{"id":48313,"date":"2024-11-12T02:44:06","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T09:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=48313"},"modified":"2024-11-11T13:07:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T20:07:51","slug":"public-service-announcements-election-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2024\/11\/public-service-announcements-election-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Public service announcements: election edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attention everybody<\/strong>: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you<\/a>. There is no special exception from this rule for political campaigns and narrow election losses. I don\u2019t know if we need more civility in this country, but we could genuinely use more friendship. Cutting off friends, family, or your church because of how you think people voted is not the answer. And you don\u2019t actually know how anyone voted, not even your spouse<\/a> or best buddy<\/a>. I believe this point was explicitly addressed during the campaign, yes?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not telling you this because I\u2019m happy about the election. I hate everything about it, especially the outcome. I hate having an election campaign raise real concerns about the physical safety of my family. This is mostly a reminder to myself that the command to love my enemies hasn\u2019t been suspended, and that it is and has to remain the foundation of my actions.<\/p>\n

Attention Trump voters<\/strong>: Congratulations, your candidate won the election. You now own everything that happens over the next four years. I expect it to be pretty bad, just like the last time was pretty bad. But good luck! Also, the winning side bears the responsibility of reaching across the aisle, showing sympathy and understanding, and trying to restore some semblance of unity. Time to get to work on that.<\/p>\n

Attention, priesthood holders<\/strong>: Using slurs to refer to Kamala Harris during the election campaign was unworthy of a bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Continuing to do so after the election compounds your sin. Your friends, family, and current and former ward members see what you\u2019re doing on social media and wish you\u2019d stop.<\/p>\n

Attention despairing Mormon Democrats<\/strong>: Every incumbent government up for re-election around the world has seen its share of voters decline, but Biden\u2019s decrease was one of the very lowest worldwide, a sign that he\u2019s done an exceptional job as president. Every non-battleground state shifted six percentage points on average towards the Republicans, while the states where Harris campaigned heavily shifted only three percent, a sign that she did an exceptional job as a candidate. And unlike other non-battleground states, Utah barely shifted at all. The repeated messaging about political neutrality, good in every political party, and avoiding straight-ticket voting had an effect. It tastes bitter right now, but this is what success looks like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attention everybody:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latter-day-saint-thought"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48313"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48316,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48313\/revisions\/48316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}