Obama
Right Battle, Wrong Battlefield (Abortion)
I was doing some reading last night on one of the blogs I frequent and came across a comment by the former worship pastor (Russ Ware) at my previous church that struck me. You can read his comment here. It was this comment that I found enlightening:
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?
Obama Will Be The Next President: Now What?
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.
12 Million Black Babies…Dead
Someone said the following to me today, "I can’t be black and live with myself if I didn’t vote for a black man to become my president." Hmmmm. I was doing some blog reading and came across a video that John Piper made where he is talking about the election. Here is a quote from the video
"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.
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.
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?