Obama Will Be The Next President: Now What?

December 15, 2008 in Blog View Comments

When I went to the voting booth, I didn’t even flinch when it came down to who I was going to vote for. Being a black man, I felt no sense of temptation to cast my vote for Obama and I think I have explained why. I feel very strongly about my convictions which I think are based on my understanding of the Bible and how I feel it is best to vote. I did not and still do not feel Obama is the best candidate. But the bottom line is, he will be the next president of the United States. So what are Christians do next? I have some ideas.

1: Realize that Obama has been placed in his position by God
According to Romans 13:1 every authority is placed in their position by God.

“Romans 13:1  Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God."

We have to understand and accept the fact that regardless of whether or not our candidate(s) won, we have to respect the authority that God has in place. I know that some of you may wonder, “Well, what about evil people like Hitler?” Hitler was just as much under the authority of God as Caesar. Please do not take that as me calling Obama Hitler or comparing Caesar and Hitler. The point is that these are men who have been placed in their position by God, and therefore, they need to be respected accordingly. So we need to be careful what we say about them. It is okay to question their policies, but we need to exercise caution when questioning their character. We do not have to like them, but we do need to respect them.

2: Pray for him
1 Timothy 2:1-2 tells us to pray for our leaders. Praying for them is not an option. You do not just pray for the people you like. You have to pray for those you do not like as well. Praying for our leaders honors God (who put them there) as well as demonstrates sound Christian character. If you’re like me, this is a practice that you are not used to. Personally I am going to try to do this more than I have in the past. It will be difficult since this is a relatively new practice for me. I think this is one of those areas that we really need to take seriously. 

Unless someone openly calls Obama a ‘nigger’, ‘coon’, ‘spook’ or some other racist word, you, I, or anyone else for that matter have no right to call someone who is simply questioning Obama’s policy or character a racist!

3: Consider a new approach to the abortion issue
I typically vote conservatively because I think killing innocent children is just plain wrong. Further, I also think that the Church should take care of the widows, and the poor. While I think those issues are important, I do not at all think they are the most important, especially abortion. One of the mistakes I believe conservative Christians made during the last three elections is they turned the Christian voice into a single-issue voice. I personally think that in addition to abortion and the sanctity of marriage, Christian conservatives should be more outspoken against poverty issues. Perhaps a different approach should be to continue fighting for abortion being made illegal as well as proactively reducing the number of abortions in the meantime. Conservative Christians churches and their pastors love to preach lengthy sermons on how abortion is evil, but where are the sermons about the church’s responsibility to take care of the poor instead of the government? How many churches are actually raising money to build crisis pregnancy centers next door to abortion clinics?  Where are the ministries that actually try to befriend gay people and welcome them into the church instead of pushing them away with our angry rhetoric about how they are all going to hell?

4: Be slow to call someone a racist just because they question Obama’s policy or character
For those of you who voted for Obama, this one’s for you. As Christians we need to be careful about judging someone’s actions when it is not clear what their motives are. When Clinton was president and the whole Monica thing happened, there were a lot of Christians saying that other Christians had no right to say that what Clinton did was wrong because judging others is wrong. They typically quoted Matthew 7:1, but this is true only if that person was currently sinning as Clinton was. John MacArthur in Reckless Faith explains, “What Jesus condemned was hypocritical judgment of those who held others to a higher standard than even they themselves were willing to live by. He was certainly not suggesting that all judgment is forbidden. In fact, Jesus indicated that taking a speck out of your brother’s eye is the right thing to do—if you first get the log out of you own eye.” The only other time Christians are forbidden to judge is when it comes to a person’s motives. Why? The reason is because, “we are not able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).”  The implication here is that only God can judge the heart because he is the only one who can see it (1 Samuel 16:7, Psalm 44:21, Proverbs 16:2, Romans 2:16). Therefore we are forbidden to judge the thoughts and motives of others as well as hypocritical judging.

What type of judging is allowed? We are told to judge in matters of sound doctrine (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, 1 Corinthians 10:15). We are also told to judge one another concerning overt acts of sin (1 Corinthians 5:12-13).

What this means is this: unless someone openly calls Obama a ‘nigger’, ‘coon’, ‘spook’ or some other racist word, you, I, or anyone else for that matter have no right to call someone who is simply questioning Obama’s policy or character a racist! Some of you may not like that, but deal with it.

I have absolutely had it with people calling into radio shows telling the hosts that they are racist simply because the host has taken issue with Obama on policy issues. It’s simply not right. And I fear that this is only going to become a growing problem for my white friends who want to hold a conversation with a black Obama supporter in which they express their concerns about Obama as our president.

I was watching a Steve Harvey standup on DVD recently where he was explaining to the audience about his conversation with a guy on a flight. The guy was white. For those of you who do not know who Steve Harvey is, he is black. They talked about all sorts of things but the conversation eventually drifted over to politics and the election. The guy asked Steve who he was voting for and Steve told him he was voting for Obama. They said why? Steve said, because he’s black. I will give Steve all the credit in the world for that because there are still plenty of blacks out there who will not admit that the only reason they voted for the man was because of his skin color. Steve Harvey is the first I have heard to actually admit that. So the guy asked if there was anything other than skin color that Steve liked about him and Steve Harvey’s response was, “Is his skin color the reason you are NOT voting for him?” For this, the audience of mostly blacks applauded like crazy. I’m sorry. I think Steve’s response was uncalled for and characteristic of the type of attitude that will never allow this country to move past race.

Do not judge someone as a racist if they have not overtly made a racist comment. Just because someone questions his character or policy, does not make them racist. Following that logic, I, being a black man, would be racist against white people since I did not like some of the things Bush did while he was in office even though I voted for him.

Conclusion
Listen. The Bible says that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. To the same degree that we esteem ourselves, we need to consider others more highly. What this looks like is the following: (1) when someone questions Obama’s character, instead of assuming they are racist, how about assuming they are simply doing just that, questioning his character; (2) instead of focusing on the unborn alone, in addition to this lets put more emphasis on the poor, and providing better healthcare; and (3) instead of being overly critical of the president, spend more time praying for him and his family.

Obama is the president. Whether you like it or not, it is what it is.

 

 

 

Obama, Politics