A Christian Perspective on the Results of the American Presidential Elections

In early November 2020, EWTN published a report on the 10th anniversary of the visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Britain in which he beatified John Henry Newman; now a saint. My readers may wish to see the visit here. Both Benedict XVI and Saint John Henry Newman remind me of Christian Tradition and the "Development of Christian Doctrine" written by Saint John Henry Newman. Bishop Robert Barron spoke about the great work of Saint John Henry Newman here. There is a reason for thinking of Christian Tradition today since the American presidential elections have so far awarded the American presidency to the Democrat Joe Biden. The resutls are not final until the current Republican President Donald Trump announces acceptance of his defeat. However, Trump continues to challenge the official election results. His opponent Joe Biden was denied communion Sunday November 1st at a Catholic church in South Carolina over his support for abortion rights.Father Robert Morey, the pastor at Saint Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, told the Florence Morning News that he had denied Biden communion because "any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching." "Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church. Our actions should reflect that," Morey said in an email to the newspaper. He said that "as a priest, it is my responsibility to minister to those souls entrusted to my care, and I must do so even in the most difficult situations. I will keep Mr. Biden in my prayers." Trump, on the other hand, is credited for appointing pro-life Judge Amy Coney Barret to the Supreme Court in October 2020. His views are pro-life since he promised to act on it in the 2016 presidential elections. He effectively made abortion illegal in the United States. Melania, his devout Catholic wife, has influenced him in the way she regularly attends Mass, and prays the Rosary. Publicly she said the Lord's Prayer while he watched her and applauded the Catholic Church. While he did not allow Muslims from some Islamic countries to enter the United States, Trump claimed that he continued to assist Christian minorities and persecuted Christians in the Middle East. See this video here. On the political front: Accoring to the Associated Press, "The Trump administration threw the presidential transition into tumult, with President Donald Trump blocking government officials from cooperating with President-elect Joe Biden’s team and Attorney General William Barr authorizing the Justice Department to probe unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud. Some Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, rallied behind Trump’s efforts to fight the election results. Few in the GOP acknowledged Biden’s victory or condemned Trump’s other concerning move on Monday: his firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper. The developments cast doubt on whether the nation would witness the same kind of smooth transition of power that has long anchored its democracy. The Electoral College is slated to formally confirm Biden’s victory on Dec. 14, and the Democrat will be sworn into office in late January. On Monday, Barr authorized U.S. attorneys to probe “substantial” allegations of voter irregularities and election fraud... The North Korea Deal: Retrieved from the "RAND Corporation" article by Bruce Bennett published September 28, 2020 "The President viewed North Korea's nuclear weapons with their ballistic missile delivery means as a clear threat to the United States and its regional allies. The feverish pace of North Korean ballistic missile and nuclear weapon tests in 2017 demonstrated the North Korean capabilities, creating great regional anxiety. Throughout 2017, President Trump was clear that he would apply “maximum pressure” on North Korea, not even ruling out military action. Many in Northeast Asia and beyond feared that President Trump's actions could even lead to war. They recognized that North Korea had been very clear: for years the North had stated repeatedly that it would never give up its nuclear weapons. It was a surprise then in March 2018 when Kim Jong Un offered to negotiate the dismantlement of his nuclear weapons program. President Trump accepted this offer and held two summit meetings with Kim Jong Un. The President has chosen to emphasize a peaceful, personal relationship with Kim rather than resolving the North's mid- to long-term nuclear weapon threat.Which is to say that there has been no North Korean denuclearization. Quite the opposite: the North continues building nuclear weapons and has increased its capacity to do so. Satellite images indicate Pyongyang has been consistently developing its ballistic missile delivery capabilities, as well as the Kim regime's continued sanctions-skirting illicit activities to fund its weapons of mass destruction programs, and Pyongyang's statements articulating its resolve to bolster its nuclear deterrent. This is shocking in light of the April 2018 Panmunjom Declaration by Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon, part of which says that North and South Korea will fully implement all of their previous agreements and declarations. The previous 1992 South/North Denuclearization Declaration (PDF) is clear: “South and North Korea shall not test, manufacture, produce, receive, possess, store, deploy, or use nuclear weapons. South and North Korea shall use nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes. South and North Korea shall not possess nuclear reprocessing and uranium enrichment facilities.…” Should there be any question, Kim said in his 2019 New Year's Address: “Accordingly, we declared at home and abroad that we would neither make and test nuclear weapons any longer nor use and proliferate them…” In the Middle East, there has been a few developments in pushing the U.S. interests... According to BBC, published on October 9 here, "The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on 18 "major" Iranian banks in one of the most extensive such moves by Washington against Tehran in months. The order will also penalise non-Iranian institutions trading with them, effectively cutting the banks off from the international financial system. The US says it is seeking to choke off Iran's access to funds to pursue what it regards as aggressive activities. Iran's UN ambassador accused the US of committing "economic terrorism". The latest punitive measure comes weeks after the US declared the return - or "snapback" - of UN sanctions on Iran that were lifted under a 2015 international deal over Iran's nuclear programme, accusing Tehran of having breached that agreement. Other members of the UN Security Council, however, are not in agreement with the US, saying Washington cannot trigger the snapback mechanism because it abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018." Trump also supported Egypt in its claims against Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam (read it in BBC's report here). As for China, after an intial cordial personal relationship between the U.S. Trump and China's leader Xi Jinping, both countries descended in a war of trade sanctions which culminated in the blame game over the coronavirus pandemic with President Trump calling it "The Chinese Virus" (see here). Despite Trump's childish tantrums, his pro-life stance making abortion illegal in America, the influence of his Catholic devout wife and his appreciation of the Church add to his credibility as a good Christian and president of the Superpower, the most important economic and political country in the world. Between Donald Trump and nominally-Catholic Joe Biden, I would choose Trump.