Hero?...or Hype?

This fall the United States will elect a new president and he will serve a four-year term. Many new policies will be created and many old policies will be changed. Judges will be seated, and bills will be signed into law. The political, economic, and social climate of this country will change. Electing a new commander-in-chief is no small matter.

Ever since Mike Huckabee dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination, there are no longer any candidates that share my values. This has allowed me to take a more thoughtful approach to weighing the strengths and weaknesses of the remaining candidates. As of this posting the two major parties have selected their candidates and the democrat Barack Obama is running against republican John McCain.

I am not one of those good-ol’-boy Christians that thinks faith and politics should be kept separate. In my opinion, if you try to keep your faith to yourself – then you are not really committed to it are you? Perhaps you are not convinced? Are there parts of who you are that you do not want associated with your faith?

If Jesus is who he claimed to be…then there is simply no denying His claim to ALL of us.

That means Everything.

So, to the faithful, what about the coming election? We have 132 days to educate ourselves, pray for God’s wisdom, and cast an informed vote. Actually, there are FAR more important things we should be doing…we could be trying to serve, trying to help, trying to love people to Christ. We could be feeding the hungry, nursing the sick, adopting the orphans, spending time with the elderly, and taking the gospel message to everyone we meet. Investing ourselves in God’s work over the next 132 days would mean exponentially more than casting a single ballot in November.

This country is changing. By my measure, the global culture is becoming less and less tolerant of the Bible and anyone who claims to believe what it says. I have grown up in a society where I did not have to deal with persecution because of my faith. However, the tide IS turning. Even here in the “Bible Belt” opinions about God are becoming more polarized. Prominent atheists are writing books that not only deny God; they ridicule the audacity of those who suggest a Creator even exists. You can forget about any evidence.

The public education system has produced at least two generations of kids now who have never been allowed to pray openly, discuss Christianity in the classroom, or even bring their Bible to study hall. Meanwhile, the sciences have been systematically impregnated with evolutionary speculations until nothing else is taught anymore. Nothing else is even tolerated. The only explanation for our existence is naturalistic, and devoid of purpose. I wish I could into this further.

In recent years I have seen the political parties change as well. The Democrats have always pushed for social liberalism. The Republicans have stood to protect traditional values and social structures. Democrats tend to think that more regulation (and thus a bigger government) is needed to provide the people with better programs and benefits. Republicans typically want to limit government to the role spelled out in the Constitution, keep taxes low, and provide fewer limitations on business and the free market system.
Both sides are beleaguered by the same fundamental problem. They deny God.

Today, the Democrats want to…
1) legalize homosexual marriage,
2) marginalize traditional marriage & family structure,
3) expel the Biblical God from ALL public forums,
4) provide healthcare, childcare, and welfare to anyone that “needs” it at taxpayers expense,
5) provide tax-funded subsidies to doctors who offer abortions as an acceptable form of birth control,
6) lower the standards for education across the board,
7) nationalize the oil industry (and other industries to be sure),
8) put all kinds of artificial limitations on the “free market”,
9) and seemingly countless other activities that I believe are not the proper role of the United States government.

Likewise, the Republicans want to…
1) spend hundreds of billions on “reforming” a convoluted Medicare system,
2) drag their feet with regard to adequately protecting the national borders,
3) build bureaucracy in the public education system without improving student performance,
4) allow Democrats to impose market reforms that hurt the economy,
5) play “politics” with the Democrats rather than promote ideas or protect traditional values,
6) and seemingly countless other things that lead me to believe that they have lost touch with the socially and fiscally conservative voters like me.


There is too much to explain. But here is the “bottom line”.
Those of us, who believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of the only true God, are in the extreme minority – and the numbers look worse with each passing day. This is nothing to fear because God IS in control, but it should a least alert us. The world needs us to submit to God. Who else is reaching out to them?

Our choice this November is between a moderate senator and war veteran from Arizona, and a trendy, uber-liberal senator from Illinois who has been ordained by the media as nothing less than a messiah. He even has some cult-like following overseas.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2008062556031500.htm&date=2008/06/25/&prd=th&

I don’t want to vote for McCain because of his voting record.
I cannot vote for Obama because there is something about his presence and rise to fame that I find deeply disturbing.

I will tell a short story to illustrate this last point. My wife recently went to a local bookstore to get some summer reading material. In the children’s section under “Biographies” she found three books about Barack Obama. Now, Obama is a freshman senator. He has a short and uninspiring voting record. His only qualifications for the office of the president seem to be that he was born in the US and he is over 35 years of age. The three books she found were not written by Obama…they were written about him - and in such a way that you would think he WAS a messiah. His biographies were next to Marie Curie, and Albert Einstein…WHAT HAS HE DONE?

Bothered by what she saw, my wife went home and looked up children’s books about Obama on the Internet. There were NINE books written for CHILDREN about this candidate who has not yet been elected president! The three top-selling books had the following titles:

"An American Story", by Roberta Edwards
There are a lot of “American Stories” why is Barack deserving of this book?

"Barack Obama: African American Hero", by Stephen Feinstein
Is he really an African American HERO? How did he accomplish that?

"Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope", by Nikki Grimes
Promise of What? Hoping for What? This man is no savior!


I have heard Barack Obama’s speeches and seen his campaign website.
What could be motivating all this adoration and dogmatic support?

”For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.”
~ Colossians 1:16

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.”
~ Romans 13:1-2