President Obama

(Tim: This from Andy Halsey)

The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. And men will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely there is a God who judges on earth!" (Psalm 58:10,11)

What is the promised vengeance of this Psalm? "O God, shatter their teeth in their mouth...Let them be as ... the miscarriages of a woman which never see the sun."

It is surely a fearful thing to consider that one day 48 million dismembered babies will rise up out of their trash-can graves and wash their feet in the blood of the doctors, mothers, boyfriends, judges, legislators and voters who did not consider their lives worth saving.

And the righteous will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So I will not vote for B.O.

Grace to you and peace from God who judges on earth.

(Tim: From David Wegener) Let's put it a little differently. Let's say Senator Obama believed parents should have the right to kill their fifth grade children. Fifth graders can be really annoying. They are so self-absorbed, so immature, so bothersome. Let's enact a law that allows parents to terminate the life of their fifth grader, if they so choose. No parent would be forced to kill their fifth grader, so that if you believe such killing to be wrong, then don't do it. But some moms and dads are at their wits end with regard to their fifth grader and they should be given this option.

For some people, unborn children are just like these fifth graders; they're just shorter and more helpless.

When choosing a political candidate to support for president, many issues have to be considered: the economy, the war, race relations, unemployment, etc. But candidates who hold certain positions, by the very fact that they hold those positions, disqualify themselves from being considered by the Christian. What is such a position that would disqualify a candidate? Willingness to allow parents to kill their fifth grader or their shorter sibling. The Christian does not have an option to support such. He or she is morally repugnant to him.

(From Joshua Congrove) Barack Obama is a figure of carefully crafted modesty. Whether in his nuanced, nebulous "positions," or in his studied, opaque demeanor, Obama's power has been his ability to promise radical change in a cloak of moderation and modesty. And despite the fact that his positions on abortion are actually worse (God forbid) than Clinton's, he has managed to convince Christians (I know many) of his moderation, or at least his overall acceptability. I mean, even if one disagrees with him on abortion, it's not the only issue, right? What about poverty, illiteracy, spiritual insensitivity, education, disenfranchisement, immigration?

Ah, yes, yes. How often I remember Scripture's warnings about the dangers of illegal immigration! How keenly I recall the prophets thundering against illiteracy! How vociferously do the apostles denounce habitat destruction!

(Tim, w/thanks to Jeff) Today, Dr. James Dobson aired a fifteen minute exposure of Senator Barack Obama's attempt to cloak his radical politics as if it were on version of a faithful Christian conscience. In the program, Dr. Dobson said Senator Obama is trying to govern by the "lowest common denominator of morality." Dr. Dobson labelled Senator Obama's support for the killing of the unborn as "a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution," going on to ask, "Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies? What (Senator Obama is) trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe."

"Bloody notion of of what is right" indeed.

(Tim) Last night, Michele Peatie left a kind comment here in which she mentioned her blog, Unborn Word of the Day. My curiosity piqued, I went and read some of her posts including this on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of orthodox Roman Catholic French composer, Olivier Messiaen. If you're not familiar with Messiaen's music, try this.

Further down the page was this gem of a post, "Living Pro-Life - 3 Politicians." Here Mrs. Peatie tells the stories of two female politicians' response to their Down Syndrome children, as well as the adoption by Senator John McCain and his wife, Cindy, of a special needs child from Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh.

A teenager now, the McCain's daughter, Bridget, would not have survived without surgery and years of rehabilitation. Cindy brought her home and, with her husband, provided her surgery, care, and love. Actually, Mrs. McCain brought back two babies: The other is also a teenager, now, and was adopted by one of McCain's aids, Wes Gullett, and his wife. Her name is Nicki. She too needed much medical care and Mr. Gullett says he "never saw a hospital bill" for her care, implying the McCain's paid for it all.

Turning to another politician who shows love for the poorest among us, this woman is a member of Feminists for Life and the Governor of Alaska...

(Tim) Since the decline of his health about a year ago, requiring him to move in with his daughter, leaving Washington D.C. behind, my favorite columnist on American culture and politics, Joe Sobran, has been on hiatus. His articles are few and far between, about every three months, now, and I've missed him quite a bit. So it was a happy day, today, when a new column arrived--this one on our recurrent theme of why Senator Obama rocks, as hip, chic, submergent types see it.

For my money, the keys needed to unlock the submergent church scene are chronological snobbery--after all, they are chrysalises emerging from the slime of our patriarchal, authoritarian, institutional roots--and they hate authority. Thus their support for Senator Obama. He's new, he's about change; what's not to like?

But of course, neither Arcbishop McLaren nor Cardinal Obama are about change, not to even the slightest degree. They're carbon copies of one another. They're both relentlessly superficial, adroit, and non-Christian, in lockstep with our superficial, adroit, and non-Christian information class. Why bother faulting them with wanting to be on the winning side? It's positively democratic, isn't it?

