What an amazing couple of days watching the US election and the speeches of concession and acceptance by both McCain and Obama! I haven't seen anything quite like the excitement this has generated since the days of the Kennedy’s and the Rev. Martin Luther King jnr. It evoked in me similar feelings to the historic possibilities that could have occurred in 1968 if Robert Kennedy lived to became president. Imagine, no Nixon, Watergate, a quick end to the war in Vietnam and a focus on lifting people out of poverty. I remember those exhilarating yet dark days well, even though I was only a teenager.
There is the same genuine hope for change and a refreshing redirection for the USA and of course the world through Barack Obama’s election.
Obama to me is an inspiring phenomenon, a truly charismatic communicator, who seems to have the right super cool temperament, great intelligence and good character to become a great leader. What’s more his profession of faith in Christ (as he revealed in the Rick Warren interview), his commitment to wife Michelle and obvious affection for his family, stand him in good stead to be a terrific role-model particularly for African-American men. It appears that there are no skeletons in the cupboard, and his integrity and authenticity impacts all who come in contact with him. However, power can easily corrupt and we need to pray for him, his policy decisions, the team he gathers around him and of course, for his personal safety.
Obama in one interview stated that Presidential leadership was all about vision, judgment and character. …“Do you know where you want to take this country?”… “Do you have the judgment to figure out what’s important and what’s not?”… “Do you have the character to withstand trials and tribulations and to bounce back from setbacks?”
I pray for his success as he with God’s help leads in a way that answers in the affirmative these three big leadership questions. How he leads will affect us all and the expectations of the world and not just the USA are huge. One commentator said “it’s the first election of a National leader that was followed closely by the entire globe”. It’s truly historic and Obama must be feeling the weight of it all! He really does need our prayers.
If you want to read a couple of excellent articles on leadership check out “Time” March 10 and October 27th, 2008. They explore the issue of “How much does experience matter and why science says it’s over-rated”, and “How a President’s temperament and personality can determine success or failure in times of crisis”.
I personally have followed John McCain’s political career and he is a man of outstanding character and integrity. McCain’s speech was so gracious. Wouldn’t it be great if Obama appointed him in a key role!
All people of goodwill should be very grateful to have professing Christians like our own Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd and now the new US President in high office at such a crucial time in world history. It’s comforting to know that men with such earthly power are humbly bowing their knees to the supreme authority in our world.
In 30 years we can all look back, and remember that we were witnesses to a historic event, the first black president of the USA! Let’s rejoice with the tens of millions of African Americans whose joy at this time is a beautiful thing to behold.
5 comments:
G'Day Pastor Bill,
Welcome to the online world this is a great step and I want to applaud you and thank you, I certainly will be checking back regularly. I also want to encourage you that this medium can be a very good way to build community, I suppose you know this and it is why you now have a blog but I would like to further encourage you that the real value in blogging is 2 way communication i.e. you can get feedback on the things you publish and this is valuable in establishing dialog, community and learning how your messages are being received by the audience. So can I really encourage you to post your blog yourself and then actively seek comment, this is the norm in the online world (sometimes known as the blogsphere) and perhaps this is particularly timely and powerful given the plans you have outlined for the Hobart church.
regards and thanks
Tom
P.S So to kick things off let me use my next post to comment on the substance of what you have ..thanks again.
G'Day again Pastor Bill,
I like you (and most of the world) was happy and relieved to see Barak Obhama win the US presidential election and I think I share in at least some of your sense of optimism and rejoice in this apparent victory over racism. I certainly agree with how momentous it is for an African American to become US president and what a tribute this is to so many folks in the US"
So given that George Bush is a committed Christian and his staffers described bible study as not quite mandatory ...but not quite not mandatory" I have been pondering a couple of questions now for nearly 8 years and I think your blog prompts these and I would love you thoughts.
a) Is it possible to be a Christian leader of a democracy such as the US or Australia? [ It appears to me that Presidents and Prime Ministers in the western world serve firstly their constituents, secondly their country and then Christ]
b)Why do you feel is it good to have Christian Prime Ministers or Presidents ? [My observation has been that in many cases having a christian leader has helped to further activate the secular world against the church, this is something easily identifiable in the press and by the success of books such as the God Dellusion]
Anyhow I wrestle with these questions and your blog post raises both of them and I think your thoughts would be valuable.
thanks again
Tom
Hi Pastor Bill,
We were saddened by this post.
Purely on a ‘worldly’ point of view... it’s very exciting that an African American got voted in however, one look into the stance of Obama or Rudd on a few hot issues would shed light on them “professing Christ”... though Rudd has never said he follows Christ but that he “has a faith” and also that he wouldn’t be seeking God for his decisions but that public servants around him could make those decisions.
Both men are “grey” on a lot of issues. Obama is an extremely good communicator and is as evasive in answering questions as Rudd. Obama is pro-choice and even says that an “unwanted pregnancy is a punishment”, Rudd wants to change the institution of marriage and is the only Prime Minister to have ever endorsed the Gay Mardi Gras in Australia.
It surprised us that you would be so quick to endorse these men.
We do agree that we need to uphold these men in prayer and pray that they have an encounter with Jesus Christ so they can make decisions based on Biblical principles not just on keeping both camps happy.
Yes it is more than possible to be a professing Christian and a President or Prime Minister. In fact all the USA presidents since Jimmy Carter have professed faith in Christ and some have been quite open about their personal relationship with Jesus.
Yes, it must be incredibly hard to balance all the constituencies and special interest groups they have to consider in decision making and they do have to compromise their political program, but that's quite different to compromising their Christian convictions. For example our last 2 PM's and our present one have allowed parliamentary conscience votes on clearly moral, ethical matters when politicians hold strongly held but differing world views, including a Christian one.
One can be a sincere Christian yet have quite differing views on a host of matters. One can also be a Christian and have significant life issues (a la Bill Clinton).
Billy Graham's book Just as I Am is very balanced on this matter on how he worked with US Presidents who were flawed (like we all are) and yet try to govern under the banner of a Judeo-Christian ethic. Time Magazine, August 20, 2007 gives some clues on how Graham spiritually guided US presidents during some of the biggest crises of the past fifty years.
Another good read on the relentless nature of the pressures political leaders face from their various constituencies is John F Kennedy's Profiles in Courage (I think Chap. 1).
As Obama mentioned, nothing replaces vision, judgement and character in a leader and this applies to everyone whether they are a Christian or not. However, I feel safer knowing that Presidents, Prime Ministers etc., who profess faith in Christ, are open to the wisdom of their pastors and other spiritual leaders they are in relationship with. Also, knowing that they have to give an account to Jesus Christ for the way they conduct themselves (as we all do) and for the decisions they make in their governance role is a healthy burden for them to carry.
Yes, we have had some excellent non-Christian Presidents and Prime Ministers who had great vision, sound judgement and good character, but I still prefer the former seeing that Australia and America are comprised of a majority of people who at least are nominally Christian.
Hi Pastor Bill,
thanks for your recent email about prayer.
I know my post has not much in common with the recent U.S. election or the concreteness of world leader’s faith in Christ but it’s a great idea to pray corporately for events like Christmas in the Square.
Web tools like email and blogs could drive peoples focus on prayer.
I even visited blogs purely used for corporate prayer, that’s good I suppose for those with internet access!
It is exciting to see prayer being brought more into the spot light at CFC especially corporate purpose driven prayer for big ticket events and praying before the Acts 2 service.
I believe intentional prayer like this is a great means of pulling the church together into one force.
As a Connect Group leader I have tried consistently to bring the benefits of an intentional prayer life into focus.
At the end of the day we can share out thoughts and life issues in Connect Groups and that’s a great forum to do that but nothing trumps dialogue with the Father.
Paul
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