To the extent of my limited abilities and time, I’ve been doing my best to fight the GOP in 2020– mostly through my involvement with environmental organizations.  After some painful nights of cold-calling, though, I was feeling like th

e environment wasn’t a great selling point when contacting voters.  So last night I tried texting potential Christian voters in Pennsylvania with a social justice-focused Christian group called “Faithful America.”

I really hate both calling and texting voters– it feels invasive, and I find it really hard to see how it can advance a cause because I think people universally loathe being contacted this way by strangers.

But– I also feel like I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t try to do what I can to end the GOP this election season. So I covered my eyes, and texted 200 registered voters who had been identified by Faithful America as “likely” Christians.

Out of 200 text messages, I got a lot of unsubscribes (understandable!)

I got 3 positive “I voted” or “planning to vote” messages.

I got 5 “Pro-Trump” messages.

I got 2 cryptic but Trump-y messages.

And it’s strange, because even though the numbers of “Biden” and “Trump” responses are not actually that far off from each other, the Trump messages loomed so much larger in my psyche.  After sending the first volley of 200 messages, I had gotten some crazy responses, like:

“As a good Christian, i am voting for Donald Trump and against a liberal abortion loving, senile old moron who loves to sniff little kids.”

and, even more puzzling (possibly funny?)

“Trump will [win] again you capitalist infidel.  Allah be praised!”

It really made me want to quit.  I don’t have a thick skin, and even small doses of negativity tend to burn little holes in my stomach.

Of course, while I was texting with Faithful America, I was also making dinner, trying to listen to my 11-yo tell me about Parkour, building a car wash out of cardboard for my 5-yo, and trying to remember whether I’d hidden the remaining dog food somewhere while trying to avoid stepping on the hungry dog.  So the midst of all this, I did a check-in with my personal understanding of Jesus.

Here’s what I know about Jesus:

– his ministry and discourse focused on women and children at a time when women and children were broadly regarded as second-class citizens, and often as property.

– he was anti-capitalist and advocated selflessness

– he elevated the poor, the sick, beggars, foreigners

– he bravely went up against the hierarchical structures of inequity that characterized his time, ultimately giving his life for the cause.

And, after a small glass of wine, I decided that– spamming or not– sending the words “Christians for social justice and against Trump” to people’s phones was worth it.

In most spheres, we can’t say those words all together, often for good reason.  At church, we don’t want to polarize or be political.  In secular affairs, we don’t want to alienate non-believers.  But, if you are a follower of Jesus, it’s an important moment to cut through the crap of the way practiced “Christianity” has been used to shackle and divide us, and to read some parables with an eye to the WWJD of this election.

So I sent another 200 text messages.  The words “Christian” “social justice” and “against Trump” all belong together.  The clock is ticking.  Let’s say it every way we can.