south of us are not sending us their best people. The bad people are coming from places other than just Mexico. They’re coming from all over Central and South America, and they’re coming probably—probably—from the Middle East. Let me add now: Allowing tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in the door will certainly bring a lot of problems” (p. 29).

Trump’s approach assumes that all immigrants and refugees are “bad people.” As president, he separated 5000 children from their parents: the parents were deported, while the children remained in the US. Keeping kids in cages is not a measure of mercy. 

Instead of embracing foreigners, Trump dehumanizes them. This election season, he has called them animals and has said that they are poisoning our blood. He claims that these immmigrants “at the highest level of crime…are being released into our country.” Furthermore, Trump equated immigrants and refugees with people who are mentally ill, claiming without evidence that “mental institutions and insane asylums are being emptied out into the United States,” and “terrorists [are] pouring in at levels we have never seen before.”  So…according to Trump, immigrants and refugees are insane criminals, terrorists, and animals who are poisoning our blood. 

Despite what Trump repeats over and over, the facts show that immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than the regular population. A 2024 Northwestern University study by Jácome et al. investigating migrant crime for the past 150 years showed that since 1960:

“Immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S. born citizens.”

The gruesome cases Trump brings up at his rallies are chilling and provoke outrage; however, they are isolated incidents and are not the norm. Migrants are not running from village to village attacking women and children. The study, which was conducted using United States Census Data, shows that more immigrants are law-abiding than their natural-born neighbors, a fact which should give many who want to browbeat immigrants pause.

More recently, Trump has attacked Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio (who are in the country legally, by the way), saying that Hatians are

“eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

If Trump visited Springfield and saw a Hatian person naked and bleeding on the side of the road, he would not cross over to help him. He would not take him to a hospital. He certainly would not pay his hospital bill. Instead, he would deport him. In a press conference in California, Trump said, “We’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country…And we’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora.” The Republican governor of Ohio has disputed Trump’s false claims about Hatians and appreciates Hatians for the work ethic they bring to this state. Yet Trump willfully ignores the fact that Hatians are here in this country legally. He willfully lies about what Haitians eat in order to dehumanize them.

Treating immigrants with mercy is the opposite of what Trump has done. Instead, he has embraced Hitler-esque rhetoric. Hitler frequently claimed that Jews were poisoning Germany: “All the great civilizations of the past became decadent because the originally creative race died out, as a result of contamination of the blood,” Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, adding, “And so this poison was allowed to enter the national bloodstream and infect public life.” Similarly, Trump said in a speech, “you know when they let, I think the real number is 15-16 million people into our country, when they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country, that’s what they’ve done…They’re coming into our country from Africa from Asia all over the world; they’re pouring into our country…The crime is going to be tremendous.” Hitler also claimed that Jews overran Germany and tried to control all the wealth. Similarly, Trump claimed on September 21 that a vote for Harris would bring 40-50 million more illegal immigrants “attacking villages and cities all throughout the Midwest.” He added that “illegal aliens will invade across our borders, stealing your money, stealing your jobs, stealing your life.” Do these frightful words about migrants eating pets, poisoning blood, attacking villages, and stealing lives show mercy towards those who come to Reagan’s bright City on a Hill? I think not. There is nothing compassionate or merciful about Trump’s brand of conservatism.

On the other hand, Harris reminds us that:

“[W]e are a nation of immigrants. Immigrants have always helped strengthen our country, grow our economy, and drive innovation. We know that in America, diversity is our strength. So rather than politicize this issue, let us all address it with the urgency and seriousness it requires.”

She has promised that as President, as a first step towards improving immigration policy, she will sign the bipartisan immigration legislation Trump told Republicans to block  that would overhaul our nation’s immigration system. Her first speech on the Senate floor as a newly-elected Senator addressed Trump’s executive orders and actions regarding immigration:

“As a prosecutor, I can tell you it is a serious mistake to conflate criminal justice policy with immigration policy, as if they are the same thing. They are not…Instead of making us safer, these increased raids and Executive orders instill fear…This climate of fear drives people underground and into the shadows, making them less likely to report crimes against themselves or others—fewer victims reporting crime and fewer witnesses coming forward.”

To Harris, immigrants are neighbors who contribute to society. In the same speech, she noted that “Immigrants make up 10 percent of California’s workforce and contribute $130 billion” to California’s gross domestic product. She adds:

“Immigrants own small businesses, they till the land, they care for children and the elderly, they work in our labs, they attend our universities, and they serve in our military. So [Trump’s] actions are not only cruel, but they cause ripple effects that harm our public safety and our economy.”

Harris gets it: Trump’s policies do not show mercy; they are cruel. Because Harris welcomes the stranger and appreciates the value they bring to our country, she gets my wholehearted vote. If you hold your values in the teachings of Jesus about showing mercy to your neighbors and inviting in strangers, she should get your vote, too.

LGBTQ Rights

There are multiple Bible verses many people use to condem same-sex relationships. I know because I used to be one of them, before I understood the cultural context of the verses. A great resource for Christians looking for clarity on LGBT issues is the website Take Back Christianity. 

