Okay, okay! I get it already! Big Crock Obama – as a friend calls him -- is a bad guy and, if elected, will be a bad president.
I got it a long time ago. The whole subject of Obama-as-evil is so old that when I receive emails with “Obama” in the subject line, I almost always delete them. The same goes for emails with “Clinton” in the subject line. BAWWWW-RINGGGGG!!!
However, this does not make John McCain worthy of my vote. No Christian should vote for John McCain, even out of fear of an Obama presidency.
On July 1, a group of politically influential evangelicals met in Denver. Phyllis Schlafly summarized the spirit of the conference when she proclaimed. "The alternative is so bad we must support John McCain."
The lesser of two evils is still evil. Christians are to abhor evil – Romans 12:9 – even if it means losing an election. Indeed, the Bible doesn't say a word about winning elections. These evangelical leaders want Christians to compromise biblical morality for the sake of temporal political expediency.
I have heard it said that, “Values voters have strange values.” On one hand, evangelical leaders keep telling us to vote for candidates who espouse Christian values. On the other hand, these selfsame candidates support some of the most un-Christian behavior imaginable. It is now “Christian” to support unprovoked war, torture, warrantless searches and spying, rogue police and the suspension of habeas corpus.
As another friend puts it, much of what emanates from the “Christian” media can be summarized as “faith-based Rush Limbaugh.” They reel people in with a few references to Jesus and “family values”, and then cheerlead for the Republican Party.
The biblical admonition against being “unequally yoked” with unbelievers – II Corinthians 6:14 -- applies not only to dating and marriage, but all of life. This includes politics. However, Christians are told time and again that they must align themselves with Republicans because the Democrats are worse.
The differences between John McCain and Barack Obama are negligible. Oh sure, they talk differently and appeal to different groups of people. But that is about it.
A report on the Denver meeting contained the usual fear mongering about Democrats, activist judges and threats to religious freedom.
For 23 of the 25 years John McCain has been in Washington, we have had a Republican president and/or a Republican senate majority. Abortions are just as available as aspirin. Why on earth should we expect a McCain presidency to change anything? (1)
McCain is every bit the big government control freak socialist that Obama is. His voting record shows that he favors endless socialism and federal intrusion in every last aspect of your life and mine. It is very disappointing to see someone who suffered so horribly at the hands of communists in the Hanoi Hilton come home and display such boundless enthusiasm for big, fat, spherical, four-dimensionally obese government.
You cannot be pro-life and support keeping American troops in Iraq for another 100 years. You cannot be pro-life while paraphrasing the Beach Boys promoting an aggressive war on Iran. God hates hands that shed innocent blood, period – Proverbs 6:16-18. It doesn’t matter whether those hands belong to an abortionist or an infantry corporal.
How can “values voters” support a man with McCain’s history? In the late 1970s, McCain cheated on his first wife, who had been severely injured in an auto accident and who had raised his kids while he was a POW. He started running around with a wealthy heiress 18 years younger than he was. But, hey, this is politics and if you are going to win you've got to roll with some eye candy, right?
Wrong. The least evangelicals can do is to hold John McCain to the same standard as they held Bill Clinton. Adultery by a Republican Navy captain is just as much a sin as adultery by a Democratic president. If fear of an Obama presidency paralyzes them, then all I can say is that their worldview is not a biblical one.
Bono and his band U2 may be a bunch of leftoids, but they called it right in their B-side The Wanderer, which contains some very stirring vocals by Johnny Cash.
“I went drifting through the capitals of tin,
Where men can't walk,
Or freely talk,
And sons turn their fathers in,
I stopped outside a church house,
Where the citizens like to sit,
They say they want the kingdom,
But they don't want God in it.”
Way too many Christians have forgotten that their citizenship is first and foremost in Heaven – Philippians 3:20 – and that Jesus’ Kingdom is not of this world – John 18:36. They have followed leaders who are so desperate for earthly glory that they will totally disregard Christianity in order to attain it. What shall it profit a man…? (Matthew 16:26) James Dobson now says that he may yet endorse John McCain.
The Apostle Paul prophesied the contemporary Religious Right when he wrote: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” – II Corinthians 11:13-15
No, I have not forgotten to comment on the threat that Big Crock supposedly poses to religious freedom. I am just, like, so totally scared. McCain has said and done nothing to stem the steady erosion of religious freedom during his time in the Senate. Indeed, McCain-Feingold shows total contempt for the First Amendment. If he will violate one part of it, how can we trust him with any of it?
This leads me to a broader point. It is not just religious freedom that is currently in danger in America, but all freedom. Neither McCain nor Obama have said a word about National Security Presidential Directive 51, signed by Dubya in May, 2007. As Jerome Corsi describes it:
“When the president determines a catastrophic emergency has occurred, the president can take over all government functions and direct all private sector activities to ensure we will emerge from the emergency with an ‘enduring constitutional government.’"
This, like fornicating for virginity, is Orwellian Doublethink of the very worst sort. The Decider – or the determiner or the declarer – can, in the name of constitutional continuity, assume dictatorial powers until he decides such powers are no longer necessary. Isn’t that kinda like what happened in Germany 75 years ago? (2)
And McCain and Obama have been silent about this.
Indeed, several thousand pastors have agreed to participate in "clergy response teams", whose job it will be to "quell dissent" should martial law ever come to pass. Quell dissent? How about preach hellfire and brimstone against a government that would even dream of martial law?
If I can’t write in Ron Paul for president this November, I will vote for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party. To be sure, he has about as much chance of winning the Oval Office as he does of winning the Heisman Trophy. However, while I am no holier than anyone, I will not endorse with my vote a continuation of our current form of government.
This just may cost me a friend or two, but I am going to say it anyway. While I will not vote for Big Crock, I actually wouldn’t mind seeing him win. If nothing else, millions of Christians who would be silent about McCain will resist Obama's every act with every fiber of their being.
(1) It is a monumental lie that we need to elect Republicans so that they will appoint strict constitutionalists who will overturn Roe. This can be done legislatively.
(2) Some of Adolf Hitler's biggest support came from horribly deceived Christians. History repeats itself -- Ecclesiastes 1:9. Check out Hitler's Cross by Erwin Lutzer. Fascinating book.
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