Posted Dec 03, 2020 by Michael L. Brown

I am not writing this article because my opinion here carries special weight. And I am certainly not writing because I have expertise in the matter. Instead, I am writing this article simply because I am constantly asked where I stand on the contested presidential election.

One group asks me regularly, “Why haven’t you taken a more public and aggressive stand denouncing the fraud?” Another group asks, “Why are you giving any credence to conspiracy theories and myths?”

Allow me to explain my agnostic stand to date.

First, I have no problem considering the possibility that the election was stolen from Trump. That seems thoroughly plausible to me.

There are enough people who loathe Donald Trump and who believe he is destroying America that they could have sufficient motivation to bring him down.

Plus, many on the left have never accepted the legitimacy of his presidency, and there is ample evidence of resistance to him right within our own government. The idea of electoral fraud is hardly outside the realm of possibility, and we do know that, on some level, it has happened before.

Second, there are a lot of things that simply do not add up, either logically or statistically. And there is more than enough room for suspicion, be it in the large number of mail-in ballots due to COVID or the sudden stops in vote counting in key swing states, only to resume hours later with dramatic voter shifts.

That’s why, with typical bombast, Dr. Sebastian Gorka could write, “The evidence is overwhelming. . . . Biden and the Democratic National Committee are clearly attempting to steal the election, and more than 30% of Democrats themselves believe the election was rigged. And everyone knows it.

“How? Because we have brains. Because Americans are defined by common sense.”

Here on The Stream, several of my colleagues have laid out the arguments for voter fraud, and quite a few of the articles have gone viral.

For some of Al Perrotta’s masterful contributions, laying out the illogical nature of the Biden victory, see here and here and here and here and here. (For a relevant website, see here.)

For John Zmirak’s forceful defense of Sydney Powell, see here. For his most recent article, see here, including the announcement that, “The Stream will soon publish (and keep on updating) a primer on the best evidence and most reliable sources concerning this story.”

From a statistical perspective, there are important articles by contributors like William Briggs (who holds a Ph.D. in Statistics and who devoted an article to the situation in Pennsylvania) and Michael Del Rosso (who heads up a think tank dedicated to understanding the strategic threats to the United States, see here; for his broader argument, see here). For Tom Gilson’s relevant articles, always thoughtful and clearheaded, see here.

Many articles on other websites have raised serious and thoughtful concerns; see here and here for just two examples.

There is also what appears to be strong evidence of acts of fraud being caught on camera, as presented on Thursday by Trump’s legal team in Georgia.

Then there are the sworn affidavits attesting to fraud, allegedly numbering in the multiplied hundreds (or thousands).

Why, then, haven’t I helped lead the charge to expose voter fraud?

It is simply due to my background and my burden.

When it comes to my background, I am a debater and an apologist, and by nature and training, I do my best to reserve final judgment until I have heard both sides of an argument. Proverbs 18:17 is always in my head: “The first to plead his case seems right until the other party examines him.”

With reference to the elections, there are articles that tackle the main charges of fraud and seek to answer them with logic and factual data. (See here for one example.) Which side is right? And is there another, plausible explanation for what appears to be damning video evidence?

One document, signed more than two weeks ago by 59 mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, and others, all of whom claim to be experts in election security, states that there is no credible evidence of computer fraud. Are all of them ignorant or biased or misled?

Given the fact that my Ph.D. is in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures rather than in a field relevant to detecting electoral fraud, I cannot speak with any authority in the matter. In addition, the reason for all my years of language study was so that I could analyze texts in their original languages (in other words, read the primary sources) and not have to rely on what others said (in other words, the secondary sources).

In the case of the elections, I have no access to the primary data, and the fact that the Trump legal team is doing so poorly in the courts raises another set of questions which I am unable to analyze in depth.

When it comes to my burden, those who have read my columns over the years know that I tend to write on a limited number of subjects. That’s because I feel burdened, even called, to do so, and it is to those subjects I can give my attention.

When it comes to the subject at hand, because I cannot analyze the data to my satisfaction and because my colleagues here have done such an excellent job of presenting the evidence, I have not felt led to make this a major focus of my writing (or radio shows). What I have done, though, is urged my constituents to pray fervently for a righteous outcome, asking God to expose all corruption and dishonesty, wherever it may.

James Robison, founder of The Stream and a man whom I respect as much as anyone on the planet, has said that, “The future of our nation’s freedom hangs in the balance. This is about much more than an election. If the American people cannot trust our national institutions—from the executive branch to the legislative and judicial—we have scrapped far more than the Constitution. We have cast aside the greatness of our founders’ desires, courage, sacrifice, and unquestionable wisdom, leading to the fruition of the greatest nation in the history of the world.”

The stakes are high, indeed. Very, very high.

But it is for those very reasons I have not weighed in more specifically, since I didn’t feel I had much of substance to add. On matters this grave, why should anyone care about my non-expert opinion?

What I have been saying, and what I continue to say, is this: 1) We can be assured that God will hear the cries of His people. Never in my lifetime have I seen this level of prayer for an election, both before and after. 2) If massive fraud really was committed, it cannot be hidden for long. 3) We should look at the bigger picture involved, knowing that God is the ultimate 4-D (really, more like 4 Trillion-D) chess player. See here and here and here and here for some words of confidence, hope, and courage.

The bottom line is that if we will be faithful to our role as God’s people, walking in faith, praying with fervor, refusing to capitulate to culture, swimming against the tide, preaching the gospel, living godly lives, doing good works – and more – His kingdom will advance powerfully here on earth, regardless of who is in the White House.

That is something I can say with certainty, and it is on such subjects that I can be of real help.

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