Classifying foods, behaviors, diseases, and body functions as “clean and unclean” was the way ancient people tried to exert control over things they did not understand. The Purity and Holiness Codes in the book of Leviticus, for example, classified certain natural body functions as clean and unclean. A woman having her period was so unclean that she had to be separated from the men. A woman who’d had a child was also considered unclean and had to be separate and then undergo purification before she could rejoin society. People afflicted with leprosy were forced to move out of the community because they were thought to be unclean. And in some respects, this “clean/unclean” rule did help reduce contagion, as leprosy is a contagious bacterial disease. But the Levites equated unclean and disease with being wrong or out of alignment with God’s approval. If you became ill, they thought it must be because you sinned.  According to Rev. Dcn. David Justin Lynch, “the Levites thought that uncleanness is hateful to God, and must be avoided by all who have to do with God…[some] Christians, out of ignorance, ascribe AIDS to sin, just as some of the rabbis thought the same thing about leprosy.” He adds that in today’s modern world, with modern understanding of disease, “Purity Codes are irrational,” yet some Christians appear to “have a need… to marginalize and scapegoat those they consider impure,” such as the LGBTQ community. (I am reminded here that those in the LGBTQ community are our neighbors…just as the Samaritan was to the Jew.)

So, when looking at what the Bible has to say about sexual conduct and gender, it is important to realize the time and culture context of the verses. It is also important to see how Jesus responded to the purity codes: he blew them out of the water.

In the book of Mark, a man with leprosy “came to [Jesus] and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 41 Jesus was filled with compassion. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.” (Mark 1:40-42)

Despite the codes that declared the leper unclean, Jesus touched him and healed him. Lepers were untouchable, forced to be beggars, and rabbis like Jesus were forbidden to touch them. He openly disregarded the religious and social rules that said lepers had to be excluded. As Lynch writes, “Purity Codes were something to be left behind, left out of the new age that was to characterize the coming of the Kingdom of God.” Jesus deliberately turned his back on the outdated purity codes in order to welcome all to his table — including  tax collectors, prostitutes, the poor, the sick, beggars, lepers, and others who were otherwise excluded from Jewish society — including those who committed the sexual sin of adultery. In this one act, Jesus showed the world that God’s love makes everyone clean.

Jesus also appears to address gender identity way before any of us ever did when he said, “For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it” (Matthew 19:12).

These verses often confused me, so I shoved them under the rug with all the other Bible verses I didn’t understand. But now I receive them, and I hope through these words that follow, you may receive them, too.

Trump does not understand transgender issues, nor does he receive Jesus’ teachings. His Project 2025 playbook calls for LGBTQ equity policies to be “repealed and replaced by policies that support the formation of stable, married, nuclear families” (451).  This quote wrongly assumes that a transgender person cannot be a part of a “stable, married, nuclear” family. In a July 2017 Tweet, Trump posted that “the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.” More recently, in August 2023, Trump disparaged transgender care, saying, “Those precious taxpayer dollars should be going to care for our veterans in need, not to refund radical gender experiments for the communist left. I’ll also restore the ban on transgender in the military… We had it banned, we had it banned.” One of his latest talking points is imagining that children are receiving gender-affirming surgery at school.

“Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day in school,’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation? Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?”

No educator out there is teaching children to question their gender identity — we’re too busy teaching state-mandated requirements! Repealing government policies that support and affirm love and identity (such as allowing trans folks to choose their name and their pronouns) would dehumanize and harm people who were made in the image of God. Their image might not look like yours or mine, but remember that according to scripture, every human is precious in his sight. 

Trump’s Project 2025 blueprint labels this kind of affirmation as “harmful identity politics” and “destructive dogma.” It claims that loving and accepting transgender rights “threatens American’s fundamental liberties as well as the health and well-being of children and adults alike.” The blueprint pledges that “[t]he next Secretary must ensure that HHS programs protect children’s minds and bodies” (p. 450). The implication here is that children’s minds and bodies need to be protected from LGBTQ’s “harmful identity politics” and “destructive dogma.” This mindset is chilling and damaging to trans people.

A 2014 study “showed that rates of suicide attempts in transsexual people reached 44%, an extremely high percentage compared to the 1.6% rate found in the general population.” Vega et al.’s 2018 study of a trans population in Spain revealed that nearly 25% of trans study participants had attempted suicide at least once, which is about “three times the rate found in the general population.” The authors note that trans suicide attempts were precipitated by:

  • “a stressful event which provokes certain emotions (especially frustration or rejection),
  • the desire to escape from a situation or to communicate their problems to others,
  • an evaluation that such options are not possible, and
  • a lack of resources to alleviate the crisis (e.g. social support).”

Implementing Trump’s Project 2025 blueprint which calls out gender dysphoria as “destructive dogma” would be a stressful event, and anti-trans actions by HHS would remove their options. A vote for Trump could be quite destructive for the “eunuchs who have been so from birth,” the “eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men,”  and the “eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” I will not vote for a policy that demeans and degrades an entire class of human beings who were specifically noticed by Jesus himself. I do not want to be part of a policy that leads to more suicides.

