Election year

 We are approaching an election in Sweden. We have had four years of a coalition of four different right-wing parties.

 

A lot has happened, especially regarding views on crime and punishment.

 

It is now illegal to escape from prison. You might find that strange, but it wasn’t illegal before.

 

It is now also illegal to take stolen goods out of Sweden. Again, sounds perhaps strange that it wasn’t illegal before.

 

Shouting "Death to the Jews" in streets and public squares is now a punishable offence.

 And so, so ,much more has happened.

 

But what should she think of elections and politics?

 

First, I make this very clear never speak party politics from the pulpit. Never publicly tell people who to vote for or not vote for.

 

Ive have been writing about this once before, recently I guess but after a talk with some friends last Sunday at church here is more.

 

 

 

Philippians 3:20 says our citizenship is in heaven, but Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 say earthly government is real, ordained by God for order and justice. So we don't withdraw from politics, and we don't make politics ultimate.

 

Governments are accountable to God. Their God-given job is to do justice, punish evil, protect the vulnerable, and promote the conditions for human flourishing. That means no party or candidate perfectly represents the Kingdom of God. We can support one while keeping a clear conscience that our hope is not in them.

 

People are made in God's image. Including the people you vote against, the people you disagree with online, and the politicians themselves. That sets the floor for how we talk.

 

What should we think when we vote?

 

Think of voting as stewardship, not salvation.

Vote from conscience, not tribe. Romans 14 says each of us will give an account for our own conscience before God. Party loyalty, family history, or cultural pressure are not good guides by themselves. 

 

 

Think in terms of neighbour love. Elections are one of the few times your private choice affects millions of other people. Luther said government is an expression of loving your neighbour because you are making decisions for people you will never meet. Ask: Who are the most vulnerable affected by this election in my city, my country, and the world, and what helps them flourish?

 

 

Hold power loosely. Proverbs warns us about putting trust in princes. It is right to care about outcomes, but unhealthy when an election result destroys your peace, joy, or love for others. If we believe God is sovereign, we can be engaged without being anxious.

 

 

How should we talk about it?

 

This is often where our witness succeeds or fails. This is perhaps the hardest part I totally agree with that and something I need guidance personally.

 

Truth + grace, not one or the other. Ephesians 4:15 says "speaking the truth in love." That means no exaggeration, no sharing things you know are misleading just because they help your side, and no cruelty even if what you say is true.

 

 

Distinguish between person and position. We can say "I think that policy is unwise and harmful" without saying "Anyone who supports it is evil or stupid." Jesus was fierce with ideas and gentle with people.

 

Check your heart before you post or preach.

 

Am I cutting people down or building people up?

 

Keep the church the church. The church is the only community where left and right are supposed to take communion together. If someone would feel unwelcome in your church because of how you talk about politics, that’s not good.

 

Your political identity should be less loud than your Christian identity.

 

Hard perhaps to live up to, but necessary. On the other hand I just say a clip on instagram this morning. One political party in Sweden are posting a pic of a young woman standing at a beach, with her arms stretch high screaming: “I love abortion”

A river and a sea

 I have heard it sometimes in my home town and elsewhere

 

“From the river to the sea, all Palestine will be free”

In a way I do know what it means but I was very surprised when two left people were asked in London, the question:

 

Which river and what sea? And they could not answer.

 

"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" is a political slogan.

What it means literally:

• "The river" = the Jordan River in the east
• "The sea" = the Mediterranean Sea in the west

The land between them is the area that currently includes Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Historically this was Mandatory Palestine under British control before 1948.

 

Supporters, particularly in pro-Palestinian protests, say it is a call for freedom and equal rights for Palestinians throughout the land, or for a single democratic secular state where Palestinians and Israelis live with equal rights. They argue it is not about harming Jews. 

 

Well, this is what they say in languages we know and to the media, but one journalist here in Sweden, who is from the middle east, speaks Arabic, wrote an article about this.

At one demonstration in Swedish, they said one thing, then in Arabic another thing. The thing in Arabic was, Death to the Jews. No harm right!

Jews, not Israelites.

 

When a slogan is heard by most Jews as a call for Israel to be eliminated, many Christians see it as a threat to Jewish people both in Israel and in the diaspora. In Sweden and elsewhere, reports of threats against Jews often rise when that slogan is widely chanted.

For many Christians, protecting Jewish life is a theological and moral concern rooted in the shared heritage and in verses like Genesis 12:3 and Romans 9-11, as well as in repentance for past Christian antisemitism.

Lets see what it says:

 

 

 

Genesis 12:3

New Revised Standard Version

³ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

 

A core Christian ethical principle for many is to seek truth and peace, and to avoid dehumanizing language.

