Senator Lindsey Graham passed away suddenly at the age of 71. What should we say about a politician's passing if we disagree with them on many issues? What can we learn from the life, and death, of prominent US Senators?
Welcome to Politics by Faith. It's where we take the news of the day and bring it to the Bible, so we can walk away with peace and perspective. New headlines every day can all be very overwhelming, cause a lot of anxiety, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here for the true story, the story of the day. Today, Senator Lindsey Graham has died. We have a video from just the day before he died.
He was in Kiev in Ukraine. Now, Conspiracy theories are out there. People are quick to make up a story. Isn't that wild? The human brain, heart, something happens. What's the real story?
Those are quick initial reactions. That's wild. But people's initial reaction was, oh, he was in Ukraine, and he's a big war hawk guy, supports arming Ukraine, so Russia probably doesn't care much for him, so maybe he was assassinated by Russia. I tend to believe the most obvious thing. like an Occam's razor approach to life. But I think the Occam's razor here is he's 71 and 71 year olds can have a heart attack.
But maybe we'll find out more. The time will will come for that. President Trump said Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and senators I've ever known is dead. He was always working and was a true American patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed. So sad.
The president went on a few of the new shows this last week and here to talk about Lindsey Graham. And, uh, you know, every reporter tried to throw in another question in there and he said, no, no, we're here only to talk about Lindsey Graham. I'm not answering any of the questions. Lindsey Graham became a Congressman in 1994, won the Senate in 2002. He was an air force jag before that. I feel bad saying much about Lindsey Graham, to be honest, because I only knew him as a caricature of the president.
a caricature in the political realm. Like if politics was a TV show, he was a character in that show. And anything I could say about him is merely political. And that's not much of a ode. It's not much of a compliment to have someone die and then say, well, here were their political stances that they took on certain issues. That's all life is.
That's all his life was. Gosh, I hope when I die, people say more than, well, He really thought we should reform H -1B visas, and he believed we needed to build a wall. Ah, yes. Really? Imagine that being on your tombstone. Mike Slater didn't really like the one big, beautiful bill, but I mean, there were some parts in it that he thought were okay.
Yikes. I'm reading Plutarch, Plutarch's Lives right now. Probably one of the most important books ever written by this Greek historian, Plutarch. He wrote something like 48 short biographies, Alexander the Great, Caesar, Demosthenes, Cicero, guys like that. It was written in like the year 100. But what I enjoy so much about the book, and I think what's especially noteworthy about it is what he chose to write about it, what he didn't write about.
This is in the introduction. He said, it must be born in mind that my design is not to write histories, but lives. And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men. Sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest. and forms as better of their character and inclinations than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever. So I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks and indications of the souls of men.
And while I endeavor by these to portray their lives, may be free to leave more weighty matters and great, great tales to be treated by others. " I love that. So he says, listen, this biography is not a, on this date, then on this date, then on this date. This is more about their lives, their souls, maybe about the smaller things that have happened in their lives. but it's going to reveal their character. So in that spirit, because I could talk about Lindsey Graham's, you know, here's here on this date, he supported this political thing on others.
Like I don't care, but I can say this about his character. Both of Lindsey Graham's parents died when he was 21 and 22. They died about a year apart from each other. Mom died from cancer. His dad had a heart attack. He was about 22 and his sister was 13.
He adopted her. I never heard that before. That's that's commendable to step up like that for your sister. Of course, they remained incredibly close ever since. She told the New York Times back in 2015, Lindsey was always my parent. Lindsey Graham, by the way, was never married.
He has no kids, but he taught his sister how to ride a bicycle. And they grew up together in like a single room behind their family -owned bar. They owned this bar and pool hall, and they lived in one room in the back. Everyone slept in one room. That was it. That was the room that they had.
It's crazy. He was the first member of his family to go to college. and he was way across the board. And his sister said, I can remember the day my father passed away, standing in the living room of that room, absolutely scared to death. Lindsay wrapped his arms around me and promised me he would always be there for me and always take care of me. That will, well, I suppose you're defined before then.
You're being made, I suppose. But if a decision like that, that should define you in really honorable ways. It's great. You're 22. Lindsey Graham, he also said, there's a lot of so -called self -made people in this world. I'm not one of them.
My family, my friends, neighbors, and my faith picked me up when I was down, believed in me when I had doubts. You made me the man I am today. I love that point. To what extent is anyone self -made really? So politically right now, the governor of South Carolina names his replacement until the next election. And there's a Republican as the governor of South Carolina.
And he's a supporter of Lindsey Graham. They get along, of course, so they got along. So there'll be a good Republican there for now. His re -election was coming up in November. And there's going to be a primary in August to pick. Obviously, it was just going to be Lindsey Graham.
But now, just a couple weeks here, they're going to have to have an election to figure out who that is going to be. The Democrat, there's a front -runner Democrat. Her name's like, Annie Andrews or Bonnie Andrews or something like that. I don't know what her chances are. You know, when you get a race like against Lindsey Graham, who wins 70 % of the vote, usually it's like a throwaway race. So I don't know if this is a real serious contender in the Democratic Party.