But I do fault them with claiming originality in their consummately predictable, boring opinions. Sobran says it so much better...

(Tim, w/thanks to Jeff) This from The Washington Post--not the The Washington Times--written by pro-abortion, anti-death penalty, anti-intelligent design, pro-stem cell use, Washington insider pundit, Charles Krauthammer: 

Nor am I disappointed in the least by his other calculated and cynical repositionings. I have never had any illusions about Obama. I merely note with amazement that his media swooners seem to accept his every policy reversal with an equanimity unseen since the Daily Worker would change the party line overnight -- switching sides in World War II, for example -- whenever the wind from Moscow changed direction.

The truth about Obama is uncomplicated. He is just a politician (though of unusual skill and ambition). The man who dared say it plainly is the man who knows Obama all too well. "He does what politicians do," explained Jeremiah Wright.

When it's time to throw campaign finance reform, telecom accountability, NAFTA renegotiation or Jeremiah Wright overboard, Obama is not sentimental. He does not hesitate. He tosses lustily.

Why, the man even tossed his own grandmother overboard back in Philadelphia -- only to haul her back on deck now that her services are needed. Yesterday, granny was the moral equivalent of the raving Reverend Wright. Today, she is a featured prop in Obama's fuzzy-wuzzy get-to-know-me national TV ad.

Not a flinch. Not a flicker. Not a hint of shame. By the time he's finished, Obama will have made the Clintons look scrupulous.

(Tim) A friend just left me a voice message about the presidential forum being held tonight by Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Community Church. My friend was angered by Fox News reporting this afternoon that the forum will steer clear of divisive issues such as sodomite marriage and the slaughter of unborn children. Instead, Pastor Warren will focus on "human rights."

This is news? I'm not the brightest bulb in the room, but I knew this many months ago--long before the Iowa caucus or the New Hampshire primary. That Pastor Warren would do anything else is inconceivable.

No, I'm not watching Rick Warren build his name and fame tonight. Wracking my brain for something better to do, I think I'll see if I can find Bill Hybels interviewing Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren.

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. (Luke 10:21)

(Tim) A few years ago, a family moved from Bloomington, Indiana to a distant city. We miss them, father and mother, and children. Occasionally there are Christian parents who understand the weakness of pastors and teach their children to express affection for their work and ministry. The children of this family darted across the church to jump into my arms and hug me after Lord's Day worship. What kindness that was! It strengthened me immensely each week. And when they moved away, with many others I felt the loss keenly.

Other children of Church of the Good Shepherd are similarly affectionate toward their pastors, but for various reasons this loss was especially difficult. Earlier this morning, I received an e-mail from the mother of these children. Here's what she wrote by way of introduction to her son's godly rebuke of Senator Barack Obama...

(Tim) Despite his false statement about yours truly (his daughter does live in our house, after all, so the man knows which side of his bread is buttered), I do think the comment just made by our Zambian Mission to the World correspondent, David Wegener, summarizing his conclusions to our lengthy discussion of Governor Palin's Vice-Presidential candidacy is about right. For those of you who've given up on the Palin comments, here's what David has to say:

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As best I could, I’ve tried to follow the debate that has gone on here over Sarah Palin and how we should then vote. I haven’t done very well, nor of following the thread over on Pastor Wilson’s blog, but here are my two cents.

Sarah Palin is a very conflicted woman and I feel very conflicted about her. She is a Christian, a member of Feminists For Life, a wife and a mother who is running for Vice President. You can’t be a feminist and pro-life. Islam is built on five pillars...

(Tim) Each week, our church has a pickup soccer game at an elementary school near an apartment complex where a number of Muslim law school students live. When we're playing, one or more of the men (and sometimes their wives and children) come over to watch, and occasionally to play. Always, we talk afterward inviting them over for dinner and to church Lord's Day morning. A week and a half ago, one of the men came to both Sunday school and church.

Most of the men are from Turkey, but one is Liberian. During a conversation, the subject of Senator Barack Obama's faith came up and the Liberian gentleman said, "Barack Obama's a Christian, isn't he?"

"No, he's not a Christian," I answered.

"But doesn't he go to a Christian church?" he asked in some confusion.

"Well yes, he holds membership in a church that claims to be Christian, but it's not...

(Tim, w/thanks to Dave) Last week, a friend in Florida wrote to call my attention to an article detailing the results of a political survey of the faculty at Covenant College, the school affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America. (Students were polled, also.)

Conducted by the school's Director of Institutional Research, Kevin Eames, the survey received responses from 47 faculty members. Here's what Covenant's administration wants prospective students and their parents to know about these faculty members:

Eighty-eight percent of Covenant's faculty have doctorates or terminal degrees, earned from such institutions as Oxford, Stanford, Yale, and the University of Chicago. Our professors regularly involve students in their research activities.  In fact, many students actually help edit books that their professors are writing.