Harris is a proud champion of marriage equality and LGBTQ rights. At a celebration of the Respect for Marriage Act, she remembered performing some of the country’s first same-sex marriages and said, “I saw tears of joy that day as people celebrated basic human rights: the right to be recognized as a family; the right to be with the person you love, whether at a military graduation, a hospital bedside, or a naturalization ceremony.”

Harris understands that love is bigger than all our differences. In her memoir The Truths We Hold, she reveals her core belief:

“What matters most is that we see ourselves in one another’s struggles. Whether we are fighting for transgender rights or for an end to racial bias, whether we are fighting against housing discrimination or insidious immigration laws, no matter who we are or how we look or how little it may seem we have in common, the truth is, in the battle for civil rights and economic justice, we are all the same.”

Harris’ recognition of love as a basic human right and her belief that “we are all the same” proves that she is one who is able to receive Jesus’ message.

The issue of marriage equality and transgender rights has become near and dear to my heart. While in my past conservative Christian life I had conflicted and misinformed views about the aforementioned Purity Codes and marriage equality, life circumstances and some beautiful people ripped the scales from my eyes, and now my faith leads me to be a proud supporter of LGBT rights. I celebrate marriage equality and believe love is love is love.

Because I can finally receive what Jesus had to say about eunichs, and because I’m becoming more like Jesus, I’m putting those purity codes in the past where they belong. My faith demands that I love my neighbor without exception. I do not make it my business to look at people’s genitals to determine their gender, nor do I ask my neighbors what they do in the privacy of their own homes. Instead, I love them. As a Christian, my vote for Harris perpetuates the kind of love Jesus showed when he reached out and touched the ones society thought were untouchable. As Harris wrote, we really are all the same — precious in His sight. 

Reproductive Freedom

Genesis 2:7: Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Exodus 21:21: If men contend with each other, and a pregnant woman [interfering] is hurt so that she has a miscarriage, yet no further damage follows, [the one who hurt her] shall surely be punished with a fine [paid] to the woman’s husband, as much as the judges determine.

There was a time in my life that my doctor thought an abortion may have been medically necessary. I was about eight weeks pregnant and had been extremely nauseous for six weeks. I could not eat or drink anything. None of the anti-nausea medicines they prescribed worked. I went in for fluids three or four times — an eight-hour ordeal each time. The situation was complicated by my phobia of nausea and vomiting. I remember lying in bed, staring at the closed blinds, wishing I could die as wave after wave of nausea triggered panic attack on top of panic attack. The nausea kept me awake all night and all day, so I had no sleep. My two-year-old daughter played in my bed next to me.

Finally, when my weight dropped to 77 pounds, my doctor admitted me to the hospital and tiptoed around the idea of an abortion. While I was pro-life, what good would that do my daughter if I died of malnutrition? They talked about a feeding tube. They brought in a psychiatrist. They tried to get me to take Prozac, but I refused because I did not want to hurt the baby (and I could not swallow anything due to nausea). On day four, when I was nearly nine weeks pregnant, I began experiencing contractions, so the doctor ordered a sonogram. On the screen I could see a little sac, but the sac itself was empty. I had a blighted ovum — the embryo never develped. The treatment for a blighted ovum that does not naturally miscarry or miscarries incompletely is a D&C — also known as an abortion. 

In 2000, the year of my miscarriage, Roe v. Wade ensured that women in my position  had access to an abortion. But today, without the global protection of Roe, women who experience miscarriages are at risk of criminal charges. Indeed, over 200 women who have had miscarriages have been charged since Roe was overturned.  One woman was charged because she miscarried into her toilet. The people filing those charges must have been men or women who had not given vaginal birth. Not to be graphic, but the overwhelming instinct to “push” engages the same nerves and muscles as those used in a bowel movement. There was no way a miscarrying woman could know the difference — it feels the same. Where else was she supposed to push if she didn’t know she was in premature labor?

If all of this seems like “too much information,” — that’s because it is. The government has no business in the reproductive business. 

From a Christian standpoint, fetal personhood is not a thing in the Bible: life begins with the first breath, according to Genesis 2:7. Scientifically, a baby does not breathe until after birth. That’s why the cry is so significant: we celebrate when the baby inhales air for the very first time. But in the womb, a fetus “practices” breathing amniotic fluid to help develop the lungs; its lungs are not fully functional until near term, but with intensive medical intervention, a baby delivered at 24 weeks and up could survive, although with some developmental problems. Only 1% of abortions occur after 21 weeks, and those are heartbreaking decisions by parents who do not want their baby with nonsurvivable, severe genetic abnormalities to suffer after birth. 

At what point do we value the baby’s life over the mother’s life? Who gets to make that decision? Trump’s Project 2025 defines personhood from conception and declares that abortion is not health care (483). Trump’s actions while he was in office directly contributed to the end of Roe v. Wade and have led to a wide range of disparate state laws on personhood and reproductive rights. The consequences of his actions have cast a shadow over all reproductive health, not just abortions. Many ob/gyn doctors are leaving their red state practices due to fear of prosecution and state laws that erect a barrier to their vow to “do no harm.” In Idaho, for example, 22% of ob/gyn doctors left the state after it passed a near-total abortion ban, leaving pregnant women no choice but to drive longer distances to find health care. When the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are living human beings and that people who destroy them can be held liable for wrongful death, IVF fertility treatments in that state came to an abrupt halt. A quickly-drafted law granting immunity did not go far enough to persuade all Alabama fertility clinics that they can safely help people start their families.

