To White People: If You Do Not Vote for Obama, You are Racist
At least that is what I heard on the radio the other day. I was listening to the Scott Wilder show on 100.7 and a black man called in to convince the host that there was nothing wrong with voting for Obama. The caller went on to say that there was no way Obama could be for abortion since he himself has two kids. He also said that there was no way Obama could be "for" homosexual marriage since Obama is married, thus proving he is not gay. Scott was baffled and tried to convinced the caller of his flawed logic. He was not successful. The caller got so frustrated with Scott trying to help him realize the flaw in his logic that he told Scott that he needed to, "Man up and admit that you are not voting for Obama because he is racist."
I laughed so hard I almost peed on myself. But there was also a sense of frustration. I am sick and tired of blacks assuming that just because a white person is against Obama, that person is racist. It’s ridiculous and it is a sin. How is it a sin? Unless a person gives you or me crystal clear evidence of being racist, we have no right to pass that level of judgment on them. It’s okay to judge others, but it is not okay to judge their motives. Many believe that we are never to judge. But this is simply not true.
In 1 Corinthians 5:1-6 Paul rebukes the Corinthians for allowing a man who was having sex with his step mother to remain in the church. Notice his words in 5:3, "I … have already judged him." There is a form of judging that as Christians we are obligated to do and there is a form that we are not obligated to do. We are obligated to judge our brothers and sisters in Christ who are visibly engaging in sinful activities. However, we are not to judge when it is not clear any wrong doing is actually happening. We cannot judge someone’s motives. It seems to me that the caller was judging the motives of the host. Calling him racist because he will not vote for someone when there was no visible sinful racist act that the host was engaging in is not how Christians are to treat one another.
If one of the conditions that determine if someone is racist is whether or not they will vote for a particular candidate then I guess I hate all white people because I did not vote for Kerry during the last election.
The Mission
I asked a friend of mine, Jonathan Schrodt, to write an article for my site. I pretty much just asked him to share what he felt was strong on his heart. Jonathan is the type of guy who realizes that he is not perfect but feels strongly that obedience to Jesus is an important aspect of living the Christian life. This article is really going to challenge some people so feel free to interact with Jonathan through the comments section below.
So there I was riding the DART Rail again for the 3rd month in a row. I had a backpack in one hand and was keeping my bicycle steady in the other as the train moved south along Highway 75. It was evening, and I was anxious to get home. There was a girl that I wanted to call the second I got back.
Just to give a little background: I was riding the Rail because I had no other means of transportation. I had a silver, 4-door Saturn that I had wrecked a few months before. The total cost of repairs: a conveniently round number of $2,000 (No joke). I didn’t exactly have that kind of dough saved up, so I was debating with myself about getting a student loan to pay for the repairs. After all, I felt like I needed a car. Come on, it’s Dallas for crying out loud! How can anyone get around without a car. 3 solid months of riding the DART Rail and my bicycle to school and my two jobs convinced me that a car is not necessarily a need. I was getting around fine. It took a little bit more time and planning, but I was getting where I needed to be.
Back to that telling night: All I could think about was what questions I was going to ask this beautiful, Christian gal. She was incredible! She not only had looks, but she also had a tender heart and amazing gifts that she used to praise God with! It had been a long day and I was tired, but thinking about this girl had my heart pumping and I could not wait a second longer to get home.
As I was contemplating this upcoming conversation, a fellow with a long hair and a bicycle came onto the train a few stops before my destination. He had mud all over his bike and his pants. He looked at me kind of sheepishly and said, "It’s amazing how easy it is to find mud when you ride at night." I chuckled along with him thinking this guy was interesting. I asked him where he was going. He said, "I’m headed to the hospital to see my mom." Immediately I knew this conversation was taking a serious turn. Being more polite than concerned, I asked him why. The gentleman began to tell me his mother had had some serious, chronic, acid reflux that had caused her esophagus to erode away so badly that one day she sneezed, and it ruptured. He looked at me with a concealed sadness in his eyes and told me he didn’t think she would make it through the night.
