Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, the podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch, and in today's episode we're asking the question, why is Congress so, so corrupt? This is prompted by an article I read in the New York Times. And the logic of the article goes like this. At the time, Eric Swalwell, a, representative from California who has since resigned, was facing allegations of sexual assault. that should have prompted a vote to expel him from Congress. seems pretty obvious that if you've sexually assaulted someone, you, if multiple people are accusing you of that, you don't belong in Congress. The problem is though, that there were multiple members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, who were facing either similar allegations or criminal, other kinds of criminal allegations. And there was a little bit of a standoff like the Republicans saying, we want to kick Swalwell out of Congress. And the Democrats saying, well, if you do, that will kick one of your criminals out. I mean, that is literally what the article is about. Two Democrats and two Republicans. Allegations ranging from sexual misconduct to embezzlement of over $5 million in federal funds. And basically the two sides were, were trying to figure out either how to protect their people or how to get rid of the other side's people. And the point of the article was, this could be a devastating blow for Congress as we could blink and 4, 5, 6 members have to be removed because of their conduct. When you read the article, you couldn't help but ask the question, how did we get here? How did we get from criminal allegations against a congressperson being a unique thing, a newsworthy thing to now the news isn't that they're accused of crime. It's whether or not you're going to kick all of them out or just some of them or none of them because of a political standoff. And the answer to that is pretty simple. As voters in a democracy, we stopped caring about character. I don't know when we did it. I mean, I don't know when we decided character didn't matter. I don't know if we can go back to the Bill Clinton administration. I don't know if we can go back to the so called Christian right and what it excused. I don't know when we lost our conscience. But somewhere along the way we, we decided what mattered in politics was beating the other side. What mattered was our team winning. And then that introduced a lesser of two evils argument. it no longer mattered. If my candidate was a person of character, I just needed them to be not as bad as yours. You know, the writer of Proverbs tells us that when this happens, we're not going to like the government we get. Proverbs 29:2 says this. When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice. But listen. When the wicked rule, the people groan. You see, there's a. There's a trickle down effect. If we elect people of poor character, we get poor government. Because Gore's character isn't inseparable from policy. It isn't inseparable from the way a person leads. Do we really think Swalwell was spending his evenings, at best, pursuing unwanted sexual advances and, and then a day crushing his job caring for and representing the people of his district? I doubt it. Right. You and I know you can't bifurcate like that. If you chase bad character, throughout part of the day, that shows up in the rest of your day. So this is a call not to vote one way or the other, but to decide as a voter. Character matters. It's going to matter that in primaries and in elections, we will hold the line unsung. I don't know crazy things like, if you're a criminal, you don't get my vote. If you demonize and mischaracterize people, you're not going to. If you lie, you're not going to get my vote. We're not looking for saints. We're not looking for perfect people. But we are looking for the best of us, aren't we? Shouldn't we be? The writer of Proverbs is telling us, if we put righteousness on the ballot, if character matters, we. We will lead to government that causes us to rejoice. But if we pretend it doesn't, or if we listen to those who are telling us to excuse it in the name of victory, it is us who will suffer. So, look, you and I can't change the world, but we can change how we vote. And at minimum, Christians should be saying, look, policy matters. issues matter, but so does character. I can walk and chew gum at the same time. I don't have to choose. I want candidates with great policy and great character. And I won't settle for anything less. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!