First of all let me say that I did not vote for Obama for President in November. Secondly let me say that I fully support him as our president, I hope that he is successful and I pray for him daily. I also know that some people nodded their heads in agreement with my first statement and then lost all faith in me when they read the second. I also know that some people shook their head in disapproval when they read the first statement and are thinking I had a conversion when they read the second statement. Thankfully I really couldn't care less how anybody feels about my politics and also refuse to conform to any norms that people might expect of me. There is no Christian or non-Christian party. No party has a monopoly on faith or on morality, or on compassion.
Faith is certainly not divorced from politics. When people say that it should be they exhibit a complete ignorance of American history and attempt to put God and Christians in a box. As Lutherans we do teach a separation of Church and State, but not a separation of our faith and how we vote and act in the public square. Although churches and church leaders should not endorse political candidates, faith should help form our political thoughts and ideas and it should influence how we vote and who we vote for. As Christians we need to look at the moral issues of our day and vote the way our faith, informed by Scripture, leads us to. We should also examine candidates and their stand on major issues and using God's Word sort out who best represents God's will. In doing so we also must realize that there is much room for disagreement even among Christians concerning many of these things. Just because person A votes for this guy and person B votes for the other guy does not mean that one of them is not a Christian or didn't vote their conscience. We as Christians are called to use our faith in making political decisions.
The problem I have noticed lately though is that this has been completely turned around. Far too many Christians are letting their politics form their faith. Many people spend more time listening to talk radio than they do reading or listening to their Bibles. I do not know anything about the faith of those in talk radio but I do know they are not the conveyors of Scriptural truth. It has been disheartening to me to listen to and read about Christians making racist statements about Hispanics because of illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is something that needs to be addressed because, well, its illegal. I think we can all agree on that. But it is unchristian to be racist, plain and simple, there is just no excuse for it. I have heard Christians say that they will not pray for President Obama because they don't like him or maybe his policies. Again everyone has the right to vote for who they want to, and to write letters, protest and do other legal things to make their thoughts known. But to not pray for the president of the United States is unscriptural. God commands us to pray for our rulers, and it has nothing to do with whether we like them or agree with them.
It is time for Christians to turn off the radio and pick up their Bibles and start reading what God actually says about these issues. Many of them will be surprised at what they find and realize that they need to repent. God calls for us to take a strong stand for our faith and for moral issues. He calls for us to be a light to the world and that involves standing for the truth but also doing it with compassion and love. If not done with compassion and love than the truth is just mean useless dogma, and as we read, especially in the Old Testament, God is not pleased with it. As I said at the beginning I did not vote for President Obama in November and I do not regret that, I think I did the right thing. I probably will not vote for him in 2012 either, but right now he is the duly elected President of the United States and therefore I pray for him, that he will be safe, that God will fill him with wisdom and lead him to make the right decisions. I wish him well and support him because that is the Scriptural thing to do.
Pastor Fred
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