Trump released a video statement on abortion in April 2024 in which he championed “states rights” and said that “the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state…many [states] will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people.” During the debate with Harris, Trump repeated the states’ rights theme, saying, “It’s the vote of the people now. It’s not tied up in the federal government. I did a great service in doing it. It took courage to do it. And the supreme court had great courage in doing it. And I give tremendous credit to those six justices.” However, without federal protections, some states infringe on a woman’s right to travel to another state to receive reproductive care. Four counties and several cities in Texas have local ordinances that prohibit travel on county roads to other states in order to obtain an abortion. And the states’ rights argument falls to federal overreach in the Project 2025 blueprint. It plans to have states report to the CDC “exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method” (455). The same states rights that Trump champions are trampled under a proposed federal mandate to collect private health information about women — but not about men. 

Because my faith tells me that life is precious, I am pro-life. But I am pro-ALL life, including the life of the mother. I was a mother whose mental illness combined with hyperemesis gravidarum. I was 77 pounds. Skin and bones. Think about that for a moment. When I miscarried, doctors told me to wait at least a year before trying to get pregnant again (and, after another miscarriage, I never had another child). While I am long past the age of bearing a child, I want the women following behind to have the same rights as I did. In my case, nature chose for me.

But if that pregnancy had been viable, and if the pregnancy sickness continued, I was ready to slit my wrists, jump out of a window, beat my head against a wall and die. I wasn’t alone in my suicidal ideation — in the UK, a 2021 study showed that 25% of women with hyperemesis gravidarum had suicidal ideation; moreover,  suicide is the leading cause of maternal death in the United States.  It was knowing that I had a husband and a two year old precious daughter who needed me that stayed my hand. Pregnancy and pregnancy complications contribute to mental illness; sometimes, abortion is the act that will save the mother’s life. Despite what the Project 2025 writers think, abortion is healthcare. In 2000 in Texas, I had the right to terminate the pregnancy in order to save my life; today, thanks to Trump and his strategically selected supreme court justices, a woman’s right to healthcare that could save her life depends on her address.

It’s my hope that sharing my almost-abortion story helps my Christian friends understand why I support Harris so strongly — and why they should, too. During the debate, Harris noted that thanks to Trump, in over 20 states:

“A survivor of a crime, a violation to their body, does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That is immoral. And one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.”

Women for reproductive freedom are not “for” abortion. No one wants an abortion. It’s a complex, profound decision that should be made by a woman, her partner, her doctor, and her spiritual counselor. Not the government.

Words Matter: January 6

Proverbs 17:7: “Eloquent lips are unsuited to a godless fool— how much worse lying lips to a ruler!”

Former Vice President Mike Pence: “Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States.” 

When I first sat down to write about J6, I found a timeline of the January 6th events,  read through the transcript of Trump’s speech, and read his` tweets. And then I experienced one of the worst IBS attacks I have had in recent memory. Trust me, y’all: political trauma exists! Memories of that day grip my stomach with horror in much the same way as 9/11.

Americans.Stormed.The.Capitol.

Fears of another Civil War sent me into a panic attack. Now, four years later, I feel traumatized all over again every time I hear Trump claim without evidence that the 2020 election was stolen. I remember the sight of Daniel Hodges, the police officer who was crushed in the mob.

Heartbreaking.

“I was assaulted many times throughout the day. I was beaten, punched, kicked, pushed, beaten with my own riot baton in the head, crushed with a police shield. Someone tried to gouge out one of my eyes. I’m a living primary source of what occurred on one of the most important days in American history – in recent American history – so I feel like I have a moral obligation to continue fighting the disinformation and the lies that are coming out because of the profound impacts misinformation can have.”

Words matter. I’ve been a college English professor since 2018. My motto in every class is “Your Words Matter.” I purchase pens in bulk with that message and gift them to students at the end of the semester in hopes that they will not forget the power of their words. The syllabus in all of my classes states, “We will explore the way words have the power to change the world. The words used in cereal advertisements, the words used in social media, the words used in text messaging, the words used in political speeches, and, yes, the words used in student essays have the power to persuade and dissuade, to encourage and discourage, to inspire and threaten, to spur action and inaction, to foster hope and despair, to create love and hate.”

The old nursery rhyme about sticks and stones is not true. Just ask anyone who has been bullied: words CAN hurt.

It is especially important for leaders to use their words wisely. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Harris and I have the same mindset about the importance of words. Her  2019 memoir, The Truths We Hold, has a section titled “Words Matter.” In this section, she writes:

“Words have the ability to empower and to deceive, the power to soothe and to hurt. They can spread important ideas and wrongheaded ones. They can spur people to action, for good or ill. Words are incredibly powerful, and people in power, whose words can carry furthest and fastest, have an obligation—a duty—to speak them with precision and wisdom. Scripture tells us, ‘The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered.’ I am keenly aware of the potential power that lives in my words—as someone who represents nearly forty million people, who seeks to give voice to the voiceless. And so when I speak, I do so with the knowledge that the words I choose matter” (264).

