Former President Donald Trump did a live interview last night with Elon Musk on X. Though the event was plagued with technical difficulties, more than one million people listened to their wide-ranging conversation on immigration, inflation, education, and the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life. The interview was part of Musk’s $160 million push to win eight hundred thousand voters in battleground states for Mr. Trump.

Amid the political fervor of our day, here’s a different approach: Omena, a small town in northern Michigan, just elected a horse as their mayor. This is news because the office has only been held by a dog in the past, except for one time when a cat won the election.

One resident explained their political culture: “All politics are stupid. But at least we’re having fun with it, and we’re still friends at the end of the day.”

“The equal of every one of you”

Omena’s political disclaimer notwithstanding, America was birthed by a brilliant political process that declared our independence and forged our republic. And it was nearly destroyed by a subversive political process that failed our ideals and threatened our nation.

In The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, acclaimed historian Erik Larson tells the gripping story of events and people that led to our nation’s bloodiest conflict. In brief, the South saw the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as the end of slavery and resolved to secede from the Union in response. For example, the Charlotte Mercury urged that if Mr. Lincoln won, every slaveholding state should secede immediately.

It’s hard for us to understand today how fervently some in the South defended the institution of slavery. Going back to our beginnings, some tragically viewed Africans and indigenous Americans as inherently inferior races. With regard to the latter, the settlement of their land by Europeans was seen as a step toward their education and cultural advancement. With regard to the former, many claimed that they were better off enslaved to Europeans and white colonists.

For example, James Clement Furman, a prominent Baptist minister and first president of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, published an open paper on November 22, 1860, that encapsulated the South’s great fear if slavery were to be abolished: “Then every negro in South Carolina and every other Southern State will be his own master; nay, more than that, will be the equal of every one of you.”

Larson quotes an Atlanta newspaper that similarly warned before the Civil War: “We regard every man in our midst an enemy to the institutions of the South who does not boldly declare that he or she believes African slavery to be a social, moral, and political blessing.”

“Hope to the world for all future time”

By contrast, many in the North saw Mr. Lincoln’s election over more strident abolitionists as a step toward moderation and away from civil war. As Larson writes, “At no time had he threatened to abolish slavery or emancipate the millions of enslaved men and women who populated the plantations of the South.”

However, many secession advocates in the South claimed just the opposite. As a result, in the few Southern states where his name was included on the ballot, he garnered few votes. In Virginia, he received just over 1 percent; Kentucky, the state of his birth, gave him less than 1 percent.

Nonetheless, Mr. Lincoln was elected our sixteenth president and soon began making his way to Washington, DC, for his inauguration. Along the way, he stopped in Philadelphia, where our Declaration of Independence was signed.

There he identified the promise that “all should have an equal chance” (his emphasis) as “the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence.” According to Mr. Lincoln, this sentiment “gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time.”

Less than six weeks after his inauguration, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Civil War was on.

“Sojourners and exiles”

The declaration that “all men are created equal” does indeed give “hope to the world for all future time.” It sounds the death knell to communism, monarchy, autocracy, theocracy, and all other forms of political oppression. But the underlying forces that threatened it in the run-up to the Civil War are still with us.

What Nietzsche called the “will to power” is still the foundational drive of fallen humanity. We seek to be our own god (Genesis 3:5) by asserting our superiority and authority over others on the basis of their race, gender, economic status, or a multitude of other factors.

This “will” does not die when we trust in Christ. On the contrary, we must choose every day to submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). If we do not, it’s because we still seek to be our own god, to use God and others as a means to our ends.

Here’s the way forward:

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11).

Let’s take these steps today:

• Claim the fact that we are God’s “beloved,” loved unconditionally by our Father. We are free to serve others whether or not they serve us because our personal worth is guaranteed by our Lord.
• Live as “sojourners and exiles” passing through this temporary world on the way to our heavenly home. Use temporal means to serve eternal souls.
• Choose to “abstain from the passions of the flesh” by remembering that they “wage war against [our] soul” and always cost us more than they pay.

When we make these steps our lifestyle, we defeat the “will to power” and point the way to a politics of commonality, community, and unity.

Is there a greater imperative in our broken culture today?

Tuesday news to know:

• 4-magnitude earthquake strikes near Los Angeles
• Russia widens evacuations to second border region after Ukraine offensive
• Defense secretary orders submarine to Middle East, accelerates arrival of strike group ahead of anticipated Iran attack
• US officials to visit China for economic talks as trade tensions rise
• On this day in 1961: Berlin is divided

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“The measure of love is to love without measuring.” —St. Augustine

Denison Forum

Why Kamala Harris’s pick for VP may not be the safe choice many expected

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will have their first debate on ABC next month, with two more potentially following on NBC and Fox—though Harris has not yet agreed to the other two. But while the debates between Trump and Harris appear set, a meeting between their respective running mates is still up in the air. Both Senator JD Vance and Governor Tim Walz have expressed an interest in such a debate, but will likely have to wait until after the Democratic Convention in a couple of weeks to set a date.