If "from the river to the sea" is understood to mean that Israel should not exist, many Christians see that as a rejection of a two-state or shared future solution, and as language that can be used to justify violence rather than negotiation. That is why some churches have spoken against both antisemitic slogans and anti-Palestinian slogans.

 

Do our politicians understand this!

Time to vote!

 It is a mid-term election in the USA. Over here in Sweden it is soon time for elections as well.

Recently we have seen on the news that China seems to have been trying to influence the US elections—which may well be true; who knows?

We also know, from a vast number of articles and news reports, that Trump has pointed out that elections have been stolen.

I’m no expert on American elections, but it seems like the US electoral system needs an update.

I read that in some states, you don’t need to show ID to vote. To me, that sounds incredibly strange—and wrong.

In Sweden, you must be a Swedish citizen to vote in parliamentary elections. However, for local elections, a residence permit is sufficient.

The voting age is 18; personally, I think that age should be raised, but that is just my personal opinion.

When it is time to vote, you will receive a voting card by mail. It shows who you are, where you live, and the district in which you are to vote.

When voting, you must present this card and provide photo identification. The entire process is monitored—naturally not inside the voting booth itself, where you place your ballot in an envelope, but otherwise throughout the entire chain of events.

I’ve heard and read that it’s not like that in the US. In quite a few states, you don’t need to show ID. But then how do they know who is voting? Can you vote even if you aren’t allowed to? Can you vote multiple times? Important questions, right?

This information is what I found:

36 states required voters to present identification to vote at the polls on Election Day. Of those, 24 required photo ID and 12 did not explicitly require photo ID. 

14 states did not generally require voters to present identification to vote at the polls on Election Day.

Some of these states are:  California, New York, Illinois, Oregon, Washington and others. You check in, give your name and address, sign the poll book, and vote. An ID may have been required when you registered the first time under federal law - the Help America Vote Act requires ID when registering for the first time - but not necessarily at the polls. 

WOW!

There is so much information and differences in the voting system .Reading it all makes your head spin. It’s not an easy system to understand—unless you live in the US, that is.

So how about these claims about stolen elections? Over here from the media it seems like it is just Trump who claims that but oh how false that is.

Trump he talked about that in 2016, before and after winning, he said the system was rigged and that millions of illegal votes were cast.

In 2020, after losing to Joe Biden, he said the election was stolen due to widespread fraud and contested the results in court and in Congress. 

This led to the Jan. 6, 2021 protests at the Capitol.

He continued to talk about stolen elections as a major theme in the 2024 campaign.

But you see others have claimed things.

Jimmy Carter after his presidency said he believed the 2016 election had Russian interference that affected the outcome.

Joe Biden as president frequently warned that election denialism and attempts to overturn the 2020 result were an attempt to steal future elections.

Gore won the popular vote, 2020. Bush won the Electoral College by 537 votes in Florida after the Supreme Court stopped the recount. For years after, many Democrats said the 2000 election was stolen. Bush himself never claimed it was stolen, Gore conceded.

If we go back in history, a long way it looks like this:

In 1824,Jackson won the popular vote and the most electoral votes, but not a majority. The election went to the House of Representatives, which elected John Quincy Adams. Jackson and his supporters called it the "Corrupt Bargain" between Adams and Henry Clay, and ran on that claim for 4 years until Jackson won in 1828.

So as Christians, we should not  fuel conspiracy theories—we should do what is right even when no one is watching—but naturally, we must hold people accountable when they do wrong and cheat the system.

We also need to keep in mind:

"Our citizenship is in heaven" - Philippians 3:20
"Seek first the kingdom of God" - Matthew 6:33

We participate in government, but we don't look to a president to save us or to be our identity. That frees us from fear and from idolatry on both sides.

So when you vote, you are asking: Who will best steward that God-given role with justice, competence, wisdom, and restraint?

Money!

 I don’t know about you but have you heard peole around you saying things like:

 

“Money is not that important”, or “Oh its just money”

 

I have heard this and it is always people who have money who says things like this, not a struggeling single mother with 3 children etc.

 

At some churches they teach very much on giving and some are very harsh, they almost demend you to give a lot.

 

I am not in a church like that and I am not myself leading like this, but why do money especially at churches stirr up so much emations?

 

 

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." — Matthew 6:24

 

 

Money isn’t evil. Paul never said "money is the root of all evil" — he said the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. There's a difference. Money is just a tool. A hammer can build a house or break a window. Same hammer, different heart behind it.

 

We live in a culture that measures worth by net worth. LinkedIn job titles, Instagram vacations, the pressure to "keep up" — it’s loud. But Jesus talked about money constantly, not because He was obsessed with wealth, but because He knew our wallets expose our worship.

