Smear Campaign

Smear campaigns involve various reputation-damaging activities. They are typically targeted at public officials, politicians, and political candidates. Lately, there has been a cavalcade of advertisements featuring smears hurled from one political candidate at another. It reminds me the playground in elementary school, with kids facing off each other in a brutal contest of insults. The winner was whoever issued the best comment tarnishing the image of his opponent’s mother. Some of the political smear campaigns would have you believe that super villains, witches, demons, or the like are running for public office. They are portrayed to sit on a throne of skulls located in a fortress surrounded by lava, deep beneath the Earth’s crust. They send out their twisted minions to carry out their malevolent plans to lie to waste all that is good and holy. When the smear ads start, I tune them out. The one ad that actually caught my attention involved a political candidate talking about a few issues that I am genuinely concerned about and laying out a few of his plans to deal with these issues. I don’t want to know who’s the worst man for the job; I want to know who’s going to do the job better.
In middle school, I ran for class representative against one of the most popular girls in school. I put together posters, buttons, and various other promotional items. I worked for hours on my campaign speech and the concepts I was to offer for my class. I was defeated by an underground smear campaign and a speech that was something to the effect of “Uhhh… we might get a vending machine... with candy…” Maybe I just didn’t know the priorities of 7th grade students. I learned through this experience that though we face opponents who mean to wound our standing in society, we must hold on to our integrity. Lately, I have seen a lot of negative press aimed at Christianity. The outlandish actions of a few individuals claiming to be Christians often represent Christianity as a whole. I’ve also seen a rise in articles, books, television shows, etc. that insult Christianity in the light of how ridiculous it seems when compared to the “cold, hard facts” of evolutionary theory. The things I read that people say about Christians both angers and saddens me. Isaiah 58:8 tells us that despite all of this, we must continue to prevent injustice and fulfill the needs of others. If we are able to do these things, our light will rise out of the darkness.