Tuesday
THE ELECTION IS OVER
OK -- THE ELECTION IS OVER. NOW WE
TURN TO SOME OTHER NEWS ITEMS
OF INTEREST TO US AS CHRISTIANS
After the longest presidential election campaign in
our nation's history, with the votes counted and the
final decision made, we have a president-elect who
received more votes than any other president, some
8 million more than Ronald Reagan in his second
term -- which was until this year the largest popular
vote ever. And President-elect Obama accomplished
something that neither presidents Clinton or Bush had
each done in their two elections -- he received a
majority, more than 50%, of the votes cast.
The reaction among those who did did not support
Obama has been quite clearly and strongly expressed,
at least in the messages reaching our email address.
Many are sarcastic and critical, some are racist, one
went so far as to say that what happened was not
God's will. But probably an equal number were
resigned to the fact, or at least the probability, that
America has slipped from slightly right-of-center,
past center and into a left-of-center political, cultural,
social, economic and moral life style.
Much has already been written, and other similar
articles will follow, confirming the media bias in favor
of Barack Obama over John McCain. In retrospect,
even the writers and commentators who were active
during the campaign admit to employing that bias. But
all that is past history. The internet feature "Infidels are
Cool," on November 9 summarized the situation well:
'There will come a time in the year ahead when
either Obama’s unexamined past will come back
to haunt him, or his inexperience and tentativeness
in foreign affairs will be embarrassingly apparent,
or his European-socialist agenda for domestic
programs simply won’t work. And as public
opinion falls, what will MSNBC, the New York
Times, the editors of Newsweek, a Chris Matthews
or the anchors at the major networks say?"
But for now Mr. Obama is president-elect. He
will not take office for 69 more days. He has not
yet done anything as president. After he takes office,
if he makes mistakes or either does things wrong or
does wrong things, we will be among the first to say
so, loudly and clearly. But for now our responsibility
as Christians is not to criticize and condemn, but to
pray for God's help for this new, inexperienced
young man who faces the greatest problems any
incoming president of the United States of America
ever faced. This is not something we just thought up.
The Bible so directs us in these words: “I exhort
therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers,
intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for
all men; for kings and all that are in authority,
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and honesty." (1 Tim. 2:1-2)
Religion played an important role in the election
we have just gone through. His strong efforts to
appeal to religious voters paid off for Obama.
Overall, among religious voters, Obama ran well
ahead of McCain, 52% to 46%. Among Catholics,
Jews, other religions and unaffiliated, Obama won by
substantial margins. McCain was victorious among
Protestants, other Christians, Evangelicals and non-
Evangelicals.. One of the key religious or moral
Evangelicals.. One of the key religious or moral
issues -- same sex marriage -- saw constitutional
amendments succeed in Arizona, California and
Florida, although in California the homosexual
minority, with ACLU in the lead, is mounting legal
appeals to have the vote of the people overturned.
This same split on moral values is reflected in actions
within the Episcopal church where another diocese --
the diocese of Quincy, Illinois, has voted to leave the
Episcopal church. The dividing issue is allegiance to
the Word of God, and the ordaining of homosexuals.
This is indicative of the increasing conflict on these
moral value issues which we may expect to see under
the incoming left-leaning government at the Executive
and Legislative levels.
Speaking to this issue, Tony Perkins, president of
Family Research Council, believes the results of this
election can be attributed in large part to the fact that
the church in America has failed to address sin within
itself as well as in society. Perkins also believes (as
we also warned in last week's issue) that Christians
in America should prepare for persecution. "We are
going to see, I think, unprecedented attacks against
our faith through measures like the hate crimes
legislation in the Employment Non-Discrimination
Act. We're going to see attacks on innocent
human life through the Freedom of Choice Act ...
And I think even our freedoms are going to come
under attack." It must be remembered that during
the campaign Mr. Obama promised that he would
use his power to support the Freedom of Choice Act
which will enhance the use of abortions, and would
eliminate the Defense of Marriage Act. Perkins says
Christians are going to have to be resolute in defense
of what they know to be right.
A leading voice for Liberals, Norman Lear, the co-
founder of "People for the American Way," has sent a
warning to his fellow liberals that "the Republican
Party will take a hard turn to the extreme right."
The warning continues: "The Right is already
planning the revitalization of the Conservative
movement. Without a strong progressive
movement keeping the wind at the Obama
administration's back, our constitutional values
will not be realized as policy, and our electoral
gains will be short lived." The battle lines are about
to be redrawn between the left-leaning Liberals and
Hillary Clinton's "vast right wing conspiracy." We
succeeded before . . . now we need to regroup, and
return to the front once again, setting aside and moving
on from our recent defeats. At stake is the kind of
America we used to know, and which our Founding
Fathers intended it to be.
And never forget or ignore what those founders
said: "The general principles, on which the Fathers
achieved independence, were . . . the general
principles of Christianity."-- John Adams, in a letter
to Thomas Jefferson, June 28, 1813
A Few Random Afterthoughts . . .
A "foot in mouth" remark, and an apology from
the President-elect. In a press conference when he
was asked if he had contacted former presidents,
he responded he had been in touch with living ones,
and then added: "Hey, I didn’t want to get into
a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any séances."
His statement was not true -- it was First Lady
Hillary Clinton who admitted to having a séance in
the White House in which they summoned the spirit
of Eleanor Roosevelt. Mrs. Reagan had sought
information from astrology after her husband was
shot in the hope she would learn something to protect
him. It is reported that Mr. Obama phoned Mrs.
Reagan, and apologized for his erroneous remark.
"Green" Initiatives are gone with the wind. In
local contests all over the country, most environmental
initiatives were defeated on November 4. The wind
energy plan to create electricity, so strongly touted
in repetitious TV ads by oil legend T. Boone Pickens,
failed when voters faced the economic impact of the
windmill process. The conclusion: nuclear power is
clean energy, and we don't have to depend on having
a sunny or windy day to have the process work.
A thought for your next sandwich lunch: Last
week S. Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A
shops, was awarded the William E. Simon prize for
philanthropic leadership. Starting with a single shop
in 1967, the chain has grown nationwide to to over
1,400 restaurants. The company's vision statement
is: "To glorify God by being a faithful steward of
all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive
influence on all who come in contact with
Chick-fil-A." In line with that principle, all of their
restaurants are closed on Sundays.
To relieve any concerns, the White House said
this week that the recent bail-out of financially
troubled firms is not socialism. “We’re very, very
far away from that line of socialism, wherever
that’s drawn out there,” White House spokesman
Tony Fratto said. And Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi made it clear it was just a matter of clothing
colors, saying:“Today, the Democratic leadership
discussed how ...to use cutting-edge technology
to transform blue-collar jobs to green collar jobs
for generations to come.” It's good to learn that!
Oh, in case you didn't notice -- At his first news
conference on Nov. 7, Obama stood at a podium
bearing a sign that read: “Office of the President-Elect.
Also, his Web site, Change.gov, bears the words
“Office of the President-Elect” at the top of its home
page. Thus, Barack Obama has created a stir by
proclaiming that he heads an office that does not
officially exist.
A first century BC quote fit for our time: "The
budget should be balanced. Public debt should
be reduced. The arrogance of officialdom should
be tempered, and assistance to foreign lands
should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt."
-- attributed to Marcus Tullius Cicero, 55 BC
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