In what has been
perhaps the most vitriolic presidential campaign in history, a campaign marred
by thunderbolts of verbal assaults, a campaign in which a candidate’s viability
is apparently gauged not by a vision for the future of our nation but by how
much he/she attacks and is attacked---recall Ben Carson’s quip in the last
Republican debate: "Can somebody attack me
please?"----perhaps everyone needs to take a deep breath, slow down, and
dare I say it? Give each other a hug.
It
would be miraculous, I admit.
A
jaw-dropping, epochal event, for sure.
The
news would be…HUGE.
But think what
Republican and Democratic candidates could do in restoring hope to a political
process that appears to have gone awry if they would join each other in
something as simple as a group hug.
We
might once again have hope that a dysfunctional Congress could actually work
together for the betterment of those who elected them.
It
might restore hope that the President, whomever he or she may be, could seek
and gain agreements for the betterment of our country, despite the differences
defining the rivals that coalesce on those policies.
I
know I’m asking for the unimaginable, but surely, wherever there’s a hug, there
is hope.
That
truth was in fact evidenced on the campaign trail a couple of weeks ago when
Republican presidential candidate, John Kasich, gave a hug to a distressed
supporter. His name was Brett Smith, a 21-year-old University of Georgia
student.
“Over
a year ago, a man who was like my second dad, he killed himself,” Smith, speaking
with a quivering voice, told Kasich at a town hall meeting. “And then a few
months later, my parents got a divorce, and then a few months later, my dad
lost his job. And I was in a really dark place for a long time. I was pretty
depressed.”
“But
I found I hope,” he continued. “And I found it in the Lord, and in my friends,
and now I’ve found it in my presidential candidate that I support. And I’d
really appreciate one of those hugs you’ve been talking about.”
Kasich
responded by embracing the young man, whispering to him, “The Lord will give
you strength, I promise you, if you ask him.”
It
was a touching moment, for evidences of hope touch that deepest part of us, our
heart.
Theologian
Emil Brunner said, “What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of
life.”
And
Reverend C. Neil Strait underscored the importance of hope when he said: “Take
from a man his wealth, and you hinder him; take from him his purpose, and you
slow him down. But take from man his hope, and you stop him.”
That’s
because we can survive without wealth, and perhaps without a purpose, at least
for a while.
But
without hope we are… hopeless.
People
everywhere, like that young man who spoke to Kasich, are hurting, bearing up
under the burden of life.
I
know that many Christian believers like myself---we, whom some candidates are courting
for a vote---could affirm with the hymn writer of another day, that “Our hope
is built on nothing less/Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness,” and not on any politician
or cadre of them. Neither is our hope ultimately in the political process
itself.
And
by the time you read this, Super Tuesday, 2016, will be history. The group hug
may have dwindled to a precious few.
But
it sure would be astonishing, nonetheless, for whomever remains in the race, be
they Democrat or Republican, if they would, like John Kasich did to that young
man, slow down, show a gentler heart, and give one of those hugs.
Even
to those who aren’t the candidate’s supporters or potential donors.
Perhaps
even to their opponents.
That
would be evidence not just of hope in our country’s future.
That
would be a demonstration of grace.
Amazing
grace.
But,
then, that’s another subject.
