Praying for our President and our Nation

Yesterday, I along with an estimated two million people, attended the inauguration of our new president Barack Obama. I have committed myself to praying for him and for our nation. As I thought about it, I concluded that there are at least three biblical reasons why the Christian community and in particular the African American Christian community should pray.

1. Proverbs 21:1 tells us that the king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will . Throughout history God has moved on leaders hearts causing them to make decisions that seemed to be counter intuitive.
   
2. 1 Timothy 2:1 instructs Christians, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.This is good, and pleases God our Savior who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. We should pray for our new president because all authority is ordained of God. And God moves in the affairs of men. If we want a nation of peace part of our responsibility is to pray for it.
3. Luke 6:27 says pray for them which despitefully use you. Yes, OK I said it. Politicians use people and Obama in particular has used black preachers like many other politicians. I can cite at least three cases. Jeremiah Wright is the most obvious "Christian casualty". Obama named his book Audacity of Hope after one of Wright's messages, he gave the now famous speech on race where he said he could not deny Rev. Wright's role in his life. When he became too much of a political liability he then throws the old man under the bus. But he also despitefully used minister Donnie McClurkin also when he hired him to do music on his campaign tour in South Carolina. When the gay community decided that they did not like Donnie's Christian testimony of deliverance from homosexuality, our president sided with homosexuals and said he strongly disagrees with McClurkin and then brings a gay preacher on tour to appease the sodomites. Lastly, my dear friend and respected pro-life pastor Dr. Johnny Hunter was chided, scorned and near cursed out by the then Senator from Illinois for simply trying to meet with him to encourage him to reconsider his position on abortion. Obama eventually sent an apology through another pastor he knew.
   

I am afraid I don't share the same level of enthusiasm about President Obama and his liberalism, mostly because of the terrible effects of liberal policies on America in general and the black community in particular. Most of us don't know that black income rose more sharply in the two decades before Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs than it did afterward? Yet many white liberals claim to be the source of all black progress. Before welfare, over 70% of black babies were born to married parents. After four decades of the government paying young women not to marry the fathers of their children, over 70% are born out of wedlock. Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins, determined that black children were actually more likely to be raised by both parents during slavery than they are today. This fatherlessness has wrought untold misery on millions.

I think one of the greatest mistakes socialists and liberals make is assuming that good intentions make good policy. The moment we try to make the government do what God says the family must do (the government supplanting the black man as provider for his family, for example), we begin to bring curses, not blessings on those we try to help. Raising the minimum wage sounds compassionate, but it leads to higher unemployment among the least skilled and educated. Countries with socialized medicine have "free medical care" but they also have months-long waiting lists to see a doctor. All the good intentions end up hurting those they presume to help. After years of counseling fatherless boys, deadbeat dads and the like who have been ravaged by these policies, I have concluded that the government must get out of the pastoring and fathering business.

As for Obama, I'm sorry to say that the more I read of his policies, the more I felt that he would be a bad choice for our leader. His feel-good promises only thinly disguise the same government-centered strategies which have weakened the family and church. I campaigned for the opposition. Of course now that he is the president, I will pray for him and wish him well. However, if he pushes through half the legislation he has promised to sign, it will be a terrible thing for our country, especially for the most vulnerable among us.

Blessings,
Dean