My final thoughts on a future with Barack Obama as our next President take me to the area of moral issues.
First with regard to Christianity, understand that being a believer in Jesus Christ is not a pre-requisite for me in voting for a candidate. I am not electing a pastor or an elder in the church, I am electing a President/Commander in Chief. Therefore, when I get email from all of these Christian political types telling me who is a believer in Christ and who is not, that doesn't carry the sway with me that you might think. I would love to have a President who seeks God for wisdom over one who doesn't, but I'm also a realist and take politicians for what they are - politicians.
Having said that, I hear Barack Obama profess that he is a believer in Christ. I will take him at his word. I don't find his profession of faith any less credible than John McCain or Sarah Palin's - both of whom speak of having faith that's private, and not necessarily tied to any local church, and thereby not exactly what most conservative evangelicals would consider credible profession of faith were it not a political season.
I do tend to wrestle with candidate's professions of faith in context with their views on some social issues. Not to say that you cannot be a genuine believer in Christ and hold views like Barack Obama (or Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and so on), but it is hard for me to see sometimes.
Where abortion is concerned, I struggle with what appear to be the facts - Barack is very much pro-abortion. His record in Illinois even includes some confusion over taking the life of severely handicapped children just after live-birth. Not a matter of "where does life begin" in the conventional sense of conception versus viability, he is on record that even after live-birth, life may not be life. Stunning. I'd turn the question around with him if I had the chance: When does murder become murder? An hour after birth? A day? A month? Personally, this is a meaningful issue to me. I'm not swayed by the political double-speak of "reducing abortions" through more welfare and assistance to low income expectant moms. We don't help expectant moms in need to reduce abortions. We help expectant moms because it's the right thing to do for expectant moms. It's not politics, it's life.
Then there's the issue of marriage. I have heard both Barack Obama and John McCain speak for protecting the traditional definition of marriage. Honestly, there isn't a difference here between the candidates.
The one place where Barack Obama would concern me on moral issues is that he will likely appoint a couple of Supreme Court Justices during his presidency. I am not at all confident that he will appoint judges who will rule from the law, but rather believe he will appoint revisionist judges. First on his list, I would imagine, is Hillary Rodham (or perhaps even William Jefferson) Clinton. I'm not feeling very good about that.
So, in conclusion (please see each of my previous four parts of this series as well), I am not of a "sky is falling - I'm going to leave America if he wins - and you cannot be a Christian and vote for Barack Obama" mentality. But, there are a lot of things about an Obama administration that concern me. So, let's take a look at John McCain in my next few entries and see if things look any different.
don't worry the clintons don't have enough of a judicial background to be considered for the supreme court. Obama 08' ! -matt radwan
Posted by: matt radwan | October 21, 2008 at 07:40 AM