Nobody is safe when it comes to presidential campaigns. The mudslinging begins immediately. This isn’t anything new and I’m not referring to our current presidential barrage of insults.
John Adams, who served as George Washington’s vice president was an expected winner for election. His reelection, though, wasn’t such a smooth ride. “Adams was known in anti-Federalist papers as “His Rotundity.” The Aurora, a pro-Jefferson Philadelphia paper run by Ben Franklin’s outspoken young grandson, called him “old, querulous, bald, blind, crippled, toothless Adams.”1
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was attacked by his detractors who believed the lowest blow that could be thrown was to go after his dog, Fala, a black Scottish terrier. “Critics had circulated a story claiming that Roosevelt had accidentally left Fala behind while visiting the Aleutian Islands earlier that year. They went on to accuse the president of sending a Navy destroyer, at a taxpayer expense of up to $20 million, to go back and pick up the dog. Roosevelt said that though he and his family had “suffered malicious falsehoods” in the past, he claimed the right to “object to libelous statements about my dog.” … He half-jokingly declared that his critics sullied the reputation of a defenseless dog just to distract Americans from more pressing issues facing the country.”3
All of a sudden, we might think that the retaliatory rhetoric thrown around during our election cycle today isn’t quite so bad! Roosevelt, though, hit the nail on the head. The distractions keep us from looking at the major issues while focusing on the minor. Therefore, we major on the minors.
Jesus had a funny of way of telling this to the scribes and Pharisees. In Matthew 23:23-24, He said, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (24) Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” Commentator William Barclay said, “This is a humorous picture which must have raised a laugh, of a man carefully straining his wine through gauze to avoid swallowing a microscopic insect and yet cheerfully swallowing a camel. It is the picture of a man who has completely lost his sense of proportion.”
We lose our sense of proportion when we make a big deal out of little things and fail to make a big deal out of the big things. Paul addressed this in Galatians 4:8-10. 
“Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. (9) But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? (10) Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.” One Bible commentator writes that, “The rituals, ceremonies, and festivals of the Jewish religious calendar which God had given were never required for the church. Paul warns the Galatians, as he did the Colossians against legalistically observing them as if they were required by God or could earn favor with Him.”
Is it possible that we could get caught up in spiritual mudslinging, majoring on minor things, thereby distracting us and the person we attack from the weightier things of the Lord?
Warren Wiersbe makes a valid observation. “There are certain truths that all Christians must accept because they are the foundation for the faith. But areas of honest disagreement must not be made a test of fellowship. If you have a sincere conviction from God about a matter, keep it to yourself and do not try to force everybody else to accept it. No Christian can “borrow” another Christian’s convictions and be honest in his Christian life. Unless he can hold them and practice them “by faith,” he is sinning. Even if a person’s convictions are immature, he must never violate his conscience. This would do great damage to his spiritual life…Conscience is strengthened by knowledge. But knowledge must be balanced by love; otherwise it tears down instead of building up. The truth that all foods are clean (Romans 14:14, 20) will not of itself make a Christian grow. When this truth is taught in an atmosphere of love, then the younger Christian can grow and develop a strong conscience. Believers may hold different convictions about many matters, but they must hold them in love.”4
If we get hung up on the minors, it won’t be long before the mud starts flying! Instead, as Christians, let’s practice some grace and the admonition of Romans 14:22-23. “Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. (23) And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
1https://www.phillymag.com/news/2012/10/24/presidential-campaign-dirty-politics-mudslinging/
2Ibid.
3https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-defends-his-dog
4https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/wiersbe-be-bible-study/christians-must-not-force-their-opinions-others-vv
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.