Immediately I felt my heart break and heard the voice of the Holy Spirit saying to me, "Ask to ride with him to the hospital and pray for her and for his whole family." I (inwardly) retorted, "But God, I have plans to call this beautiful girl! Plus, if I go with this guy to downtown, I won’t get home till really late" (it was already 9:10pm-ish). Again He replied, "Jonathan, go with this man." I literally sat and fought the Holy Spirit on this till I reached my stop. I had already made up my mind…I was going home to call this gal. I got up, looked at the man with sad eyes and said, "Good luck with your Mom." REALLY?!? ‘Good luck’ is all I could say?!?
As I rode off, I started crying like a baby. I had turned down an opportunity to step out in faith and demonstrate the love of Christ with a complete stranger…for a girl. Now, I don’t mean to say that this great woman is the reason I failed here, but where my heart was and what it was focused on is what led to me pass up to seeing God move in an incredible way. It was obvious that I had something in my heart that was more important than God and His mission.
I tell this story to bring to light a trend in American Christianity: So often, we put ourselves above the mission of God. I am guilty of this in some of the worst ways. I have discovered that the greatest threat to the Mission of God (Missio Dei) is not Satan, the World, or sin…but myself. That’s right. Me. A believer and follower of Jesus the Christ is the greatest threat to the Missio Dei. When I want something more than I want God, I have an idol. I wanted a date with a woman more than I wanted to see God use me in an incredible way and I was willing to sacrifice something that could have had an eternal impact for a girl that I wound up not even dating.
Three years ago, I took advantage of an opportunity to go on a ‘Vision’ trip to the church in Milan, Italy. Since that summer, I have had a passion and vigor for missions that I have never had my entire life. In that gathering of believers I witnessed the Glory of God like I never had before! These believers were living out scripture. They looked a lot like the group I had read about in Acts 2. They, though only 80 strong in the midst of a city that inhabits 5 million Italians, were living out the ways of "The Way." It changed my heart forever.
Being armed with God’s Word, His Holy Spirit, a clear vision and mission for His Kingdom, I am daily training, preparing and making my way back into the overseas arenas of the earth to see God’s great Commission come to fulfillment (though it may not happen in my life). Sometimes though, I get distracted. My whole life, until about 3 years ago, was oriented around myself and not Jesus. My thoughts were, "Who am I going to marry? What job should I get? What kind of car should I drive? What kind of salary am I aiming for?" Missio Dei was the last thing on my heart or mind. And yet, I just glazed over Jesus’ words in Matthew, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." I thought that if I’m going to love God this way, it’s going to have to be on my terms. Psh! Wrong! When God says that ‘He is love’, we don’t have any options of loving God on any terms BUT His. I am creature…He is creator. I needed transformation.
Had it not been for a certain individual coming into my life and discipling me, I would never have come to truly understand what it means to love God and love my neighbor. ‘Discipleship’ has been the greatest tool/method that God has used in my life for gaining a perspective of the Kingdom of God and being apart of bringing it here to Earth! After all, making ‘disciples’ was exactly what Jesus commanded us to do along with baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded us.
Why did I turn down a direct order from my King that night on the train? Had I bought into what culture says about ‘finding that special someone’ as the means to my true fulfillment? What about the media? Advertising? Is culture even to blame? Maybe the Church is to blame? OR could it be that I am truly the one to blame, though often the last one to accept this truth?
The Most Important Thing You Will EVER Do
Someone sent me a link to this article where the author expresses concern over the fact that many who have been called to missionary service never end up there because they enter into relationship with someone who does not share their passion.
They have every opportunity, gifting, skill set, resource, encouragement, even completed training for the field, yet they never enter service. Instead, what they do enter is a relationship with another godly man or woman who does not have that same commitment to cross cultural service as they do. Sometimes the decision to not further pursue missionary service is direct and obvious and sometimes the decision is gradual and subtle, but either way a once fervent potential missionary never leaves home, but rather sets up home with a less-than-enthusiastic, non-missions spouse.
You can read the rest here.
I was surprised when I saw this article because it was the first time I had ever seen anyone address this issue publicly. I am sure it has been addressed, I just have not noticed it. This is an area of concern for me. I too have experienced people who never get involved in the Great Commission but for some reason they seem to find the time to "hunt" for the love of their lives. The Great Commission is the most important thing a Christian is to do (Matt. 28:19-20). But most of us either don’t know this or we don’t care. Instead, we live as though finding the love of our lives is the most important thing we are to do. Whenever there is a choice between missions and romance, from my experience missions always loses. I call this Theoromanticism. It is the state at which romance becomes god and everything else (i.e. The Great Commission) takes a back seat.