As if I needed another reason to support Harris! It’s almost as if the two of us chatted about words before we wrote our blurbs about words (but obviously we didn’t!). Finding out that she values the importance of words gives me confidence that she will be a measured, wise leader.

As President, Trump had a duty to use his words with wisdom. Instead, he lied over and over again and used emotionally charged words that whipped his supporters into a frenzy. Ken Block, the consultant the Trump campaign hired to investigate 2020 election fraud…found none. Zip. Zero. 

Yet Trump and his campaign ignored Block’s report and continued pushing the false narrative about voter fraud and election corruption. Overwhelming evidence shows the election was not stolen. Even the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, examining elections from 2005 to 2022, found only “1,465 proven cases of election fraud — 1,264 of these resulted in criminal prosecutions and the remainder resulted in civil prosecutions, diversion programs, judicial findings, or official findings.” 

The closest race was in Georgia, which Biden won by only 11,779 votes. Even if all 1,465 cases of voter fraud that Heritage found had happened in 2020 in Georgia, it would not have been enough to overturn the election. Biden won. Yet Trump did not speak with wisdom. Instead, he used his words to fan the flames of hatred, which led to an assault on our nation’s capitol and an attempt to disrupt the certification of the election.

Rhetorical analysis is one of my nerdy hobbies. I like observing how people use words to persuade others. While Trump did not tell his supporters to grab their shovels and storm the castle, what he did say was plenty persuasive. An analysis of both his tweets and his speech on January 6, 2021 shows the extent of his lying lips::

  • Trump mentioned the concept of theft, including theft, steal, stolen, fraudulent, finding ballots, votes stripped away, votes taken away, and the fraudulent voter tabulation process at least nineteen times during the course of January 6, over Twitter and in his public speech.
  • He mentioned the need to fight, never give up, never concede, and the need to be strong at least thirty times before his supporters stormed the Capitol.
  • Eight times, he said that the States want to redo their votes to correct their mistakes.
  • Ten times, he claimed that the election was corrupt.

When Trump was called to accept the truth that he lost, he instead fabricated lies and then told them over and over and over again. And the people who listened to him thought he was telling the truth. That’s why they stormed the Capitol: he said that Congress needed to “confront this egregious assault on our democracy.” He said the election was stolen, and they believed him.

This big lie comes from Trump’s personal playbook. He noted in a speech that “If you say it long enough, hard enough, often enough, people will start to believe it.” He claimed this is what happened “with Russia” and “with Ukraine.” In this philosophy, he walks in lockstep with Nazi propogandist Joseph Goebbels, who said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” 

Trump’s behavior after the 2020 election also echoes Hitler. A declassified psychological profile of Hitler developed by the OSS noted that Hitler’s primary rules were:

“never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.” 

Who does that sound like?

If you are still on the fence and are a right-leaning voter, consider the large number of Republican leaders who have crossed party lines to endorse Harris or who have stated they will not vote for Trump. Those who have endorsed Harris don’t agree with her on all her policies, but they are united in belief that Trump is unfit. They are:

Republican Leaders Who Won’t Vote for Trump:

Republican Leaders Who Have Endorsed Harris:

Other Republican Leader Harris Endorsements

In addition, over 100 former members of Congress and former national security officials and military officers who served under Republican administrations have endorsed Harris, including:

