Dear Christian Moms of Politically Divided Families,
First off, you moms are some of my favorite people in the world. You are loving, caring, kind, and excellent examples and people. You pour yourselves into your children and that is a major gift.
If you’re reading this, you are one of the many that are finding these times very divided; you’re likely seeing wedges growing between generations, based upon politics. In a lot of the cases I know, it’s begun with politics and spread to religion. Things that used to be common, have now torn families apart. I care much less about the political than I do the religious. As, I expect, is the case for many of you. That’s what I’d like to address today.
You did an excellent job of raising your children to be good people. For you, that meant Christian. So you raised your child to fit that mold, defining it. No doubt a lot of your children go to church, believe in God, and are doing a version of the same. But that’s not what worries us.
Many of you also have children that no longer believe in Jesus, or have turned their backs on The Faith. I know that this is very hard on you, and that you probably ask yourselves, when in your bed at night, or when doing devotions, or in prayer: how could my child not believe in God, after how we raised them? How can they not believe the message?
You probably direct versions of this question to God and to your friends.
I’d like to acknowledge that it’s a hard thing to deal with.
In many cases, though, this is where the religious turns political.
I have talked to a lot of your kids that used to believe but no longer do; people that spent a long time going to churches, wrestling with belief, and have cut the cord. This stuff interests me a lot, and here’s what’s happened: something in how God was presented to them made the entire faith un-compelling. Something in the way you communicated your awe has actually led them astray. For some of them, it’s how you’ve taught them the Bible has to be read; for some, it’s your political views that your child sees going against that same Bible; for some, it’s not actually you at all, but the fact that you stand behind your husband and your husband’s beliefs, which your child cannot understand.
Many of your child’s official breakups with the church came when Christians and church leaders supported Trum. They have zero idea how you can support the man after what you’ve taught them. They see this as a contradiction. They see this as YOU losing the plot, missing the point of Jesus, and they now doubt Jesus’s message.
(Which is fair if you actually and honestly think of it.)
What would you have done if your child came home honoring a man that - pays porn stars that he’s had sex with not to talk, a man that - even though he’s married - is “trying to fuck” models that he can also “grab by the pussy” because “if you’re famous they let you do it”. What if your child said, “If you don’t vote for me, you’ll be so goddam poor”?
Or, what if your family was going around the table, talking about times you asked for, and felt, forgivenss, and everyone had an example, except one. That child - the one that claimed persecution - said, “I don’t really do that. I don’t think I need to do that.”
What if your child came to you and said: I’m in the middle of 3,000 lawsuits. I had an affair. I’m getting divorced. And then, I’m getting divorced again.
If this was your child, how would you feel?
How would you feel about their faith?
Now, what if this same child then claimed to be a Christian, and claimed to be persecuted because he’s a “strong Christian”?
If this person said, ‘vote for me because I’m a strong Christian’, how would you feel? How would you feel if this was your child and then you found out that their were websites that chronicled all of the lies that your child told?
This is what we’re dealing with. For a lot of your kids that no longer believe, the final straw of the Christian community was their support of Trump. If you don’t like my links, google for yourself . This is what turns a lot of people away.
Think about that. You support a man who’s actions go against Jesus’s teachings, and in turn, your family is divided.
I encourage you to think about this when you vote.
You do not have to vote for Trump, you can write in: your pastor, your husband, or someone else you trust.
Sincerely,
Tom