Democratic debate will be held with no audience: Two life principles

The Democratic National Committee has announced that it will hold Sunday’s presidential debate in Phoenix without a live audience.

This will be the eleventh Democratic debate in this election
season but the first to feature a head-to-head matchup between former Vice
President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
is still in the race but did not qualify for the debate under the latest set of
rules.

This announcement follows the decision on Tuesday by the Biden and Sanders campaigns to cancel campaign rallies in Cleveland. These changes are motivated, of course, by the coronavirus epidemic sweeping the nation and world.

Two principles follow.

One: Power is not measured by size.

The virus causing so much havoc measures one nine-hundredth
the width of a human hair. Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders are running for what is often
considered the most powerful office in the world. But the former is altering
dramatically the campaigns of the latter.

Power is not always measured by size. A nuclear bomb that
can fit in a backpack or briefcase can destroy Capitol Hill or the Kremlin. An
acorn can produce an oak tree that grows to one hundred feet tall and lives for
five hundred years.

Jesus made the same point in spiritual terms: “The
kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in
his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger
than all the other garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the
air come and make nests in its branches” (Matthew 13:31–32).

Every time you speak a word of biblical truth, you plant
such a seed in an eternal soul.

Two: The audience we cannot see can be more significant than the audience we can.

The absence of a live audience in Phoenix may affect the
dynamics of the debate, but it is not likely to affect its effect on the race.
That’s because Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders are seeking the support…