In the meantime, we’ll have to settle for continuing to hear each candidate talk about one another rather than to one another. And, if the past few days are any indication of what’s to come, that back and forth is unlikely to prove overly cordial. As such, our time is better spent learning more about the candidates than on paying attention to what they say about one another.

Dr. Jim Denison wrote about Vance’s story after he was named Trump’s running mate and, today, I’d like to do the same with Walz.

Who is Tim Walz?

While distilling anyone’s life into a few bullet points promises to fall short of giving the full picture, what follows are some of the more pertinent parts of Walz’s story to date:

• Walz was born and raised in West Point, Nebraska—a community of 3,500 people roughly an hour outside of Omaha—before joining the National Guard at seventeen.
• He and his wife moved to Mankato, Minnesota in the 1990s. While there, he taught social studies and coached football at the local high school, winning a state championship in 1999.
• He served in the Army National Guard for twenty-four years before retiring to pursue a career in politics.
• While in the National Guard, he achieved the rank of command sergeant major before retiring with the rank of master sergeant. The demotion was due to leaving before he completed the necessary coursework to keep the higher rank. The circumstances surrounding his departure have resurfaced as a point of heated debate in recent days and will be addressed a bit later in this article.
• After leaving the National Guard, he spent twelve years in the House of Representatives before becoming governor of Minnesota in 2018. He is currently in the middle of his second term in that role.

Walz’s story as a small-town military veteran who went on to serve in contested districts and lead an often-divided state government is, perhaps, the chief reason that Harris selected him to be her running mate in the upcoming election.

However, his selection was not without some controversy, and it remains to be seen if the initial buzz he’s brought to the campaign will last until November.

Was Walz the right choice?

One of the chief reasons some are unhappy with—or, at least, skeptical of—Walz’s selection is that it came in place of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

Allegations of antisemitism were at the heart of the discussion early on—Shapiro is a practicing Jew who has been vocal about the war in Israel, though Walz has echoed many of the same positions. However, the focus has shifted more to the selection’s impact on the electoral map since the announcement was first made.

You see, Shapiro is the popular leader of, perhaps, the election’s most important state. The latest polling suggests that whoever wins Pennsylvania has a 34 percent chance of winning the election, with Wisconsin as the next most significant state at 17 percent. Minnesota, by contrast, has a less than 1 percent chance of tipping the scales toward either candidate.

Such data is why many Democrats winced—and Republicans rejoiced—when Harris chose Walz over Shapiro.

However, Walz’s proponents argue that, while his state is not nearly as contested as others, his story, personality, and other attributes will help them solidify their base and appeal to undecided voters.

But while aspects of Walz’s story may appeal to many not currently planning to vote for Harris this fall, his politics—particularly in recent years—may not.

Walz’s “signature accomplishments”

In describing his “signature accomplishments” as governor, Walz lists a number of issues that could be bipartisan in nature, or at least were in Minnesota. Topics like providing free breakfast and lunch in schools, adding benefits and protections for veterans, rebuilding roads and bridges, and making it easier for people to get government jobs without a college degree were all popular measures across party lines in his state.

However, those measures are paired with points that are a good bit more controversial in nature.

Under his leadership, Minnesota instituted some of the nation’s most progressive protections to trans individuals—including minors—while also being to the left of most when it comes to gun laws and voter registration. In addition, he signed laws protecting abortion at any point during pregnancy and granting illegal immigrants many of the rights typically reserved for citizens, such as the ability to get a driver’s license.

In addition, Walz has been criticized for his delayed response to the 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd—though then-President Trump praised the steps Walz took once he sent in the National Guard.

His military record, while decorated, has also resurfaced as a source of controversy for how it ended. Walz retired two months before his unit was sent to Iraq in 2005, though it’s unclear when he put in his retirement papers.

The subject has also been raised in previous elections, and Walz’s motivations for his decision remain unclear. However, JD Vance—a Marine veteran—was the latest to raise the issue, accusing Walz of “stolen valor” for the way the governor has spoken of his time in the military throughout his political career.

Choosing purpose over politics

Ultimately, whether you agree, disagree, or simply don’t care about the extent to which Walz was the correct choice to join Harris on the Democratic ticket, what will matter far more over the next few months is how you choose to engage with the discussion.

Regardless of whether your side wins or loses, God will still be on his throne, America will most likely continue to exist, and chances are good that the day-to-day experience of your life will be impacted far less than you expect. Most importantly, your highest calling—to share God’s good news in service to God’s kingdom—will not change.

However, fulfilling that calling will be far more difficult if you’ve burned bridges and spoken or acted in ways that diminish your witness between now and November.

So the next time you’re tempted to prioritize politics over your higher purpose in Christ, remember that this world—as important as it may be—is not our home, and our ultimate allegiance belongs to God.

How can you serve him today?

Denison Forum