As anyone who knows me well already knows, I do not follow politics. Truth is I probably pay a lot less attention to the news than I should and thats not a good thing. My dad and boyfriend are both newspaper readers and so I get a fair amount of news second hand. The reason, mostly, that I don't keep up with the news is that its depressing and frightening. I'm not condoning this habit of mine, I'm just stating it as fact. There is a trend that I see amongst my friends, especially on facebook, that really bothers me though. It looks to me like Obama bashing has become a sport. Now, please, do not get me wrong. I understand that he condones things that from a biblical standpoint can not be condoned. I get it that he supports abortion and abortion is, according to Scripture, murder. But according to Scripture is it not also murder to hate someone in our hearts? Since when is it ok for a Christian to publicly bash anyone, let alone an elected official?? God clearly states that we are to honor our parents. He also clearly states that we are to give honor to elected officials. I do not know one single person who would publicly slander his or her parents on facebook or anywhere else for that matter. Even when a person hates his parents, we generally have more decorum than to paint our walls with it like graffiti! So maybe all the jokes, pictures and "you need to be aware", posts are not actually ok. Perhaps, (and I do mean perhaps, I am not saying this is the case) they are an overflow from a heart full of hate?
Another angle of this whole thing that I find particularly troubling is how much people are talking about our president vs how little they seem to be praying. Note I said 'seem to be' not 'are'. I understand that a great deal of silent and unseen prayer goes on! But my question is, can you truly pray for the good of someone and then turn around and slander then publicly? And I wonder too, have facebook and social media and other people become so huge to us that we think that telling the world about our feelings about our president will do more good than telling Almighty God? I understand that we have a responsibility to stay up to date with what is happening in the world around us. I understand that I am lacking greatly in that area. But I also understand that we are required, by God's law, to pray for those who make the laws of the land we live in. If we as American born Christians put the energy into prayer and fasting for this country and our leaders that we do into 'warning' others of Obama's marxist/socialist/muslim traits, perhaps the tide of the country would change. Our futures are NOT in the hands of any man. We rest in the palm of Almighty God! If we are subjected to the horrors of torture for our faith, it is simply because America as a whole has fallen away from God, not because one single man took us there. No man has the power to destroy a nation. If we are destroyed it is our own doing. And yes, I do mean 'our'. When was the last time that any of us spent an extended length of time in solitude, prayer, and fasting for this country and the hearts of its leaders? What about for revival to sweep our land? What about for the souls of the teenagers and children that are so hurt by the corruption around them? We are 'so upset' by the issue of abortion, but what are we doing about it?
So here is my personal take on politics. I want to pray more. I want to lift up the men and women who lead this country that I am blessed to live in. I want them to know Jesus Christ. And I want my life to be led, controlled, and dictated by the will of my Father, not by the whims of any human, including myself. Yes, I want the killing to stop. Yes I want this country to honor God. Yes I want this country to be a democracy and not a socialist country. But I know, absolutely, that only God controls that and the only way that God will be honored in this country is if He is honored in the hearts and lives of His children who live in it.