The administration goes on to describe faculty members as "passionate about teaching and sharing their Reformed faith in a setting that sharpens the intellect and encourages increased awe of our sovereign God." Then, by way of reassurance, Oxford and passion are anchored by the declaration that "all faculty members subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith."

So, what might doctorates from Yale and Stanford, combined with a passion for the reformed faith and the Westminster Standards, lead these men and women to profess to our children about Christ's dominion in these United States and our own confession of that faith in this election year?

Asked, "Do you believe John McCain is a Christian," 33 of the 47 faculty members responding said either "No" or "Not sure." This seems safe since I read just last night that Senator McCain has never received Christian baptism. Likely not one of those faculty members questioning Senator McCain's Christian faith knew that, though.

Still, my concern is certainly not to prove Senator McCain's Christian faith, to get others to agree that he's sincere in his Christian profession, or leastwise to write this post to the end that even one reader will decide to vote for him or the Republican party. Such concerns have not entered my mind.

But on to Senator Obama. Different candidate, same question: "Do you believe Barack Obama is a Christian?" Twenty-one faculty members are definite in their response with five answering "No" and sixteen "Yes."

What ocular disease has led sixteen of our best and brightest to say for the record among students they are paid to lead into a greater knowledge of Christ's Lordship over all the earth that a man who unabashedly promotes baby-slaughter and sodomite marriage is certainly a Christian? If Senator Obama is a Christian, Robert Mugabe is born again and Jean Paul Sartre was a strict subscriptionist Presbyterian pastor.

Or, put another way...

(Tim) Our readers will be interested in posts at Nugent's Law that examine the current state of abortion law in these United States. The latest post provides documentation of Senator Obama's votes against the protection of newborn infants.

(Tim) It's indisputable. Senator Obama voted against a bill to protect the lives of newborn children. And these men want him for president and are convinced he's a Christian.

(Tim, w/thanks to David) Last week, Senator Biden went public with his position concerning the slaughter of little children. The New York Times reported it this way:

(Senator Biden declared) that as a Catholic, he believes life begins at conception. But the Delaware senator added that he would not impose his personal views on others...

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In the interview Sunday, Mr. Biden tried to walk the line between the staunch abortion-rights advocates in his party and his own religious beliefs. While he said he did not often talk about his faith, he said of those who disagree with him: “They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views as to when life — I’m prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception.”

With slight reworking, am I right in wondering whether this summary of Senator Biden's position  might not bear some resemblance to the position held by many enlightened evangelicals such as the Covenant College profs who believe Senator Obama is a Christian and support his presidential candidacy?

(Tim) Readers will remember this post containing a copy of a letter to Senator Obama written by the son of a family that moved from Bloomington several years ago. Today, Focus on the Family interviewed this young man and today (Tuesday, October 14th) they'll be running the interview with Isaiah Taylor, son of Chris and Leslie Taylor, on their radio program, Family News in Focus. If you miss the radio broadcast, you should be able to listen to Isaiah's interview online here by this evening.

We're grateful to the Lord for your witness for the little ones, Isaiah...

(Tim, w/thanks to Kevin) In my dreams, it would have been a faculty member at a Christian college who had the discernment to understand these things, the courage to publish them, and the faith to accept his certain fate, perishing at his colleagues' hands for being so certain, so hortatory, so convinced, so direct, so judgmental, so lacking in Christian humility and compassion, so prescriptive, so cocksure of his own personal opinions... You get the thrust.

Alas and alack, it had to be one of the esteemed Peter Singer's colleagues at Princeton University who put his mind and pen to outing...

(Tim) Here's what I want to ask all the Christian profs fawning over the Christian faith of Senator Barack Obama as well as the Submergent types in lockstep with them: What possible criteria could you use to justify your claim that Senator Obama is a Christian that wouldn't also force you to affirm that Zimbabwe's thug leader, Robert Mugabe, is also a true Christian? Mugabe has killed his thousands, but Obama his millions.

If Obama wins the presidency, the slaughter he will preside over and promote is incomprehensibly larger than even the worst estimates of Mugabe's murderous regime--unless, of course, you are unconcerned about the murder of the newborn, feeble, and unborn children.

But if you are concerned, Mugabe has the innocence of  a child playing in a sandbox compared to the obsccenely wicked slaughter at the center of Senator Obama's campaign platform.

I'm betting most profs who assert that Senator Obama is a true Christian would deny Mugabe's Christian faith. So why the double standard? Why the universal condemnation of Mugabe by the same people given over to the adulation of Barack Obama? Isn't it amazing how Christians regain our moral compass and discernment as soon as the evil being evaluated and condemned is committed by people far away? Particularly Africans.

