Here is my beef with right wing evangelicals after I have been watching people’s status through Facebook, Twitter, blogs and conversations after the election of Barack Obama.
Everyone is saying “God have mercy on our nation” and trying to reassure ourselves by saying “God is in control,” because the candidate you voted for is not in office.
I feel this is a misrepresentation of understanding how the kingdom of God works and thinking incorrectly about the role of the church in a nation.
I have a feeling that if John McCain had been elected all the Christians who voted for him would have been rejoicing and saying “Oh, God must be looking out for our nation,” I don’t think they would be saying, “God have mercy on our nation.”
Here’s the fundamental problem. If the best way for Jesus to change a nation would have been to be a president, guess what He would have done, he would have been a president.
Revolutions never start from the top, they always start from the bottom and work their way up throughout the culture.
Regardless of Obama’s policies, who for the record I personally disagree with on multiple levels, it doesn’t make me pray more for our nation. I already pray for our nation. I will continue to pray for our nation and our new president. I’ve been praying for mercy and the fact that my ideal candidate isn’t in office will not change the fact that I pray for mercy. We don’t need mercy because of one person, we need mercy because we are sinful people.
The new President elect is a representation of the values in America. God will not judge our nation because of one person and his policies. God will judge our nation because of backslidden churches, Christians and people who put way to much hope in politicians on both sides of the aisle.
Guess what? If the Church would fix homelessness and poverty, it would not matter one bit what Barack Obama’s policies were on welfare, we wouldn’t need it. If you know me and read my blog, you can obviously tell I have thought through issues, whether or not you agree with me, and that I am passionate about sending Godly people into politics that have a Biblical worldview. But I place my trust in Christ.
If you want to really see change, build the church, that would be Jesus political motto, “Change: Build the Church.” I would also highly recommend reading Clayton’s blog.
Jesus, through the vehicle of the local church, is what will bring true change to our nation and world, not Barack Obama or John McCain.
Good Ross, thanks for posting this!
This the true! You really see the true colors of people who say they are Christian. Keep up the good work. God Bless.
Great post! Many people are putting WAY TOO MUCH hope in the political process. The post-election responses are very revealing.
Ross,
This is well said, People definitely fail to recognize that all authority comes from Jesus Christ! Also people need to exert the same the passion that they did for respective into advancing the kingdom of God.
Respectfully,
Valentine Dike jr.
I have mixed feelings about everything. I totally agree with what you said though. I still have mixed feelings though about everything.
I guess my biggest disappointment in the elections is that its a huge reflection on the heart of the church. Not the lost people, but the church. Geez, it makes me sad. I know I put God have mercy on my status, but because I know it represents the mindset of the church…
Word.
I just realized that I need to pray for our nation more. Not because of the election of Obama, but because we are all in need of prayer and for God to move in our lives.
My status right now is “Sabrina is praying for our country! Change is certainly coming..I just don’t think everyone understands the type of change they voted for…” I do feel strongly that people voted blindly for our next president. Too many people (many that I call friends) voted for Obama thinking that his “changes” would be just what our nation needs…but in reality they don’t have any clue about what he may or may not do while in office. My only problem with Obama winning is that too many people ignorantly voted for him, without doing their research. Do I believe that God’s hand will not be on our nation now that Obama is in command, of course not…but this may very well be our nation reaping what it sows…and that is certainly something to be praying for!
Nice post.
I think you might be harshing just a bit on a lot of the people out there. When people feel threatened or very disappointed, as many do, it’s natural to encourage one another by saying the cliched-yet-true “God is in control.” Just as the Psalmist did — he cried out to God when he was in trouble. And it makes complete sense for people to favor one candidate over another, especially on issues like human life — and to feel that God will not be honored by a particular candidate’s policies.
I don’t think these sentiments mean that anyone is against personal growth and individual impact for the Kingdom, or relying only on the president. My 2 cents.
Good points, Ross!
Great post! Everybody has there own reasons for voting they way they did for the government’s role in people’s lives, but the bottom line is we as individuals and we as a church ultimately are what are needed to be the change that we want to see in our nation…the government is ultimately ineffective and inefficient at most things it tries to do.
I implore everyone who voted in hopes that the government would stop gay marriage, abortions, crime, or whatever things we don’t agree with, to address them from the bottom up so people don’t WANT to do those things, not just so the government tries to stop it.
The night after the elections Jesus came to me and He was deeply hurt. He was crying. He was crying because His church, the people that are supposedly His “bride” completely ignored and threw aside the issues that are paramount to His heart. They voted for convinience and their pocket book and didn’t give a rats tail about his feelings or His heart. Everyone keeps asking, “what’s best for the economy?!” . . .WHO CARES! What’s best for God’s heart is what we should be asking. If this nation would choose righteousness we would be provided for and it wouldn’t be an issue.
Don’t get me wrong, i agree with a lot of what you said in this post. However, the idea that who is president isn’t important and doesn’t matter to God is inaccurate. He deeply cares about who leads this nation and He makes it clear in His word that righteous leadership exalts a nation and wicked leaders send people into hiding. Not just the people, the leaders. It matters. Proverbs 28:12 “When the righteous triumph, there is great elation; but when the wicked rise to power, men go into hiding.”
The fact that one of most radical abortionist was elected into office is simply a sign that the church hasn’t been built. Or at least that its priorities are out of order. You’re right, revolutions do start from the ground up, but we just had a perfect opportunity to affect culture “from the ground up” and we did nothing. We could have saved millions of lives and led a revolution for life, but we chose that keeping our lights on is more important than giving a baby a chance to live. Chose caring about ourselves over caring about what God views important. Not that keeping our lights on isn’t important to Him, it is. But He would see to that if we would just choose him.
And it was the churh’s fault. We would have had the power to sway it had we been unified. That would’ve been revolution. The fact that Christ’s “bride” just potentially signed millions of death warrants for innocent people is a good reason to be crying out for mercy. God will not stand idly by. Not to mention the influx of islam this nation will experience and the lives lost as a result.
BTW – Obama is going to be my president, so i will respect and honor him as so. As biblically instructed to. I’m more upset that the church didn’t care about God’s feelings rather than Obama has been elected president. Just wanted to clear that up.
Cousin Amy, the reason I’m harsh is because I think Christians put too much hope in a candidate rather than in Christ. I have been praying to God and crying out to God desperately for our nation and my campus for years, just because Obama is going to be the president will not change that. I think Christians get a false sense of comfort and security if a Republican is in office. But I could be wrong, maybe Christians are just the same if a Democrat is in office.
I think the only reason we have not received the judgement of God, 50,000,000 aborted babies later, is because one, God is merciful and two, there are lots of churches and ministries pleading to God for mercy. I work with church people and meet tons of church people day in and day out from all denominations and my experience is by and large we as the church are apathetic, selfish and swayed by the spirit of the age. This to me is case in point of that reality. We think if we have a Christian or at least a Republican in office our nation will be ok. I think that is pure deception.
Chris, I agree, Christians do not vote for what’s most important, I believe abortion is THE issue in our nation at this moment in history. The economy will take care of itself, truthfully I’m not that concerned about the economy, even as someone who raises support for a living, it will take care of itself and God will provide. I agree that when the righteous rule, the people rejoice, BUT, I never said that who is president is not important. If you read my 6 blog posts before that, I have very strong convictions about different issues in our culture and think that our leaders are very important.
I don’t think that overturning Roe v Wade fixes the problem completely, I actually think the pro life movement by in large is very shortsighted about how to fix this problem. Of course I’m for overturning Roe v. Wade, but I think the problem runs much deeper than that. We can’t just change a law and then its going to stop. Abortions will still happen, it will still be an atrocity, they will just be done in back alleys and shady clinics rather than in hospitals. I’m not gonna right my ideas right now thats another blog, but electing a President is not working from the ground up. That’s still trying to affect change from the top down. Jesus didn’t do that, he reached people, built the church and didn’t go talk to Caesar about all the atrocities the Roman government. I’m not saying that we should not fight politically, we should, I’m just saying its a bigger problem than just passing a law.
Even if McCain had gotten elected, he said he was pro life but in his debate with Obama moderated by Bob Schaeffer, he said that he would not have a litmus test for appointing justices by seeing if they are pro life or not. Translation, he might have appointed a pro choice judge if he felt they were qualified, then what would Christians have done? Why do you think conservatives and Christians by in large were not excited about McCain? Its because he’s not that conservative. He’s a moderate. Who knows if the man is a believer in Jesus or not, he never talked about it. Who knows if he even would have valued life?The blood would have been on our hands then for electing him I suppose. And he calls himself a federalist meaning his view is to leave it up to the states, I also heard Sarah Palin say the same thing. That doesn’t sound very pro life to me. I disagree with him, I don’t think he’s pro life enough.
