Over the years I have seen some bizarre things but this has to be among the top of the list. This appears to be some school coaching the kids to sing the praises of Barack Hussein Obama.  They even steal a phrase from Jesus Loves Me when referring to Obama.  I believe the phrase is “red and yellow, black and white, they are equal in his sight”.  Please tell me that our schools are being used to educate and not indoctrinate.  I was not even looking for this when someone sent this to me. 

This is absolutely amazing.

Even if you are white like me, I think you should allow yourself to be happy for them despite any political affiliation.  I know some of you are saying… but…but…he’s liberal and will destroy our nation!”  You know what?  I am going to make a conscious decision to put this in God’s hands and know that we will survive.  There is an entire race in this country that has grown up feeling they will never be able to go anywhere in life because of this racial divide.  Although I think much of it is exaggerated by the media there is still racism alive today.  The significance of this event next week is symbolic f in so many ways.  Those of you that know me well can attest to my reluctance to go with the crowd.  You also know how strongly I feel about conservative agendas.  I have found many people at work that have Obama posters on their desks.  I have found that many people worship this guy to a point that it makes me sick.  Again this is my nature to go against the crowd.

If and when Barack Obama puts policies that I disagree with, I will be the first to say so but this is not the time.  The impact of this event never really hit me until this afternoon when I was listening to the radio and heard someone  who was black and clearly emotional describing the culmination of many civil rights events leading up to this day.  I never thought of how they felt and how important this event was for them.  So for this day I am going to sit there on January 20th and see this event as the first black President and enjoy this moment with them.    I will not get caught up in the liberal versus conservative thing for this because that will come later.  I am not selling out my values on this.  I believe that no one becomes President without God’s approval.  I believe that God wants us to respect our leaders not as men pleasers.  I ask that my conservative friends put aside this political argument for this event and let them have their day.  Why not let it be our American day?

We have a history of slavery that haunts us every day.  It is difficult for me to imagine this 2009 that we ever endorsed slavery but the history is there.  The events of January 20th are a way to heal some wounds.  I know it will not heal all of them but it is huge dare I say astronomical event to have this day.  Never again will anyone be able to say we have never had a black President.  Never again will black kids be able to say they cannot be President.  The magnitude of this date whether you like Barack Obama personally or not cannot be denied.  Many of us can remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream speech that in his dream people would be measured by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.  As I am certain to have differences with Mr. Obama in the future I would like to be clear they will be policy differences and not based on the color of his skin.

Everyone please do not let this Democrat versus Republican battle ruin this experience next week.  Allow you to ignore the policies for a day and enjoy the moment on behalf of millions of blacks in this country.  Allow yourself to sympathize with them over the the tears you are likely to see on television.  Barack Obama is very liberal and I know this.  I know I will disagree with his policies but I think it would be a disservice to everyone including myself to not allow you to feel for the many that will be watching on the sidelines.  I remember seeing people with tears at the sight of Elvis Presley.  Just imagine the emotion that millions of black Americans will be experiencing that day.  I can see it in my mind right now with tears in their eyes.  This will be their day and to deny them of this would be tragic.

These were just a few examples of my distrust of the man.  My opposition to him was more socially than economic.  Again, I thought he was catering to the extreme left in this country and forcing policies on the country that were not welcome except in the most liberal areas of our country.  I spent eight years being angry at Bill Clinton.  I genuinely hated him for his stand on issues.  Many Christian friends of mine would point out to me that we are to pray for our leaders and not bad mouth them as I was doing.  This only made me more angry that my own group was piling on me or so I thought.  It was not until later after he left office that I realized they were right.  I was so angry and full of discontent with his leadership and hostility to everything I believed that I could not even be rational.  They were right in that I was wrong to hate him.

