Not SKIN, but SIN, is the Issue.

I did not vote for Barack Obama. I voted for John McCain, not because he's white, or godly, but because I understood him to be the best candidate for the unborn. I'm a one issue voter. Men and women who are OK with murdering the unborn, or the partially born, will NEVER get my vote, no matter what else they bring to the table. The person who will murder a child for the sake of convenience will do any wicked thing. So I would not have voted for Barack no matter what his color. And considering I have two children of the black race, surely no one will take my comments as racist. The great hope of the African-American community is not an African-American president, but a Jewish Christ.

By the way, we whites did abuse and oppress an entire race of people for many decades. We do owe them justice to the best of our ability. Therefore, I am for a program like Affirmative Action. If a government legally oppresses a race of people, locking them out of vocational progress and educational progress (just to name two), when it becomes illegal for that same government to any longer oppress the race, it should do what it can to make restitution. This is simply one step on the path of justice. For the government to expect the formerly oppressed to compete on a level playing field with the always free is ludicrous. When God delivered His people from Egyptian slavery, He sent them out with the plunder of their oppressors. He did not give them everything they could have earned during their 400 years of captivity. But He did give them something on which to build. I notice too that they did not get this from God by demanding it of the Egyptians, or of God. They received it as God chose to provide it for them through the Egyptians. Perhaps this approach of crying out in faith to our Deliverer will in our day prove more productive than demanding our supposed "rights", whether these are the "rights" of a particular physical race or of the "new race" called the Christian Church (Ep 2:15-17; 1 Pe 2:9). Now, to change the subject a bit. . .

I believe the greed of Americans put our current president in office. We worship money (the economy). Clearly the assumed potential of Mr Obama to make a positive impact upon said economy paved the way for his election. We here in America normally choose prosperity over holiness. That's because we're wicked, and our elected officials simply reflect back to us what we are at heart. Mr Obama had no experience or proven performance that commended him to us. He simply sold himself to the public. That's what politicians do. This is not to say that he was pretending to be something he's not. It's simply to say he did a remarkable job of convincing Americans that what he is is what we need. Again, that's what politicians do. But it is not what Christians do. And it is not what Christian pastors do.

I write such things, and preach such things, because I am a Christian, and, at least for now, a Christian pastor. It has always been a part of the prophetic role of God's messengers to speak to those, and of those, invested with civil authority [authority God Himself gives them for the national pursuit of righteousness (Ro 13)]. Whether we are speaking of Samuel with King Saul, or John the Baptizer with King Herod, or any other of God's spokesmen in between, a part of leading God's people is to speak to this issue, to hold God's people accountable for our relationship to government, and greed. 

"Give us a king", the people of Israel shouted (1 Ki 8). According to God's Word, this demand for a human king was evidence of their REJECTION of God as king. When God is our recognized king, we won't clamor for a social savior to lead us into an earthly utopia. When God is our recognized king, we love His ways and our minds are set on things above (Col 3). In other words, when God is our recognized king, we're not banking on any civil official for any form of salvation. Our hopes for people are not wrapped up in a politician. And the institution we see to be the best hope for people is not the government but the church. The church alone carries God's saving, and society transforming, gospel message.

Yesterday, our president called for the Justice Department to cease any contention in the courts in the defense of man-woman marriage. He has put forth a budget that continues to provide billions (should I day trillions?) in hand-outs (our government calls them "entitlements"). So just recently we have watched him support marriage other than Scripture defines it (Ge 1-2), and support profit without work, which Scripture condemns (2 Th 3:7-13). Why? Well, temporally speaking, I think it's because he believes government is the answer for America's ills, and believing that, he assumes the authority to re-define sacred things like family and labor.God put man and woman (marriage) in the garden to work (Ge 1-2). Again, these are sacred things, given by God as blessing. God, looking at them, declared them "very good". So if man-woman marriage and diligent labor are "very good", what should we make of same-sex marriage and profit without work programs? 

Since this post is getting a bit long already, and since I've barely begun to speak to this matter, and since I could rant on for many pages, here's my abbreviated conclusion: Our nation, I believe, is under God's judgment. But it's not because of the ways of unbelievers. For judgment begins with the household of God (1 Pe 4). It's God's people, through our persistent refusal to trust God with a glad submission to His Word, that brings upon our nation God's wrath. When I look at our country (which began with a proud rebellion against Ro 13 kind of commands disguised as a quest for God-given "inalienable rights"), I see a people in the midst of the kind of judgment we read of in the Scriptures for the same kinds of sins we read of from God's people. We're greedy, having exalted financial profit to the top of our values list. We're so greedy for this kind of gain, that we have legalized the killing of our own children, even those who are literally seconds away from exiting the birth canal. And we're trying to legalize the murder of our aged parents, parents whom God says to honor (Ex 20) and provide for and protect (Mt 15). We elect officials based upon appearance, rhetoric, and the promise of more financial gain. Generally, character means nothing to voting Americans within the church. We are hostile to objective truth claims, having been convinced by the devil that it is humble to be reticent where God has been clear and plain. We have disassociated our choice of civil governors from Christian living. The church is filled with people that see no connection between God's commands and whom we elect. We trust our own judgment and ways, and have adopted our own means of societal salvation. And we're so blindly committed to this enterprise, that we run it on a budget that requires us to borrow trillions of dollars from the atheist Chinese government. Our elected officials do not run their homes and businesses that way, but they seem quite content to run a country that way (perhaps because it's not their money).

By the way, to balance the budget (or even save some money), and to pay down the national debt, will require radical restructuring that will cost many thousands of government jobs, and the doing away with entitlements. There is simply no way for our government to bring us into a healthy financial condition without wiping out entire government departments and national programs. That will be the cost of financial fidelity, so it will never be done, not by politicians who make their decisions with the next vote in mind.

God give us real men and real women of a variety of colors and unusual courage who live not for the voter's approval, but for Yours. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen.