The Election, Communism, and Christianity: my plea to the Church

It’s no secret that I’m less than thrilled with our new President Elect, Barack Hussein Obama. It’s also no secret that I consider the Democratic Party to be one of the most insidious perpetrators of evil and moral subversion in this country. Considering the fact that both Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party have just secured major victories in the governmental infrastructure of our nation, it stands to reason that good conservative Christian Americans have a great deal with which to be upset. There’s a lot about which we could reasonably gripe, complain, rant, and vent frustration. Certainly those of us who have an affinity for vociferous soliloquy and fulmination can be expected to compose a few strongly worded rants in the next few days. Disappointment among us – and the verbalization thereof – is both anticipated and reasonable. But let me now fall prey to a momentary lapse of immaturity and urge you, my conservative brothers and sisters in Christ, to neither gripe nor complain nor murmur nor render overly evident the extent of your disappointment. (Or at least, if such griping is absolutely unavoidable, I urge you to get it out of your system quickly and move on.)

Let me first point out that all is not yet lost. What silver linings can be found are thin, but they are there. Though the democrats have won a great victory, they have not attained to their goal of filibuster-proof majority. Thank God for small miracles, as they say. For my Californian brothers and sisters, let me point out that – as of this moment – Proposition 8 is passing, which aims to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage. Insofar as my priorities run, the moral issue which this proposition addresses is ineffably more important than the presidency. (Let’s all pray that it really passes, as seems likely.) Furthermore, let us not forget that as bad a candidate as Mr. Obama appears to be, Sen. McCain wasn’t much better to begin with. Frankly, I’d be only slightly less disappointed if he’d been elected over Obama; there never was a solid conservative to vote for this time around.

So, the news is bad, but it could be worse. The question remains: now what are we going to do? Rage against the democrats, or try to work with them? I urge you to take the high road – a hard thing to do, I know, but that’s what Jesus would do were He an American. Recall for a moment the unbridled outcry (I’d call it incessant whining) that the liberal world began sounding the moment it became clear that President George W. Bush would be elected over Gore (and, four years later, over Kerry). That whining has only waxed throughout the entirety of the Bush administration, and has been a source of constant annoyance to us. I cannot put into words how sick and tired I am of the Bush-bashing that’s become so ubiquitous, or how grateful I am that it will finally begin to fade as the (unfairly branded) Bush administration passes off the scene. We don’t want to be like that. We don’t want to whine like they did. It’s immature, it’s annoying, and it doesn’t ultimately accomplish anything aside from making the whiner appear sophomoric. It would be easy for us to begin Obama-bashing with the same shrillness that we’ve been exasperatedly enduring over the last eight years, but let’s try to be mature. The country is about to be run by Communists. Quite true, but instead of whining, why don’t we try praying?

It is my contention and conviction that if the Church in America spent their time praying for their government leaders instead of griping about them, a lot more would be accomplished. We don’t like President Elect Barack Hussein Obama. Ok, but let’s pray for him instead of bashing him. Our Lord once said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” If we love only those who love us, what good are we? Doesn’t everyone do that? Christ loved us not when we were favorably predisposed toward Him, but when we were His bitter, hardened, hateful, uncompromising enemies! Christ didn’t care; He died for us anyway. He gave it all up for us when we didn’t deserve it to any possible degree. If we are to be imitators of Christ, doesn’t that imply that we ought to love our enemies in the same way, and with the same veracity and passion, that He loved us? That’s impossible! Isn’t it? Insofar as the world is concerned, yes, but “with God, all things are possible.” And “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

And ultimately, as bond-slaves of Christ, we have no right to be angry, or disillusioned, or inconsolable. Is our God not still in control? Is the king’s heart not like a stream of water in Yahweh’s hand, able to be turned whithersoever He desires? Are we so afraid of human rulers that we cannot rest peacefully in Jesus’ arms? Has the Church not endured far worse in the past two millennia than it stands to endure now? At the end of the day, though we be subject to this government, our enduring citizenship is not in America, and not on this earth. That’s why we should be content with what God has allowed, taking every thought captive for Christ and resisting the temptation to bellyache and complain. Because our citizenship is in heaven, and heaven’s administration is immutable. Let a thousand godless regimes rise and fall. Let them strip us of our rights and cast us into prison. Let them erect concentration camps and outlaw prayer and conspire against the Lord’s anointed and oppress and repress us and torture us and break us and rain down unrighteousness until every earthly hope perishes, and all seems bleak and desolate. God will still be God, and Christ will still be King. Our hope, our citizenship, and our treasure have nothing to do with constitutional republics or socialist democracies or monarchies or anarchies or oligarchies or any other earthly power or political system. Let us live our lives for heaven, from whence we await our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Welcome to the United Soviet States of America: pray hard.

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” –Rom 13:1-2

“Many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” –Phil 3:-18-21

“But we do know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to purpose.” –Rom 8:28