Earlier this week, I presented at my atheist discussion group on evangelicalism and the recent American election.  In addition to citing the oft mentioned statistic that, according to most polls, roughly eighty percent of white evangelicals voted for the incumbent, I noted that other polls indicated that, contrary to what many people think, the number one issue for most evangelicals was not abortion (although abortion remains a very significant point of concern for evangelicals).  It was the economy.

     This raises a number of intriguing thoughts.  In the end, are Christian evangelicals so much different than everyone else in what matters most to them? Maybe not.  How do we square this, relatively speaking, "materialistic" desire with other, call them, for lack of a better word, "spiritual" desires?  Are these desires compatible?

     I'll save this discussion for another day.  In my presentation, I made a point about pragmatism.  Before the 2016 election, numerous Christian leaders suggested that although they were not entirely happy with the behavior of the then candidate Donald Trump, they would vote for him (as one put it, he would "hold" his nose when he went into the booth).  Why?  Because they saw him as the vehicle through which they could accomplish their larger goals.

     So do the means justify the ends?  And what ends are most worthwhile?  These are hard questions, hard questions that every evangelical should ask him or herself. How much am I willing to overlook character flaws to achieve what I consider to be a larger, more significant objective?  Yes, politics is an inherently pragmatic enterprise.  We all understand this.  But where do we draw the line?

     Once more, we confront what Native American writer and Christian Kaitlin Curtice calls the "Mystery."  The Mystery that is God.  We err if we suppose that we always understand the Mystery.  Or, worse, proclaim that we do.

     In matters of transcendent morality, we must always tread carefully.  Humility is essential.  We are little people in a very big universe.  And an even bigger God.