  • Kenneth Adelman – Former Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Reagan administration
  • Dr. Carol C. Adelman – Former Assistant Administrator, United States Agency for International Development, Reagan administration
  • Major General John Barry – USAF (Ret.), Former Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense
  • Richard C. Barth – Former Assistant Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, George W. Bush administration
  • Christopher Barton – Former Director, National Security Council Staff
  • John Bellinger – Former Legal Adviser, National Security Council , George W. Bush administration
  • Admiral Kenneth Bernard – Former Special Assistant to the President, George W. Bush administration
  • Mark E. Bitterman – Former Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, George H.W. Bush administration
  • William Bodie – Former Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force, George W. Bush administration
  • Christian M.L. Bonat – Former Deputy General Counsel, Dept. of Defense, George W. Bush administration and Obama administration
  • Richard Boucher – Former Assistant Secretary of State, George W. Bush administration
  • Charles W. Boustany Jr. – Former Member of Congress, Louisiana
  • Charles R. Bowers – Former U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia, George H.W. Bush administration
  • Greg Brower – Former Assistant Director, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Obama and Trump administrations
  • Christopher Buckley – Former Chief Speechwriter, Office of Vice President George H.W. Bush
  • Richard Burt – Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Reagan administration
  • Gahl Hodges Burt – Former Assistant to the Secretary of State, Reagan administration
  • Rear Admiral Fred Byus – U.S. Navy (Ret.)
  • Jack C. Chow – Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, George W. Bush administration
  • James W. Cicconi – Former Assistant to the President & Deputy to the Chief of Staff, The White House, George H. W. Bush administration
  • Peggy Cifrino – Former Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, George W. Bush administration
  • Eliot A. Cohen – Former Counselor of the Dept. of State, George W. Bush administration
  • Benedict S. Cohen – Former General Counsel, Dept. of the Army, George W. Bush administration
  • Barbara Comstock – Former Member of Congress, Virginia
  • Chester A. Crocker – Former Assistant Secretary of State, Reagan administration
  • Patrick M. Cronin – Former Assistant Administrator, United States Agency for International Development, George W. Bush administration
  • Stephen W. DeVine – Former Deputy Legal Advisor, National Security Council, George W. Bush administration
  • Charles Djou – Former Member of Congress, Hawaii
  • Michael Donley – Former Secretary of the Air Force, George W. Bush administration and Obama administration
  • Raymond F. DuBois – Former Acting Under Secretary of the Army, George W. Bush administration
  • Lewis A. Dunn – Former Assistant Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Reagan administration
  • Mickey Edwards – Former Member of Congress, Oklahoma
  • Jendayi E. Frazer – Former Ambassador to South Africa and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, George W. Bush Administration
  • Aaron L. Friedberg – Former Deputy Assistant to the Vice President, George W. Bush administration
  • William Gaches – Former Director of Counterterrorism, National Security Agency, George W. Bush administration
  • Janice Gardner – Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, George W. Bush administration
  • Stuart M. Gerson – Former Acting Attorney General of the United States, George W. Bush administration
  • James K. Glassman – Former Under Secretary of State, George W. Bush administration
  • Jon D. Glassman – Former Deputy National Security Advisor to the Vice President and Ambassador to Paraguay, George H.W. Bush administration
  • David Gordon – Former Director, State Dept, Policy Planning, George W. Bush administration
  • Christopher Hankin – Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State; Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations
  • Mark Harvey – Former Special Assistant to the President, Trump administration
  • Carla Hills – Former U.S. Trade Representative, George H.W Bush administration
  • Seth Hurwitz – Former Counsel, President’s Intelligence Oversight Board , George H.W. Bush administration
  • Peter Keisler – Former Acting Attorney General of the United States, George W. Bush administration
  • James A. Kelly – Former Assistant Secretary of State, George W. Bush administration
  • Adam Kinzinger – Former Member of Congress, Illinois
  • Sofia Kinzinger – Former Deputy Assistant Secretary, Dept. of Homeland Security, Trump administration
  • James R. Kunder – Former Deputy Administrator, United States Agency for International Development, George W. Bush administration
  • Brigadier General George Landis, USA, Ret. – Former commander, United States Personnel Information Systems Command
  • Frank Lavin – Former Ambassador to Singapore and former Under Secretary of Commerce, George W. Bush administration
  • Peter Lichtenbaum – Former Assistant Secretary of Commerce, George W. Bush administration
  • Winston Lord – Former U.S. Ambassador to China, Reagan and George H.W. Bush administration
  • Steven R. Mann – Former Ambassador to Turkmenistan and Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Dept., Clinton and George W. Bush administrations
  • Colonel John W. McDonald – Former Deputy Under Secretary of the Army
  • P. Michael McKinley – Former Ambassador to Peru and Acting Ambassador to the European Union and Mozambique, George W. Bush administration; Former Ambassador to Peru, Colombia, Afghanistan, and Brazil, Obama administration
  • Dan Miller – Former Member of Congress, Florida
  • John M. Mitnick – Former General Counsel, Dept. of Homeland Security, Trump administration
  • Allen Moore – Former Under Secretary of Commerce, Reagan administration
  • Alberto Mora – Former General Counsel , U.S. Information Agency, George H.W. Bush administration; Former General Counsel, Dept. of the Navy, George W. Bush administration
  • Kenneth Mortensen – Former Associate Deputy Attorney General, George W. Bush administration
  • John D. Negroponte – Former Director of National Intelligence and Former Deputy Secretary of State, George W. Bush administration
  • Elizabeth Neumann – Former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, Trump administration
  • Bill Paxon – Former Member of Congress, New York
  • William R Piekney – Former CIA Chief of Station, Reagan administration
  • Daniel M. Price – Former Deputy National Security Advisor, George W. Bush administration
  • Alan Charles Raul – Former Vice Chairman, White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, George W. Bush administration
  • Victor Reis – Former Director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, George H.W. Bush administration
  • Robert Annan Riley – Former Ambassador to Micronesia, Trump administration
  • Paul Rosenzweig – Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, George W. Bush administration
  • Charles O. Rossotti – Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense; Former Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Clinton and George W. Bush administrations
  • Nicholas Rostow – Former National Security Council Legal Adviser, Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations
  • Kori Schake – Former Deputy Director of Policy Planning, State Dept., George W. Bush administration
  • Dr. Wayne A. Schroeder – Former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, George W. Bush administration
  • Gregory L. Schulte – Former Senior Director, National Security Council Staff and Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, George W. Bush administration
  • Robert Shanks – Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Reagan administration
  • Christopher Shays – Former Member of Congress, Connecticut
  • John Simon – Former Senior Director, National Security Council Staff and Ambassador to the African Union, George W. Bush administration
  • Stephen Slick – Former Senior Director, National Security Council Staff, George W. Bush administration
  • Mark C. Storella – Former U.S. Ambassador to Zambia, Obama administration
  • William H. Taft IV – Former Deputy Secretary of Defense and Ambassador to NATO, George W. Bush administration
  • Miles Taylor – Former Chief of Staff, Dept. of Homeland Security, Trump administration
  • Larry D. Thompson – Former Deputy Attorney General, George W. Bush administration
  • Jack Thomas Tomarchio – Former Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Homeland Security, George W. Bush administration
  • Olivia Troye – Former Special Advisor to the Vice President, Trump administration
  • Robert Tuttle – Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom , George W. Bush administration
  • John K. Veroneau – Former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative and Former Assistant Secretary of Defense, George W. Bush and Clinton administrations
  • Colonel Terry Virts, USAF (Ret.) – Former NASA Astronaut, Former Commander of the International Space Station
  • Dr. Thomas G. Ward, Jr. – Former Director of Threats, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, Reagan and Clinton administrations
  • Matthew C. Waxman – Former Principal Deputy Director, State Dept Policy Planning, George W. Bush administration
  • William F. Weld – Former Assistant Attorney General , Criminal Division, Reagan administration
  • J. Robinson West – Former Assistant Secretary of Interior, Reagan administration
  • Wendell L. Willkie II – Former General Counsel, Dept. of Commerce, George H.W. Bush administration
  • Robert B. Zoellick – Former Deputy Secretary of State and U.S. Trade Representative, George W. Bush administration; White House Deputy Chief of Staff, George H.W. Bush administration