Romance is powerful. The desire to be loved and made much of is one of the most effective ways the enemy can keep Christians from participating in missionary service. Romance will make you do some crazy things as is evidenced by the need for the above article. Someone was telling me that it can be God’s will for a person who is set to go on the field, to find someone and never go. For some reason (Matt. 28:19-20), I have a hard time believing that.
My Theological Challenge
Some people assume that just because I am black and am passionate about racial diversity/harmony/reconciliation, I am voting for Obama this upcoming election. But I’m not. Life with God can be challenging and this election season has proven to be just that for me. I am excited that for the first time in our country we have a black man who has a great chance to become president. A friend of mine says I should support him just because he is black. But for theological reasons, I can’t. Here is an excerpt from a blog post on Desiring God that explains,
Because over the last 35 years, as 2,000+ pregnancy help centers got established, mostly in white, suburban and small towns of America, the abortion business has consolidated into our nation’s cities. Over 90% of abortion facilities are now in urban neighborhoods. Black and Hispanic women suffer 56% of all abortions while representing only 25% of the female population. This means the abortion business is gorging itself on the blood of minority children all the while appearing as compassionate servants of the poor. It also means that the business of abortion cannot survive without the silent approval of the Black and Latino neighborhoods and the churches and pastors that lead them.
Two things:
- Democrats want to throw social assistance at minority communities without accountability and without any attempt to change the way people think about their situation. George Bush’s faith-based social initiative wants to put the responsibility on the churches and other religious organizations with the goal that they would ultimately help people change their mindsets. The democrats plan does not bode well for minority communities and I have yet to hear anything from Obama on this subject. If you want to see what a good faith-based social initiative looks like, go visit Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church in South Dallas. This ministry was the inspiration behind President Bush’s faith-based plan. While I was a member of that church I saw people enter the program who literally had just gotten out of prison. Years later, they had housing, transportation and a job providing steady income. This is completely the opposite of a system that just wants to give handouts.
- To say that women have a right to decide what they can do with their body, to me, seems that there is no effort towards reducing the number of abortion clinics in minority communities. Therefore, the democratic plan is in my eyes a death certificate. To say you support minority communities while supporting a procedure that kills them off makes absolutely no sense to me and is just one more reason why I cannot cast a vote for the democratic ticket.
What do you think?
Don’t Waste Your Singleness
A few years ago Piper was diagnosed with cancer. He wrote an article titled, "Don’t Waste Your Cancer". As I was reading the his list of points I could not help think about how each of them were true for the season of life most people hate called "singleness". So I decided to convert his points into my own list geared for this audience (with one addition of my own, #11). Enjoy.
- You will waste your singleness if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
- You will waste your singleness if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
- You will waste your singleness if you seek comfort from your odds of getting married rather than from God.
- You will waste your singleness if you refuse to think about death (the fact that you may never be married).
- You will waste your singleness if you think "getting married" is better than treasuring Christ in your singleness.
- You will waste your singleness if you spend too much time focusing on the fact that you are not married rather than on God.
- You will waste your singleness if you let it drive you to loneliness instead of appreciating the relationships you currently have.
- You will waste your singleness if you grieve your singleness as one who has no hope of ever getting married.
- You will waste your singleness if you treat sin casually.
- You will waste your singleness if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.
- You will waste your singleness if you see it as a state to get out of rather than utilizing it for how it maximizes your potential to do great things for Christ.
Singleness is a season of life that is wasted by so many. I know some single people who spend more time seeking and searching for "the one" instead of living mission-centered lives. When you consider the fact that singles are not bound by family restrictions, and many have disposable income, you can see how big a waste it is to focus on everything but The Great Commission.
53X:God
We spen so much time using technology that distances us from real human beings that we do not realize we are constnantly training our selves to intimize inanimate objects over humans. Various forms of technology have enhanced our intimacy with object while simultaneously decreasing our intimacy with humans. This has a profound affect upon how we interact with one another.