Why would Barack Obama mean that there is going to be an influx of Islam into our nation?
I believe Christians need to go after abortion in a more holistic way, honestly, in my opinion the easy thing to do is to just pray that its overturned. Get out there, reach people for Christ, be preemptive, go into areas where lots of abortions happen and set up ministries, start more pregnancy centers, thats how we will fix abortion, its both and, its legislation and the work of the ministry, reaching the lost and making disciples. Raising up politicians who will go into government and actually be the people that help see it overturned. Its both and, not just one way, we need each other, thats how you start a revolution, thats how you fix a problem.
I agree with you that the fight is not all political. It isn’t. And even if McCain had won, or if Roe v. Wade was overturned, you’re right. It would still be happening illegally. (back alleys, etc.) We do have to reach people where they are and it is a heart matter. Not just a political one.
However, the fact that America voted for a man when they knew that his intentions were to remove every ban on it is in essence endorsing the behavior. Putting our stamp of approval on the action. Guilt by association. Just asking to be judged. The nation is now as a whole guilty. It’s no longer just the individual in the back alley that will be held accountable now, but all of us. We endorse abortion. McCain on the other hand was for life and for the overturning of Roe vs Wade. At least to our knowledge, and that’s all we would have been held accountable for. He wasn’t perfect, but you know it’s not realistic to compare him to Obama. At least God would have seen that we weren’t endorsing it had we voted for a man because we knew he was against it.
And i don’t think the political answer is overturning roe v wade either. I think its defining a fetus as a human life. Like they were trying to get passed in . . . Colorado i think? The personhood amendment to define unborn children as persons under state law from the moment of fertilization. Unfortunately i don’t think it passed or i probably would of heard about it by now. But it was on the ballot. They were starting a revolution up there.
But you’re right in the fact that the most important thing is to get out there and make disciples. To show the love of Christ to a lost and hurting world, changing hearts and not just laws.
And that’s pretty much the only option left at this point. I don’t think America will ever be the same, but that’s ok because Heaven is my home, not America, and Jesus is my Lord, not Obama.
BTW – I read some of your other blog posts. I enjoyed them very much. Good stuff.
Just a note to Chris (and everyone)- who think that Obama is a “radical abortionist”: it is not accurate. He actually has articulated many more plans than McCain ever did for actually reducing the numbers of abortions being performed, by education, church-based programs and others. He has not stated that his goal is to remove every ban on abortion. He is not against ending late-term abortions; he just wants provisions for the mother’s health. A major aspect of his position is that he trusts people to make moral decisions for themselves.
I was actually thinking about this the day before the election. I was thinking, if Obama gets elected, we’ll have to work and pray even harder for these moral issues and things. But then I thought, wait a minute, if McCain gets elected, we should do the exact same thing! Who’s president shouldn’t affect our personal responsibility. Every one of us has a calling to change this world for Christ.
I’m sure if McCain was elected, bunches of Christians would have celebrated and then gone right back to sleep.
jmatthoch, you are misrepresenting Obama again. He is FOR the Freedom of Choice Act. His words are recorded in speeches to planned parenthood. His record is clear. The Freedom of Choice Act would by law remove the bans on late term and partial birth abortions. Barrack’s own words on the floor of the Illinois state Senate when discussing the life of a child born ALIVE after a botched late term abortion were that bringning in another doctor to provide medical assistance to that living breathing baby would “further burden the original decision of the mother”. So please don’t say he is not a radical pro-abortionist, when in fact his words, legislation he supports and his RECORD make it clear where he really stands on the issue.
Abortions have decreased under the Bush admin. Barrack was wrong when he stated they hadn’t. I don’t want his “education” programs indoctrinating my children, and teaching them about sex in kindergarten and grade school. I have actually read the entire proposal and is disgusting.
Just a note. You said Jesus would tell us to “Build the church.” Actually, Jesus told us to make disciples and HE would build the church. Check it out.
MarJean, too shay:) Sorry for my heretical exegesis:)