I spent eight years being angry when it was unnecessary.  This was followed up by the presidency of George W. Bush.  I voted for him twice and I must admit that I have been disappointed by him.  My disappointment is for just the opposite reasons the media dislikes him.  My problem with him is that he is not conservative enough.  I was involved in electing the Republican revolution in 1994 when they promised many conservative agendas.  They promised the “contract with America” with several policies they intended to pass in the first 100 days of Republican controlled Congress.  The media came after them with full force.  They called the agenda the “contract ON America” and successfully intimidated the Republican Senators and Representatives.  They went after the then Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich labeling him as a right wing extremist.  Since many in our country listen to the news media and actually believe they are neutral and have no agendas this tactic worked.

Despite having control of both houses of Congress, the Republicans were useless.  They cowered to the media fearing they too would be attacked.  What the Republicans failed to see was that whatever they do, it will always be painted as right wing extremism by the media.  They have taken the road of appeasement as opposed to getting anything conservative done.  With each election our Republican leaders have failed to deliver on promises to their conservative constituents.  They have promised the world and delivered nothing.  Their appeasement has worked in keeping their jobs though many in the conservative movement have reached the end of our trust of them.

John McCain was chief among these Republicans that turned on us while being a Senator.  Time after time he voted on key issues with the Democrats.  The media gave him the name “Maverick” and he wore it like a badge of honor.  I truly believe that to this day John McCain still fails to see where he went wrong.  He was elected, and reelected over and over again and turned his back on his constituents.  John McCain has earned the title RINO which stands for Republican in name only by many conservatives.  As time went on conservatives were left with no one to vote for.  There are many like myself that are tired of voting for the lesser of the two evils.  I have reached the point that I will not vote for someone just so the other candidate will not win.  I think it was time for our side to lose big so they will be reminded that they do have a constituency that they owe.  They will either back their constituency or not be reelected.

Along comes the 2008 election where Barack Obama wins the election.  I have mixed feelings with him.  There are many problems that I have with him and one of them is his mixed signals when it comes to his profession of Christianity.  He claims Christianity but then back peddles when asked to clarify that he is born again or even believes Jesus’ statement  that he is the way, the truth, and the life and that there is no way to get to God except through him.  Another is the unwavering support for his preacher Mr. Wright that is clearly racist and preaches racism in his own church.  Many times Mr. Obama claimed that he went to this church for 20 years and never had a problem.  Only when the heat was applied during the campaign when several unflattering videos of Mr. Wright appeared on Youtube did Obama retract that support.  It is my belief that this retraction was not genuine and Barack Obama does have the same racist beliefs as Mr. Wright.  It is hard for me to imagine going to a church that preached this message for more than 20 years and continuing to go if a person did not believe it.

Putting all this aside and taking the advice of my Christian friends who earlier told me to pray for our leaders I would like to say that I am willing to give Barack Obama a chance.  I am actually happy that we can say we have our first black presidents though I have extremely powerful reservation on his stand on issues.  I refuse to spend the next eight years being angry like I did in 1992.  I really believe God is in control and that Barack Obama can possibly be a good president with our prayers.  I am tired of playing all the political games.  I am tired of all the divisiveness and hate.  I choose to be happy and I encourage those conservative friends around me to do the same.  God is bigger than the situation and to deny that is denying his ability to reign.  After all, if you think about it, if John McCain would have won, you would have more of the same lip service while turning his back on us.  This election would have been another disappointment with John McCain in office as well.

This reminds me of a Veggy Tales episode that I saw when my kids were young.  Veggy Tales is a Christian cartoon where talking vegetables often told a moral story illustration God’s love and power.  There was an episode where one of the characters was scared of the “boogey man”.  The group sang a song “God is bigger than the boogey man”.  After all these years that kids show has stuck with me.  I am actually singing it inside .  The message of that song was so simple and is still true to this day.  I am not calling Barack Obama the boogey man by any means.  I do not see him as a bad man but rather a man with differing moral views than I have.  Nevertheless I believe with God in control, he can be a good leader.  I fully expect a lot of heat over my stand and that is fine with me.   I think having faith in God is way more important than being angry and ruining my family life.  The Bible said in Hebrews 11:6…

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Do you believe it?  I do!