ONE NATION

I saw a little clip of another prominent American Evangelical leading a prayer-time. No raspberries at Covid this time; she was pleading with the Lord for 'the sound of victory' by which she explicitly means the current President winning the election in the eleventh, and unlikely, hour.

She is the 'Spiritual Advisor to the White House' - a job which, if you think about it, the rest of us shouldn't really be seeing her doing, unless you conflate that job title as 'Spiritual Advisor to the United States'. That isn't beyond the current President's belief-system, given the notion that he himself and all his followers are the one true America, so perhaps it's hard for them to tell the difference.

Anyway, there she was, doing all the things that I've seen people do in evangelical prayer meetings over the years. I'm not going to knock that heartfelt passion, if heartfelt it is. What it reminds me though is how a lot of people are interpreting this election as a veil, behind which is the real battle of good versus evil as though we're in some sort of end-times drama. And I want to tell you that I find that disconcerting.

In the old days it was easy to tell who the baddies were. They were the cruel, twisted figures who schemed in the shadows. They cackled at their own malicious intelligence while explaining their devious plots to oafish henchmen. They wore cloaks and masks, as if they knew their internal evil was a thing to be hidden, and yet they were proud and unremorseful.

I've painted a cartoon picture, but it's frighteningly easy to project that onto someone you don't like. And in a world where everyone is tribalised into left and right, blue and red, progressive or conservative, you end up with both armies both convinced they're on the side of the angels, fighting some sort of holy war against the devil behind the scenes.

In the Divided States, it's super-charged with religious belief, probably because atheists and anti-theists tend to gather around the blue flag, and traditional believers are likely to be as red-blooded conservatives as they come. Two Americas start to open up: one that tries to hold on to the past and all that makes them great; the other that recoils at the complexities of conservatism in the modern world, and advocates for a more tolerant future. Consequently the Red Team believe something good is being taken away from them and they don't want to live in a godless country, and the Blue Team believe the Reds are stubbornly holding everything back with their imaginary beliefs and jingoistic patriotism.

But don't let me tar everyone with the same star-spangled brush. These are trends and not labels, and I don't wish to insult 330 million people in a single paragraph. You should be free to support whatever kind of country you believe in, whatever your belief system is, and you have the right to campaign for it, to debate for it, and ultimately to vote for it. That's a good thing.

The disconcerting bit for me, is the way it infuses back here to England, to my world of familiar-looking prayer meetings and our own wars of left versus right. If someone put on a fiery prayer meeting here to specifically pray that the current Prime Minister wins the next General Election, there would be an explosion of fury. In fact, I don't think a church would do it - it would be way too contentious. That hasn't happened, but there is a sort of undercurrent...

Is it true that the Bible most closely matches conservatism? A lot of people think so. Or was Jesus more of a socialist in his teachings and actions? Should we be furious about defending the rights of the unborn? Do women have the right to decide what they do with their bodies? Should each family have the opportunity to do the best for themselves? Or should we be more community-minded? There are some strong views out there, even in this country, and in Christian circles they bubble under the surface. Nowadays though, in the wake of a polarising event like a US election, the bubbles are boiling.

It's interesting to me that the 'Spiritual Advisor to the White House' along with millions of evangelical Christians, seem intent for God to keep a man of terrible character on the 'throne', just to win this great battle of good versus evil in America. I genuinely don't believe it's that simple.

To me, it would seem wiser to ask God to heal their nation, not win it. Regardless of who presides, the USA has been ripped apart. But their strength has always been their unity: E Pluribus Unum, as the Great Seal says - One out of the many, 50 states joined in that common endeavour under the Stars and Stripes: one nation, under God, indivisible. That to me, seems like the greatest idea for a country, rather than pretending that only your side gets to be united. America, you're so much more...

And that, if I may say so, is what the Spiritual Advisor to the White House should be praying about. Because what happens to that nation is likely to affect us all.