Last night, I read a profile of Robert Mugabe, the brutal dictator who's plunged his nation of Zimbabwe into death and destruction. He'd be up there near the top of heads of state around the world viewed as pariahs by other nation's leaders. Maybe the very top.

The New Yorker's profile written by Jon Lee Anderson is titled: "Letter from Zimbabwe, The Destroyer: A founding father lays waste to his country." Near the beginning, Anderson informs us Zim's inflation rate is now two hundred and thirty million percent, the unemployment rate is eighty percent, two million Zimbabweans are entirely dependent on aid from NGOs for their daily bread, another two million have fled Zim for refuge in South Africa, twenty percent of the population is infected with H.I.V./AIDS, life expectancy for men and women is about 44 years, starvation is rampant, leaders of political opposition groups are routinely imprisoned, beaten, and murdered, and the list goes on.

Meanwhile, wreathed in jewelry and forty years younger than her husband, Mugabe's second wife, Grace, says because of her narrow feet she can "only wear Ferragamo" shoes...

(Tim) Some claim Obama has already released his birth certificate. But Factcheck is a pretty poor place to lodge his defense. On the left is a vault copy of his BC making it clear why Democrats and Republicans alike are raising questions (comments below LATimes piece).

The simple challenge made at the end of this video remains unanswered. McCain's released everything requested. Why does Obama refuse to do so?

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void. For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside." (1 Corinthians 1:17-19)

(Tim) Here are some thoughts about the state of our civil compact as we approach Election Day. And, following the political stuff, I make a stab at some applications to those who identify themselves as the prophetic voices of the Emergent Church. If your patience wears thin with the political part, buck up and finish it because it forms the perfect backdrop to grow in our understanding of the goals and strategy of church leaders today who have woman deacons, talk a lot about the city and contextualization, and have a staff member titled "Associate Pastor for Art, Weird Glasses, and Chai." First, then, let's look at the political scene...

(Tim) I think I've come up with a sure-fire way to predict whether you'll vote for Barack Obama, tomorrow. You game? If you are, watch these video clips and circle the name of the clip you like best:

Bullhorn Guy (here's the full length version)

Bullwhip Guy

Click through to the second page for a prediction of astounding accuracy.

(Tim) Those inclined to think the posts critical of Barack Obama here on this blog are due to partisanship on the owners' part should know that neither David nor I have ever placed the slightest hope in a Republican presidential candidate. About nine years ago, I told Marvin Olasky I was concerned about his support of George W. Bush's presidential candidacy. In the end, I voted for him twice, but never with anything other than grim resolve.

Whether grim resolve is enough to do the trick with me tomorrow has yet to be seen. This cycle I'm leaning toward flaming out in a better direction--maybe, say, giving myself to the audacity of hope and pushing the button for Chuck Baldwin...

(Tim) Take a few minutes to read this open letter posted earlier today on Facebook by a doctoral student in Classics here at IU. A member of Church of the Good Shepherd, Josh has taken leadership in our church's anti-abortion work. Before her death last Christmas, Josh used to come over to our house to play the piano for Aunt Elaine. You'll read no better commentary on the election this year.

Dear friends,

As I write this note, I do so with a measure of reluctance. I am often loathe to enter the realm of politics—where compromise is and has always been king—with a dogmatism that believes it can be redeemed or captured for the kingdom of righteousness if only we vote in a certain way. But in this election, where the issues are so clear, the mass of citizens (especially college students) so blind and in lockstep, and the eternal consequences to souls so great, I have concluded that to not speak forthrightly on this issue is ultimately to be unfaithful to Christ and His word. And so in writing these thoughts I'm not speaking to any one particular person; I know how some of you will vote; for others I don't have a clue. But my goal here is that our minds and hearts would be captive to the Word of God, and that we would make informed, intelligent choices that follow Christ rather than the prevailing wind of our culture.

Those of you who know me well know that I have no particular love for either political party. Republicans have a habit of claiming to speak for Christian values, eagerly garnering the votes of Christians, and then demonstrating that they care more for big business and the money it brings than they do for righteousness and justice, and for defending the poor who are rich in the kingdom of heaven. Democrats never cease of talking about values and of what the government can do for us, even while belonging to a party whose prevailing secularism undercuts their every position and prevents the government from carrying out its responsibility to dispense justice (Romans 13). As I see it, the best Christians can do is to make an informed, godly decision in an evil world, and obviously this is difficult at times.

Having said that, I won't beat around the bush...

(Tim) Writing as a pastor concerning his own nation's election of a new president several weeks ago, Brother Conrad Mbewe of Lusaka, Zambia, says precisely what ought to be said today to Christians in these United States as we look at God's choice of Barack Obama to lead us. I hope you'll read it.