And then there are the voices of the people who know Trump best, such as his former administration insiders, members of the Trump family, Republican leaders, and conversative voices, all calling him out for the danger he poses in a second term.

I know I just gave you a large chunk of text with a list of names, but I wanted you to see that it is not just a few outliers in the Republican Party. These are not members of the “Deep State,” and they are not “RINOs” (Republicans in Name Only). These are people who served their country with distinction — and many of them worked with Trump during his first term. Their decision to publicly endorse Harris is not to be taken lightly. This is not a normal election. Trump is not a normal candidate. His escalation of lies and refusal to admit defeat in the 2020 election is dangerous. Like Harris, Trump understands the power of words. As he said, “If you say it long enough, hard enough, often enough, people will start to believe it.” Don’t fall for it!

Because Harris’ values match mine about the importance of words and wisdom, she has my vote. And if you care about what the Bible has to say about the unsuitability of leaders and lying lips — she will have your vote, too.

The Economy

Jesus: For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ (Matthew 25: 35-26)

Jesus: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. (Matthew 6:19).

Acts 2:44-45: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”

I’m no expert on the economy. But I do pay attention to the price of things — especially the things I use every day. Am I better off economically than I was four years ago? In the context of my Christian faith, is counting my money and comparing it to what I had four years ago even something that should come into my political decision-making nexus? In a perfect world, if I were a perfect human, I would store up my treasure in heaven and not on earth. I would trust God to take care of my needs. I’d sell everything and give it away to anyone who had need because I wouldn’t be worried about my bank account balance accumulating digits.

But I’m also a realist. In the context of my life, I notice that it costs a lot more at the grocery store today than it did four years ago. 

But I don’t blame Bidenomics.

Instead, I blame greed, a lack of competition, and decreased supply.

For example, supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons want a merger; however, the Biden/Harris administration sued to prevent the merger because they believed less competition would lead to higher prices. In an antitrust hearing about the potential Albertsons/Kroger merger, Kroger’s Senior Director for Pricing Andy Groff admitted that the chain intentionally raised prices above inflation: “On milk and eggs, retail inflation has been significantly higher than cost inflation.” And that’s just on milk and eggs! 

The reason your hamburger costs so much more is not due to Bidennomics. Instead, it is due to a contraction in the cattle market; in 2024, the US inventory of cattle is the lowest it has been since 1951. When supply drops and demand rises or stays the same,  prices go up. Fewer cattle means higher prices in the store.

If you are concerned about making ends meet or are on a fixed income, know that a Trump administration will cost you more in health care expenses. Trump’s Project 2025 aims to make major changes to Medicare, including making Medicare Advantage “the default enrollment option”  (which requires preauthorization and restricts physician and hospital choices). The plan also would cancel the government’s ability to negotiate drug prices by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act. These actions would raise prices for many seniors who are on a fixed income. Without the ability to negotiate drug prices and place a cap on necessary drugs like insulin, many seniors would once again be unable to afford their prescriptions (p. 465). 

Another harsh reality for those living on a fixed income is Trump’s tariff proposal which would essentially become a national sales tax. Tariffs increase consumer prices because the seller passes it on to the buyer. A 20% tariff on imported goods would mean I have to pay 20% more.

Let’s say Trump wins and implements his tariff, and I decide to buy an area rug to replace the one my dog destroyed. Today this rug is $80 at Target, but because it was made in Pakistan and imported, Trump charges a 20% tariff which Target passes on to me. My price goes up to $96. Or, in another example, let’s say I am purchasing a Volkswagen that comes from overseas. Under current law, I pay $30K for the car. But under a Trump tariff, I end up paying $36K.  One TikTok user called this tariff idea “Trump’s Tequila Tax,” and he’s not wrong (the Harris campaign now shares his video far and wide!) If you drink imported alcohol, you’ll pay more for it under a Trump administration. In fact, a 20% tariff on the $5B spent on tequila annually would result in an annual sales tax of  $1B. Tariffs are not a good way to help out ordinary Americans.

