But what if a military strategy is not the answer? What if in just this one instance it is better to lead with a strategy of economic development rather than war? Instead of calling on military leaders alone to plan a strategy what if the President called on the leaders of various nonprofit humanitarian organizations on the ground there and included them in the discussion.  It seems to me that that is a viable option. Think about it. These organizations have built strong relationships with the people there. To me, they would more willingly respond to the humanitarian organizations than they would the military.

What do you think, more troops or something else?

There are many of us who continue to “hold fast to outworn arguments.” How could Christians do any less? The Bible plainly teaches that marriage is the covenanted union of one man and one woman (Gen 2:24; cf. Matt 19:5; Mark 10:7-8; 1 Cor 6:16; Eph 5:31). The Bible also teaches that homosexuality is a sin (Lev 18:22; Rom 1:26-27; 1 Cor 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10). Nevertheless, it is clear that this teaching is precisely what the President and the Human Rights Campaign would overthrow. Thus, Christians can never embrace this revolution and still be Christian (emphasis mine).

This got me to thinking, Can a Christian support gay rights, yet still be genuinely Christian? The comment above suggests that one’s political belief is closely related to the genuinness of their salvation. Don’t get me wrong here. I understand what the Bible teaches about marriage. And I certainly would agree that the Bible is crystal clear on it. However, it seems to me that it is quite possible that a babe in Christ can see quite differently on these issues.

Therefore, I’m not so sure I would go so far as to say that there should be a correlation between one’s political beliefs and their salvation. At best I think we can say that there is a possible correlation between one’s political beliefs and their maturity in Christ, and even then we should be extra careful.

What do you think about this?

The text was 1 Peter 2:17, “Honor the king.” I closed with eight ways to honor a pro-choice president. The seventh was this:

We will honor you by expecting from you straightforward answers to straightforward questions. We would not expect this from a con-man, but we do expect it from an honorable man.

For example,

1. Are you willing to explain why a baby’s right not to be killed is less important than a woman’s right not to be pregnant?
2. Or are you willing to explain why most cities have laws forbidding cruelty to animals, but you oppose laws forbidding cruelty to human fetuses? Are they not at least living animals?
3. Or are you willing to explain why government is unwilling to take away the so-called right to abortion on demand even though it harms the unborn child; yet government is increasingly willing to take away the right to smoke, precisely because it harms innocent non-smokers, killing 3,000 non-smokers a year from cancer and as many as 40,000 non-smokers a year from other diseases?
4. And if you say that everything hangs on whether the fetus is a human child, are you willing to go before national television in the oval office and defend your support for the "Freedom of Choice Act" by holding in your hand a 21 week old fetus and explaining why this little one does not have the fundamental, moral, and constitutional right to life? Are you willing to say to parents in this church who lost a child at that age and held him in their hands, this being in your hands is not and was not a child with any rights of its own under God or under law?

Perhaps you have good answers to each of these questions. We will honor you by expecting you to defend your position forthrightly in the public eye.

You have immense power as President of the United States. To wield it against the protection of the unborn without giving a public accounting in view of moral and scientific reality would be dishonorable. We will honor you by expecting better.

Even though I did not vote for the man, if Obama asked me to deliver the prayer at his inauguration I would do it in a heartbeat. Call me crazy. But if you were asked to deliver the prayer at the inauguration of a president with whom you disagree on some very serious issues, what would you do?
 

My point is that the life issue is the right battle, but the presidential election is the wrong battlefield.

He agrees that the life issue should be a major battle but he does not feel that politics or elections are the right place or the only place to fight it out. I have mentioned previously that this whole abortion issue seems to have been fought primarily at the political level. In my opinion, conservatives need to do a lot more than voice their concerns at the voting booth. We need a more expansive approach and I suggested that we possibly start funding projects that build more crisis pregnancy centers to offset the large number of abortion clinics in minority communities.

I have been feeling for some time that those who feel the abortion issue is the most important issue need to do something different. To change the law regarding abortion will take more than casting a vote.  Abortion is the right battle but in my opinion, the election should not be the only battlefield.

Do you think we should do more to fight abortion or just focus on electing politicians who will overturn roe v. wade?
 

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.

 "Abortion is an evil the scope of which and depths of which very few people in our culture feel. The magnitude of it’s just horrific. . . . 12 million black babies dead since 1973. I don’t think Barack Obama will touch that with a ten foot pole. And he should. . . . He’s the most radical abortion proponent in the United States Congress, and that’s tragic."

I don’t know for sure if that number is accurate or not. Regardless, a lot of black babies are dead today. And that’s a shame. So I say,

I can’t be black and live with myself if I voted for a black man who wants to kill off my community before it has a chance to live.

There. I said it. The video of Piper can be seen here.

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.