2 of 2

Hope is a difficult thing to see amid such a poverty of principles, but Christians are a people of hope. We know the dust of this election eventually will settle. We believe most Americans will, in time, rally behind the new President simply because he is the President and Americans often have generous and forgiving hearts.

We dare to hope that the new President will be proactively gracious in victory, and that he will deliberately set about making peace with the opposition party. Reconciliation need not mean giving the opposition party whatever it wants, but it certainly cannot be built on a foundation of gloating and political payback.

We implore Americans, and our fellow evangelicals in particular, to be a model of grace and healing after this soul-draining disputed election. The question is not whether many evangelicals will disagree with the new President, but how quickly, how often, and how passionately we will disagree. When those disagreements arise, we of all people should refrain from repeating the bitter tales of Election 2000. Most Americans now know those wounds all too well. Our primary political role in these next four years is not to place partisan blame but to help wounded people heal and to move this nation toward a less balkanized culture, and presidential election, by 2004.

first page |  2 of 2

share this page

November (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44