While I grew up on Republican talking points about Republicans being the best for the economy, the reality is that the American economy performs better when a Democrat is president, according to a 2016 study published in The American Economic Review. Princeton Economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson examined economic data beginning with Harry Truman through Barack Obama, covering a total of nine Republican presidential terms and seven Democratic presidential terms. Blinder and Watson note, “over a typical four-year presidency the US economy grew by 18.5 percent when the president was a Democrat, but only by 10.6 percent when he was a Republican.” Their study sought to find causes for this disparity, noting that:

“The superiority of economic performance under Democrats rather than Republicans is nearly ubiquitous: it holds almost regardless of how you define success. By many measures, the performance gap is startlingly large—so large, in fact, that it strains credulity, given how little influence over the economy most economists (or the Constitution, for that matter) assign to the president of the United States.”

Wages are higher under Democratic presidents. The unemployment rate is lower under Democratic presidents. The pandemic-caused inflation this presidential cycle has dropped more than half from its peak of 7% in 2021 — thanks to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

I’m voting for Harris because the majority of her financial ideas are tailored to help the middle class. Several of her ideas make sense, including building 3 million new homes for purchase and for rent (increased supply = reduced prices), a 50K tax credit for small business owners, a 25K tax credit for first-time home buyers, and a 6K child tax credit when a family has a newborn. These proposals are real. My friend who has a business of her own could branch off and start a new one — with a 50K tax credit. My nieces and nephews could get a 6K child tax credit with the birth of their children. My daughter could get a 25K tax credit on the purchase of her first home. Did I get these kinds of tax benefits when my husband started a business, when we bought our first home, or when we had our child? No, but just as I want my daughter to have a better life than I did, I want all Americans to have a better life. Owning a home is one way to build wealth — putting money towards a mortgage instead of rent means you will one day get that money back. A 50K tax credit is huge for small business owners — and small businesses are the engine of the American economy, creating ⅔ of net new jobs and contributing 44% of U.S. economic activity. Investing in the kinds of businesses that create new jobs is just common sense.

In some ways, America’s tax system walks in the footsteps of the early Christians in Acts 2. Paycheck by paycheck, we give to those in need through the taxes we pay. We give Medicare to our seniors. We give reduced premiums for health insurance to the needy. We give food to the poor through federal food stamp programs. We educate our nation’s children. We build roads and make bridges safe. Our taxes provide funding for fire and police departments. While my paycheck feels lighter when I pay my taxes and then fork over $5 for a dozen eggs, I am glad a portion of my salary goes to my government to help support those in need; it fulfills Jesus’ command that I store my treasure in heaven rather than my wallet.

When I was a Tea Party Republican, I made the argument that charity should come from the church, not the government. My response today is that we are a government of the people, by the people, for the people — and the people are in need. Our parents need Medicare to help pay their increasing medical costs, and one day I will need it, too. Some of my students work more than one job and still must rely on food pantries and food stamps to feed their families. Helping them out through my paycheck is an easy way to help my fellow neighbor.

Another thing I can do for my fellow humans is to select leaders who will assess and use taxpayer funds for the common good. Because helping out others is part of my core values, I’m voting for Harris. If you are a Christian who wants to work on storing up your treasure in heaven, you should consider doing the same!

The Bleeding Heart Liberal

If you haven’t noticed by now, I have become one of those Radical Leftists that Trump warns you about. That may surprise many of my Facebook friends who knew me five, ten, fifteen years ago. Back then I twisted myself in knots trying to explain why some conservative talking points were compatible with my Christian faith.

Yet when I was a little girl, a family member told me I was turning into a “bleeding heart liberal.” They were not wrong! It’s taken me over fifty years to fully embrace these values because the media I listened to painted liberal ideas in scary terms and the churches I attended seemed to equate “Christian” with “conservative.”

But y’all, I’m not a scary person. I’m probably the least scary person you know. Thanks to gravity and age, I’m not even 5’ tall anymore. I still don’t weigh 100 pounds. I like to take photos of birds and butterflies and dabble in poetry. I teach college students how to write strong arguments without imposing my radical leftist ideology. 

Just the other day, I graded a student essay written in support of the death penalty with an “A.” The student met the criteria I set out for the paper, and even though I could think of a thousand arguments against his position, it is not my job to tell him what to think: my job is to teach him how to think. How to find credible evidence. How to impact his argument to his reader. I am capable of reading opinions that are contrary to my own, including yours, and I firmly believe that each of us deserves to have our voices heard.

If you’ve made it to the end of this Case for Supporting Harris and you still support Trump due to your values, then more power to ya! Go vote your conscience. Open a conversation with me about how your Christian values allow you to support Trump. I want to understand!

But if I have convinced you to rethink your position — or if you have decided to join me and other Christians in endorsing Harris, would you please let me know? There’s much joy to share!

Leave a comment