First, a reminder:

The same God who ordained (not ‘permitted’) that Clinton get 8 years & Bush get 8 years has now put Obama in that spot. (Prov. 16:33, 21:1, Dan. 4:34-35).

For those wondering, here’s the implication: pray for the welfare of the nation and the president, just as you would if the candidate you wanted to get in office did. If you’re a Christian, God commands you to do so. No excuses. If you don’t like Obama’s policies, encourage your congressmen or women to vote against them. But if you’re a believer, don’t you DARE sit back and act like the liberals have toward Bush for the past 8 years.

Obama’s still your president and mine, like it or not. Pray that God will step in and guide his heart in the direction of righteousness, even though his party seems to be all about unrighteousness and making it the law of the land. And remember – as a believer, all things that happen in relation to your life are for your ultimate GOOD and God’s best and fullest glory – even the election of a president you don’t agree with. So all this talk about the Sovereignty of God – are you REALLY committed to it, or is that just lip service for the good times?

Now, a rant:

I’m especially disappointed in the response from some of my non-black brethren who call themselves ‘Calvinists’, but have been acting more like Arminians in their responses to Obama getting elected.  I’ve seen this called a ‘blasphemous’ inauguration and a host of other things not fit for print.  Are you all serious ?

Understand this – I did NOT vote for him. I don’t think he or McCain were the best candidates (I voted constitutional party) for the job and I think the republican party only ran McCain out of respect, and McCain wasn’t concerned about winning to begin with.  I disagree with probably 70% of his policies – mostly because I’m Christian and the rest because I’m a social and fiscal conservative.   So don’t even think of saying ‘Oh, you’re only saying that because he’s black and you are too’.

Sometimes I wonder if some of it isn’t latent racism. It’s okay to have ‘us’ at the table, just not at the head of the table.  And with some of you, I’m sure it probably is.  I’ve seen people insult the man’s looks and say he’s not handsome – wait….when did ‘handsome’ become a qualification for president ? What does that have to do with anything ?  Seriously ? If your issue is his skin color – no matter what you mask it behind (since his citizenship has been proven and proven again….), you need to examine your heart and repent. Let me say this again – if your issue – ANY PART OF YOUR ISSUE – is his skin color, you are IN SIN and need to ask God to cleanse your heart of this latent evil.

No one in this country is immune to ‘race’ issues. (and yes, I’ve heard Thabiti’s talk on the issue at T4G 08- the above and the following are directed to those who still think in ‘race’ categories instead of ‘ethnicity’ categories)  When I say no one, I mean NO ONE.  Folk who grow up in a homogeneous cultural environment usually have problems and issues with adjustment to viewing other people as human beings, equal with them on all levels.  I’ve seen it repeatedly regardless of skin color or ethnicity.  The responsibility of the Christian in this area is to see it for what it is when it arises and deal with it properly.

Let me not limit this rant to white Christians who have issues with our new President. A large number of black Christians have FOOLISHLY followed behind Barack without question or simply by minimizing/rationalizing away those areas where his beliefs and policies he promoted on the campaign trail go CLEARLY against any and everything biblical and every and anything that would be beneficial to black communities.  Don’t you understand that abortion has killed almost 1/2 of ‘us’ that should be around now ?

Oh, it’s true. 17 million of the 43-50 million abortions since Rowe v. Wade have been African-Americans.

We’re roughly 39-40 million (13.5% as of July 1, 2007), give or take a million.

Never mind that Margret Sanger and Planned Parenthood, N.A.R.A.L. and all of these organizations were originally formed with the intentions of promoting both radical feminism and eugenics (the weeding out of inferior races…)…..  So how in the world can you claim to be so ‘pro-black’ or even marginally concerned about our communities and our families (speaking as a black man) and support someone whose policies will continue to promote genocide and fatherlessness and the destruction of the family unit in our communities ? Understand that most of his policies fall right in line with the democratic party – the same party that’s been content to pander to ‘us’ for ‘our’ vote every election time, but nothing really changes in our communities after the ballots are counted.

