Hillary’s Pragmatism Isn’t Practical

By Dudley Hall Published on July 29, 2016

Christians are called to pray for our leaders, and not just for our favorites. Conservatives need to pray for Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and recognize that, in doing so, we are attacking a stronghold of pragmatism unmoored from morality, a misguided vision of political leadership that is anything but practical.

Clinton often describes herself as one who gets things done, and sadly, it doesn’t seem to matter to her what means she uses to get there. This is the view of a true pragmatist. Pragmatism is defined by the old mantra of “the end justifies the means.”

We’ve become accustomed to thinking of pragmatism in terms of practicality, of being realistic, of accomplishing what is possible. However, pragmatism in its essence is an approach that defines what is true and right according to what appears to work: “If it works, then it must be right.”

This is Clinton in a nutshell. (Trump also seems to suffer from this blindness, but Hillary Clinton is the focus of the present essay.) Who can forget her smug dismissive posture during the Benghazi committee’s questioning? Her exasperation over the whole e-mail scandal was exposed in her outburst, “What does it matter?”

The only repentance the public has seen in her seems to be driven by the mood of the electorate. She has changed many times, but always to better align with those who will be voting. It seems that her moral compass is hinged firmly upon the polls of public opinion. This is pragmatism in action.

This was no anomaly. Throughout her political career, Clinton has appeared irritated by those who insist that there are virtues that must be retained regardless of the outcome of her efforts. Honesty and respect for the rule of law are expendable in an effort to implement her agenda.

Many who have little or no scruples regarding the means of achievement admire this kind of pragmatism, but it will be exposed as deception that leads to destruction.

In his letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul penned these Spirit-inspired words when describing the eternal realities: “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three: but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). When all political structures fall and all temporal values are exposed, faith, hope and love will still be around. Virtue is eternal. It is ignored at great peril.

As we pray for her, we ask for such blindness to be healed by the gracious hand of God. We are all blind until our Creator opens our eyes to the light of truth. Jesus healed different kinds of blindness while on earth, showing that the Father is vitally interested in our recovering the sight that Adam lost when sin invaded the race.

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3)

Hillary Clinton professes to value her Christian faith very much. Let’s pray that, like us, she may be granted a fresh revelation of the gospel. We shall all realize that God has his ways and means to achieve through us what he knows will really set people free.

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