If someone can swoop in real quick and grab the seat or keep the seat, probably what one It is worth noting how fragile political majorities are. It seems like there have been more deaths or resignations this year than ever. And I looked it up, and the best I could find is that in the past five years, just five years, there's been 10 sitting members of the House. Senator Graham was a senator. But there's been 10 members of the House who have died in office.
And 12 bailed out. I'm not running for re -election. I mean, just like, I'm out now. We're done with this whole thing. That's amazing. So you can think you have a majority, and then a couple of people die, and a few more resign, and then it's gone.
But that's politics. More importantly, This is true for life. You can be fine one day and you get a sudden illness and then you're not alive anymore. And then everyone in your life gets that phone call and say, what? I talked to him yesterday. He's fine.
We used to do Radiothon for Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego. And that was everyone's story. We'd have all these families come in and went to Rady. And that was their story. Every single one of them. Like, Oh, my son, he was eight years old and he was great.
And then on the baseball field, one day he passed out on the field. And now he had cancer and that whole life has been different. Right? So you're fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. Then all of a sudden not. Lindsey Graham, Senator, Senator, Senator, all of a sudden, not.
Now we're talking who's who's the replacement? What's the process for picking a new Senate? Like, so let's go to the Bible here. My first biblical point is for three, no one lives forever. We talked about this the other day. I know it sounds like a no slater.
But do we do we know? Because if we really knew and we believed it, we would live differently. We would make different decisions. So yeah, I know Slater, no one lives forever. All right, well, how are you behaving differently knowing that?
Because for almost all of us, myself included, as an outside observer, look at you and be like, oh, you think you're going to, you're acting like you're going to live forever. You're sure not. and you don't know when your day is, so no one's going to live forever. We talked about this just a couple episodes ago with the rich Silicon Valley tech guy whose goal, Brian Johnson, his goal is to live forever. Literally his life mission is don't die. And he spends millions of dollars a year on his health.
And he just got diagnosed with an incurable stomach disease. And he's going to die, of course. So you can't live forever. Even if you're a senator, which is my second point, we tend to worship politicians, which is weird because we also don't like them. I don't understand how we can do both those things. We don't like politicians.
We don't trust them. They can't get anything done or do anything right. They're generally not that skilled or talented at much of anything, probably. Some of them never had a real job. There's some guys now who've had a real job and they come and become a senator. Some of these guys have never had a real job ever.
So they're not impressive. And then we worship them and we look up to them as if they're of a higher class than us. Like, ooh, a congressman is here. What? It doesn't make sense. So don't worship politicians, which leads To the most important third point, your life should not be defined by your political opinions.
I feel bad distilling Lindsey Graham to a set of political opinions. He was a human individual person and this was his life, right? Cause he didn't have a wife and kids. He could spend all this time working and he did. And he said how much he loved it. I think I read a thing from JD Vance talking about that.
Lindsey Graham would talk to him, how much fun this was. He loved it. And that's great, but I just want to make sure we live our lives in a way that when people have something to say about our passing, it's not, well, he had this political opinion. Okay. I find that shallow and transient. I know it's transient, no matter how important it is here on earth.
It's shallow when it comes to eternity. Proverbs 10, seven says the memory of the righteous is a blessing. But the name of the wicked will rot. Yikes. No, I'm not, I'm not talking about the wicked here. Surely that's not, I'm not saying Lindsey Graham's wicked.
I'm talking more about the righteous. Like that's the one that matters. Who are the righteous? The Hebrew word here means someone who is righteous in conduct and character. So they're, they're righteous as in they're justified by God. I should say by Jesus, to God, because that means you believe in Jesus.
I mean, that's the legacy worth living for. You die and someone says, man, he loved God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. And he loved his neighbor as himself. That's what you want on your tombstone. That's what you want said at your funeral. We shouldn't be striving for eternal fame on earth.
It won't happen. I know I just mentioned Plutarch's lives, people from thousands of years ago, but there's like 48 of them. All right. That's not going to be you or me. Also, how much of the people whose biographies he wrote, if they came back to life today and read it, they'd be like, that's not what happened. These are all more myth than anything else at this point.
And like, some of the stories are like, and he was sailing down the sea and he a giant hand came and picked up the boat. It's all intertwined with myth already, even in Plutarch's life. That proves my point even more. Ecclesiastes 9 .5 says, For the living that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. We forget.
We forget people. Maybe you can go, maybe you remember your grandpa. Great -grandpa? Maybe you know his name. Give me two. Give me two greats.
Great -great -grandpa? Nothing. I got nothing. I don't know. That should be really comforting. Should be.
It's kind of sad at first, but no, it's not, because God remembers his people. God knows his people. You will never forget you. Revelation 14, 12, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them. So we have this contrast here in revelation between the rest of the saints in eternity and the continual torment of the wicked.
It's Revelation 14, 11, and the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. And they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image. We don't want that. We want to die in the Lord. We want to die in the cause of God. It was Adam Clark in the 1800s.
He said they die under the smile and approval of God, and they die to live and reign with God forever and ever. Psalm 34 says, blessed is the man who takes refuge in the Lord. Psalm 40, blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust. This is where we need to find our value. And any memory of us, however much it lasts on earth, any memory of us, Even as we die and after we die, even that should be bringing glory to God. YouTube .
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