Just reflect for a moment, if you are black. How did crime and poverty decrease during the Clinton era ?  How did your public schools in your communities increase their test scores ?

Don’t believe all the hype and rhetoric pushed through most of the media channels we listen to – Bush actually has been the president to put legislation in place for more African-Americans to have college opportunities than any other president. While one candidate in 2004 was concerned about increasing the amount of money for welfare (John Kerry) and other things to keep ‘us’ dependent upon the government, the other one (Bush) was concerned about minority business ownership and home ownership (and he kept those promises in the form of later legislation in 2005).

Understand the difference between being viewed as a VICTIM versus being viewed as a PERSON.  Are you a charity case or a human being ? Charity cases get a few bones thrown to them, some nice speeches and some hope, but most of the time, nothing real materializes….until the next campaign.

Think about it.

For my white brethren who can’t understand why even some conservative black folk are happy about today:

Understand something – there are 50 and 60-something (even a few 40-something) year old African-Americans who grew up under Jim Crow.  If you were white and living wherever you were living, unless you were openly and actively opposing it and enduring the same hatred from folks as blacks were, you weren’t affected by it.  Seeing people get hosed down by the fire department or seeing the police release the dogs on you, having the legal system titled against you, etc…. all of those things were just headlines and images to you.  You still had the freedom to do as you wanted without consequence and whether you ‘took a side’ really didn’t matter much in the short run because it didn’t affect you.  Unless you took the time to identify and understand what ‘we’ have been through, it’s just words and pictures to you.

I’m 36. When I visited Louisville, some of my brethren in Christ warned me not to drive through certain areas after 4-5pm and specifically warned me that it was because of my skin color.   If you’re white, you don’t experience that. There’s practically nowhere in the US – even in most black neighborhoods – that you can’t drive through and not have to worry wonder whether or not someone’s going to attack you over your skin color.  You might get robbed in some neighborhoods because you don’t live there, but that’s not a black or white issue (because there are some black neighborhoods that BLACK people won’t and DON’T drive through for the same reasons).

I know and work with people who’ve been beaten, threatened and such because of their skin color. So to them – and those growing up in the generation immediately after them, this is a historic moment. The first non-Anglo/European-American elected to lead the country represents a full turn away from the atrocities done to and against black Americans just 40-50 years ago.  Look at the make-up of the crowds on television. All different ethnicities….all different ages.  So, for a change, it’s not just ‘us’ and a few white folk, but a wide swath of people across the board who see this as progress on the ‘race’ issue in America.  The fact that a country where ‘we’ of African origin couldn’t use the same water fountain or sit at the same lunch counter 45-50 years ago now has elected someone of African origin to be its’ leader is HUGE.

Mitt Romney nailed it when he said “regardless of whether you agree with him or not, this is HUGE.”  Al Mohler said much the same thing.   Some people ‘get it’.

So with this said, I’ll close this one off and ask YOU – yes YOU – to pray for the president.  Remember Prov. 21:1 – pray that God would steer the heart of the president toward righteousness and in contradiction to the ridiculous policies of his party.   Pray that he will do well in office and govern fairly and justly.  Remember that God is Sovereign and for us believers, if He has decided that it is in our best GOOD (Romans 8:28) to have THIS man as president, then we need to get over complaining about it and trust HIM.

Remember – as much as you’d like to think that America was once a ‘Christian nation’, there’s always been something glaringly anti-Christian about the country in EVERY era of its’ existence.   So please get over the ‘Christian nation’ myth.  Christian influence, yes.  Christian nation, no.  The same government that said ‘all men are created equal’ declared people like me to be 3/5 of a person at one point.  James calls this double-minded and hypocrtical (James 3:9-12).  The same government that at one point claimed ‘In God we trust’ as our national motto and had it printed on our currency was also still enforcing laws that treated human beings differently based on skin color.  And we can move backward in time to the days of Jackson, Buchanan and others who attended church on Sunday, yet set up conditions that led to the civil war, or set up things which ended in the wholesale slaughter of native Americans and so on.

Well, the motorcade has begun to head to the Capitol.  Take care.