A Time to Heal
I am, of course, ecstatic and overwhelmed by the election of Barack Obama. He's not the messiah. He won't cure all that ails us. He is simply a man America has called to lead it at most difficult time in history. There is great hope and great expectations. Some of those expectations are unfortunate, because they ask for the impossible.
While I celebrate, I know that others are not. This is a dangerously polarized nation. Barack got a majority of the vote. He brought out people who had not voted in years, or perhaps ever before. He stirred dreams that America could be better. But there are many in the nation who are afraid. They see a young man who is very different from them. This is new territory. He's new on the scene. He has an exotic name. His middle name is the same as the last name of the person who ruled Iraq. America is afraid of Islam and the rumors are that he's Muslim.
FDR said: "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." That is true. But, the fear is there and we who supported Barack have a job -- that of reaching out to those who are fearful, those who mistrust Obama, those who live with deep resentment about the way the world has treated them.
As a Christian, I am called to be an agent of reconciliation. Paul speaks of all things being made new in Christ (2 Cor. 5). That task of reconciliation isn't a political one. It really has nothing to do with Barack Obama. But we who follow Jesus, who believe that in Christ there is hope for new beginnings, we do have a responsibility to work for healing in our land and beyond.
I will celebrate and maybe even gloat a bit. I may dance and shout. But at the end of the day I must extend the hand to the other and seek common cause, for America and the world, indeed God demands it!
While I celebrate, I know that others are not. This is a dangerously polarized nation. Barack got a majority of the vote. He brought out people who had not voted in years, or perhaps ever before. He stirred dreams that America could be better. But there are many in the nation who are afraid. They see a young man who is very different from them. This is new territory. He's new on the scene. He has an exotic name. His middle name is the same as the last name of the person who ruled Iraq. America is afraid of Islam and the rumors are that he's Muslim.
FDR said: "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." That is true. But, the fear is there and we who supported Barack have a job -- that of reaching out to those who are fearful, those who mistrust Obama, those who live with deep resentment about the way the world has treated them.
As a Christian, I am called to be an agent of reconciliation. Paul speaks of all things being made new in Christ (2 Cor. 5). That task of reconciliation isn't a political one. It really has nothing to do with Barack Obama. But we who follow Jesus, who believe that in Christ there is hope for new beginnings, we do have a responsibility to work for healing in our land and beyond.
I will celebrate and maybe even gloat a bit. I may dance and shout. But at the end of the day I must extend the hand to the other and seek common cause, for America and the world, indeed God demands it!
Comments
My view is that God is in the process of judging America for our many sins. And I realize that you and I would disagree on what those sins are. The presidency of George Bush is a part of that judgement, and so will be the presidency of Obama.
In my view, the USA is dying. It has been a slow death, but I think the pace is about to increase. Anyhow, there can be no reconciliation between people with views so contrary as those we each hold.
I voted for Obama, but I am not ecstatic that he won; I am cautiously optimistic.
During the campaign Obama was often accused of being a demagogue - a brilliant speaker whose motives were at best undetermined, at worst, evil. In deciding how to vote I ignored this allegation as election rhetoric. However, in listening to the post-election jubilation, I am becoming increasingly worried about the possible truth of the label. I don't think Obama is evil, but I fear that his ability to to stir the masses may come to a bad end.
Such skill is easily perverted, either by the charismatic leader's ego or by the ego (or ideology) of those who seek to control the leader. The hopeful crowds lose their natural skepticism and become sheep-like in their willingness to follow the leader.
Everything I have heard or read in the last 12 hours - much of which has come from very intelligent people, from political leaders, news people and from leaders and common people from abroad - sounds childlike in its breathless admiration and its naive hopefulness. I am afraid of the kool-aide.
I am very disturbed. Obama is after all just a politician - albeit one with incredible speaking skills. But no matter how gifted he is as a speaker, words do not not translate directly into deeds. Obama is human and he will be only as effective as his heart and the team he assembles around him permits. The problems he faces as the leader of America at this time are enormous and cannot be met or surmounted by words alone.
Let us pray that God gifts him with the wisdom and support to be the leader we need at this time.
John
What kind of theology and morality must you have that denies God's saving grace? God may be judging America, but God has not given up hope nor has God denied us the possibility of repentance.
I don't know whether Obama will work out for good or ill, but to suggest that God has elected to bring on ultimate death and destruction at this time is bizarre - and wholly unBiblical. God is the God of all, even the Ninevites. Repentance is always available.
This ideology of fear and judgment, which appears to come from the Christian Right, is self-destructive, and it is what caused the collapse of the Republican Party. It is dangerous to allow theology to be warped into ideology. God is a God of people, not nations. The ideology of Osama Bin Laden should be warning enough about the consequences when theology is exported out of the human heart and into the realm of human government.
The Republican Party will destroy itself if it does not wrest control from its theocratically driven right wing.
