Subject: How the Most Important Value in Society Cost Clinton the Election

Proverbs 22:12 “The Lord detests lying lips, but He delights in people who tell the truth.”

Donald Trump’s Presidential victory over Hillary Clinton is being called the greatest political upset in American history. Not only has Donald Trump never held a political office, but he was running against a Democratic candidate with 30 years’ experience in politics and nearly twice as much cash to fund her campaign. So how did Clinton manage to lose the Presidency to someone as apparently unknown and unqualified as Donald Trump? The political ‘experts’ tell us there are three main reasons.

The first reason is the economy. Dan Roberts of ’The Guardian’ claims that “Stagnant wage levels and soaring inequality were symptoms of the malaise felt by many voters. Trump successfully convinced them to believe this was caused by bad trade deals and a rigged economy.” Yes, the economy was part of it.

The second reason is the Democratic party’s obsession with abortion. John McCormack of ‘The Weekly Standard’ explained: “There’s been a growing push on the left to not only defend abortion as a necessary evil … but to celebrate it as a positive good.” The results of the July Marist Poll showed that the American people flatly disagreed. 80% of Americans support substantial restrictions on abortion, while 62% oppose taxpayer funding for abortion. A majority, 56%, do not believe that healthcare providers should be forced to perform abortions against their conscience or religious beliefs. Yes, the abortion issue was part of it.

But it is the third reason that is the most significant for Clinton’s defeat. The American people believe Hillary Clinton has been caught lying multiple times. And as voting day approached, Americans of all party lines became increasingly distrusting of her as a leader. Guy Benson explained the Clinton decline in his July ‘Townhall’ article: “A NY Times/CBS News survey confirms a trend we’ve been covering: over the course of four months, Clinton’s standing has fallen from a 10-point lead to an exact tie, with Trump’s level of support barely budging. 67% of voters now say Clinton is not honest and trustworthy. Roughly seven in ten voters believe Hillary’s email misconduct was at least improper, with a large plurality saying she broke the law – including a majority of independent voters. Multiple national polls show that most Americans disagree with the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue a criminal prosecution in the matter.”

Why would society view a leader’s trustworthiness as a more important value than, say, their job qualifications or their faithfulness to their family? Syndicated columnist Dennis Prager explained why God’s Ninth Commandment, “Thou shalt not bear false witness”, is the most important value in any society: “Goodness and compassion may be the most important values in the personal realm, but in the societal realm, truth is more important. Virtually all great societal evils, such as African slavery, Nazism, and Communism, have been based on lies.” God’s Ten Commandments are moral imperatives, to set the rules on how any society prospers. And in American society, we will not tolerate any leader who lies to us.

In our verse this week from Proverbs, God takes a strong stance against lying because as a Person, God by His very essence is truthful. As Hebrews 6:18 tells us, “It is impossible for God to lie.” The word He uses for someone who lies is ‘deceitful’, and the word for trustworthy is ‘sincere’. It’s the origin of ‘sincere’ that is so interesting – it means “without wax”. In ancient days, if a sculptor made a statue that had a pit or crack, they would often fill it with wax and then paint over it to hide the defect. To judge the value of the statue, a potential buyer would heat the statue’s surface with a candle. Any wax would melt away, exposing the defect. The most valuable statues used no wax. So God is saying that He loves when people use “no wax”.

But unlike people, Jesus Christ is always ready to forgive, if we are willing to be honest with Him (use “no wax”) and confess our sin. For many of us, not being willing to face the music is what separates us from Him and from heaven. In his book ‘A Heart Like Jesus’, Max Lucado explains where the phrase ‘face the music’ originated: “Many years ago a man conned his way into the orchestra of the emperor of China although he could not play a note. Whenever the group practiced or performed, he would hold his flute against his lips, pretending to play but not making a sound. He received a modest salary and enjoyed a comfortable living. Then one day the emperor requested a solo from each musician. The flutist got nervous. There wasn’t enough time to learn the instrument. He pretended to be sick, but the royal physician wasn’t fooled. On the day of his solo performance, the impostor took poison and killed himself. The explanation of his suicide led to a phrase that we now use often in our English language: “He refused to face the music.”