 

Three truths to sit with today:

1. God owns it all, we manage it
"The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it." Your paycheck, your apartment, your stocks, even your student debt — He’s not panicking about any of it. We’re stewards, not owners. Stewards ask, "God, what do You want done with this?" Owners ask, "What do I want?" That one shift changes every purchase.

2. Generosity breaks money’s grip
When we give, we declare that money isn’t our security — God is. It’s why the widow’s two coins meant more than the rich man’s surplus. She gave from trust, not excess. You can’t serve money if you’re regularly, joyfully letting go of it. Start small: buy someone coffee, tip well, support one cause monthly. Watch how it loosens anxiety.

 

But ofcause in a way money counts and money can be a source of security, so it is not black or white here.

 

3. Contentment is profit
"Godliness with contentment is great gain." Contentment isn’t settling. It’s the deep breath that says, "I have enough because I have Him." The world sells upgrade after upgrade. God invites you to unclench your fists. 

 

What would change if "enough" was your financial goal this month?

 

 

 

So yes money is not a problem, it’s the imbalance. Some have too much money and rather many nothing at all. That’s the issue, that’s the problem….

A Scandal!

 There are private, municipal, central, and political initiatives regarding the climate.

Many companies want to be the first and the biggest. 

 

For one thing, there is a lot of money to be made—especially through grants from Brussels and the EU—but there is also the phenomenon of so-called "virtue signaling."

It feels good to do something, and naturally, companies want to be seen doing it.

A few years ago, a project was launched in Sweden to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles—batteries that were entirely Swedish-made.

 

 

The politicians were ecstatic; the project was practically showered with positive comments, and the company received vast sums of money.

 

Some politicians claimed that anyone who didn't support it was out of their mind.

 

With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that nothing came of it. Thousands of people were laid off, and millions of dollars went up in smoke. Not a single battery ever left the factory.

 

 

It’s a scandal. Books are currently being written about this; it is far too significant to be forgotten. I might return to the subject of Northvolt—or perhaps not.

But I intend to address the next scandal, the next fiasco: the environmental initiative in Ghana, Africa.

 

The Swedish government wanted to do something new for the environment and invested 9 million dollars in a project to build solar power installations in Ghana. The plan was to create large solar farms in the country and thereby meet climate goals.

But nothing went according to plan.

 

There have been no reductions in carbon dioxide emissions since 2024.

 

It is also possible that no solar panels have been installed, we do not know. 9 million dollars!

 

 

Financial support was also provided for the manufacture of electric mopeds in Ghana. Plans were made and payment issued for 48,000 electric mopeds, yet only 152 were produced.

A scandal—and funded by our tax money. Those responsible must be held accountable, for the Northvolt and Ghana deals alike, as well as the current situation.

 

What do you think?

 

Sport journalists!

 The World Cup. Packed, massive, magnificent stadiums; great football; a great atmosphere.

Sure, regarding FIFA—many decisions and statements leave a lot to be desired—but that has been the prevailing view for a long time, especially among sports journalists; so many of them have never even played the game themselves, yet they frequently have strong opinions on absolutely everything.

Especially this year, I feel. And especially regarding the host country, the USA.

They have a tendency to focus on things unrelated to the sport itself, too—politics, the American way of life, and so on.

I don’t recall our various news outlets expressing strong opinions about the host country Russia back in 2014; human rights issues and so on, didn't seem to be a problem then.

Qatar 2022—same thing: human rights, bans on Christian churches, women's rights, and so on—yet no issues raised.

The Olympics in China—no issues; "It’s about sport," they said back then.

Not a word about one of the 2030 host nations: Morocco. The organization Open Doors lists Morocco as a country where Christians need to be cautious. People who convert in Morocco can face execution. Yet, nothing from our sports journalists.

Take the 2034 host nation, Saudi Arabia—it’s the same story there. No human rights, persecution of Christians, gay people, women, and so on. Yet, not a word from the sports journalists.

This year when some teams openly pray that Israel is a curse, these journalists do not react.

Instead, when a "wrong refereeing decision" is made during this World Cup, some journalists practically "spew" with outrage. They get sick to their stomachs—or, as one writer put it, it looked like it was going to be a "shitshow," but it turned out even worse. 

A red card was rescinded; people can debate whether that was right or wrong, but as those writers claimed, it was supposedly worse than so many other things happening in the world right now.

Often all this talk about TRUMP!  Can we please leave him out. 

No, I’m actually doing what I usually do: I watch the match on TV, turn it off during the break, and switch it back on when the second half starts—or I watch it on British TV, where they actually talk about football.