At the core of this ideology of fear and judgment is the presumption that our success as a nation is dependent on our actions - as if we humans can save ourselves on our own. Salvation, on any level is first and foremost an aspect and consequence of God's grace. And there is nothing we can do on our own to foster salvation or to lose it. That works on the level of human spirituality and on the level of nationhood. The Pharisees as well as the Zealots among Jesus followers did not get this.
There is no chosen nation, just a chosen people - the people of God. And all of God's people are in exile, and we are all called to marry, have children, build houses, and pray for the prosperity of our adoptive homelands.
When the New Kingdom finally crystallizes, it won't be America, nor will it be anything like America. It is a foolish notion to think that the USA can on its own become the Kingdom or that God will ever appoint America as His Kingdom on earth.
At best all we can do as Christians living in a non-Christian world, is to try as a people to live our lives as His grateful servants - loving God and loving those whom God loves - no matter how much we disagree - even if they are Samaritans or Ninevites.
The presidency of George W. Bush, like the presidency of those who came before him and after, are human institutions, flawed, broken, but ultimately hope-filled. Our nation may be dying - empires come and go - but such only forms a canvas upon which God works - works for our welfare and not for harm, and to give us a future with hope.
Finally, the claim that there can be no reconciliation is the ultimate in anti-Biblical - not just unBiblical but anti-Biblical thinking.
Rejoice, pray without ceaseing and be thankful in ALL circumstances.
John
P.S. Clearly Obama is no messiah - but did you think John McCain was?
My point was to say that people who have nothing in common cannot find common purpose or agreement. For instance, when one says abortion is a right, and someone else says abortion is wrong, there is no common ground there. When one says homosexuality is good and another says homosexuality is bad, where is the point of agreement? I see none.
I see no way for there to ever again be enough common ground between Americans that we can legitimately say that we are united. We might have some unity on an issue now and then, but that unity will be short-lived.
And, I believe we are approaching the end of time. The Bible teaches that time will end, that there will be a great tribulation after which Jesus will come back to earth to rule, to set up a world-wide theocracy. That thought gives liberals the colic, which is amusing to me.
No one says "abortion is right". I personally oppose it. But the law of the land says that those who abort will not be criminally prosecuted. It also so that states may not pass laws which prevent a woman from having an abortion. These laws apply to Christians as well as atheists and people of other traditions.
You and I share the view that our God abhors the taking of life, any life, whether it be that of an adulterer, a murderer, the enemy, or the unborn. We can agree on that can we not? Common ground.
Whether and how we choose to express ourselves in the political sphere are matters of right granted by our Constitution. Morally Christians are called to speak truth to power - in this case, to our sovereign: the PEOPLE and their elected government. Our words, though firm, are spoken with love, with kindness, and with perseverance. And we are not to give up, forgiving our brothers' and sisters' failings time and time again, and when knocked down, we get up again and speak truthfully again, time and time again, loving our opponents all the while.
For you to conclude that because we understand our political responsibility and our political message differently we have nothing in common, and based thereon to assert that there is nothing unifying us, the Body of Christ notwithstanding, ignores all that
I have learned about Christianity and being Christian.
You and I do not say that homosexuality is good. It simply is. We can no more insist that a man bear children than we can insist that a homosexual not be a homosexual. We cannot condemn homosexuals either - in fact it is not for us to condemn anyone, only to love them as God loves them. We are both called to respond with loving kindness. Common ground.
How that loving kindness plays out in the political sphere is again going to be different. I can only hope that you and I can share our responses and can serve to inform each other as to how we hear the voice of God directing our actions.
We agree that the Lord will one day establish a new kingdom, a theocracy of the first order. But that hasn't happened yet. Common ground.
As for colic, the only people I see in a colic are those who waive the end times as a threat against those with whom they disagree, also in those who complain that the end times are taking too long to get here. Such people are disturbed that those who DESERVE punishment are getting away scot-free! This is the temperment of the prodigal son's elder brother as well as that of the cantankerous prophet Jonah.
John
Scared to really comment with this thread, but anyway.. here goes. While my guy didn't win, I still prayed for Obama's presidency. Best thing for those you disagree with is to pray for them.
Obama and I will disagree on some social issues, no doubt. In a way, I hope I am proven wrong on the economic issues, b/c that will mean the economy turns around. I hope our status on the world stage improves.
In a way.. while disappointing.. its also a win/win.. if Obama does well, great. If not, it will hopefully help conservatives get their act together, which they need to find a message anyways!
-Chuck
Please read again the first paragraph of my first post on this subject.
You realize that from beginning to end Jonah's oppositional reaction to God's will was inappropriate. Jonah resisted God's command at the beginning, and resented God's love for others in the end.
It would seem that you indeed have a lot in common. I hope you find your way out of the whale's belly soon.
John