Hot Issues
Down to the Wire: Obama vs. McCain
Posted by: Kaylan Christopher on September 4, 2008 Hot Issues •
This past month, Barna put out an article on the results of a nationwide survey of people’s candidate preference. It said:
“The dominant reasons for voters supporting Barack Obama are his efforts to introduce change or new ideas (listed by 28% of his likely voters); his affiliation with the Democratic Party (15%); his positions regarding the economy (14%); his stand on the war (10%); and voters liking him as a person (10%).
“The primary reasons why John McCain’s supporters back him include his experience (24%); his affiliation with the Republican Party (14%); the perception that he knows what America needs (13%); and his stands regarding the economy (10%).”
Among evangelicals, Barna says, “83% are likely to vote in November” and “nearly one-quarter of this segment (23%) is still undecided about who they will vote for.”
“For the most part, the various faith communities of the U.S. currently support Sen. Obama for the presidency. Among the 19 faith segments that The Barna Group tracks, evangelicals were the only segment to throw its support to Sen. McCain.”
This is all fine and great. It looks like people are divided—some are rooting for Sen. Obama and others are diehard McCain fans. But the most important question remains: Are you voting for the person or for the values you believe in?
Recently, I had a conversation with several friends about their candidate choices. Some were decidedly for McCain and the others for Obama. Then, I asked, “Do their values align with yours?”
Some responded that they did and the others (the majority) had decided upon one candidate or the other merely because they were attracted to the person they portrayed themselves to be.
As we near the day when all will be decided don’t get caught up in the hype. Do your research and make sure you know what you believe according to God’s Word. Ask yourself if the candidate you’re leaning toward is going to implement the values you truly believe in. Ask yourself what the long-term effects of their presidency may hold for our country. Then, pray and ask God to reveal whom you should cast your vote for.
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Voting Your Genes?
Posted by: K.D. Hastings on July 16, 2008 Hot Issues •
Whether you vote or stay home on Election Day is at least in part a function of your genetic makeup. That’s the upshot of a study out of the University of California at San Diego.
According to a report in Scientific American and elsewhere, scientists are suggesting “the desire to vote or abstain from politics might largely be hardwired into our biology.”
Factors such as age, gender, race, education and income, among other socioeconomic indices, had only a tiny impact on the likelihood that person would vote, the investigators said in the review of behavior of identical and fraternal twins.
James Fowler of the California school said this genetic predisposition to interact socially is so strong that even when an individual knows their vote won’t matter, they still vote: “It’s almost like voters are programmed to keep voting, even when their common sense tells them it is probably useless.”
But even if researchers are able to prove that hereditary directs one’s level of political involvement, that doesn’t excuse qualified Americans from exercising their civic responsibilities. It can’t be an excuse or a person permission to say, “I couldn’t vote if I wanted to do. I can’t bring myself to pull that lever.”
The scientists in this study admitted that even if there was a biological connection, environment (one’s surroundings and upbringing, not the climate) plays a key role in one’s voting habits.
Americans seem to concoct enough reasons not to vote without taking their genome into consideration. We have a civic and spiritual obligation to not only vote, but to inject our biblically influenced convictions into the political and public policy process. We need to be focused on voting our God’s values, not our genes.
The study was originally detailed in American Political Science Review.
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A Message of Hope and Change?
Posted by: Kaylan Christopher on July 8, 2008 Hot Issues •
All the media outlets are calling it “Obama’s Message of Hope & Change.” I’ve heard about it, but I still don’t know exactly what its supposed to look like.
What’s the message this presidential hopeful is trying to convey? And why is it attracting so many people across America—especially young people?
I say this because I’ve heard a similar message of change before from previous candidates. So is this completely different? Is Obama merely marketing himself to the American people with a catchy slogan? Or is he for real?
There’s no doubt, most of his speeches leave people “feeling good.” But is that all they’re good for? Or are Americans just so ready for a new president, they’ll stand behind the first smooth-talker that comes along?
I’m interested in finding out more of why young Americans are so drawn to this candidate. True, most teens and young 20-somethings have only ever known two names—Clinton and Bush—to assume the position of “most powerful leader of the free world.” So maybe we can find some sense in this: perhaps they’re ready to take a chance on a new name.
Sure, times have changed. This generation is not like each of the three before it. Nor will the next be like today’s generation. Ideas and views will change as each new election rolls around. And, in the future, new issues will arise and trump the priority of those that haunt us today.
But there’s one thing that won’t change or disappear—God’s Word. It stands firm, consistent, proved, and most importantly, it clearly spells out the one true message for hope and change only found in Jesus Christ.
Will our country ever finally realize that all the answers to these seemingly complicated issues lie in the Word of God? Will this generation and the next and the last ever come to fully understand that the fresh change and hope they’ve been waiting and searching for is found in Jesus?
Let’s hope so. I pray so.
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Guess who threw out the race card?
Posted by: K.D. Hastings on June 23, 2008 Hot Issues •
There is hardly nothing more vexing than when one person asserts that another person is a bigot, unless of course it is true.
How do you defend against such an accusation that you discriminate—if only in your mind—against others because of their race or ethnicity? There is no card you can carry that attests to the fact you are a fair-minded person or that a decision you made was not based on another person’s skin color.
That’s what makes Senator Barack Obama’s recent comments so insidious.
““We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. ‘He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?’” Obama said June 20 at a fundraiser in Jacksonville.
He has preemptively interjected the race card into this year’s presidential contest. At least for those who support him, this will be lens through which they will view all criticisms of their candidate.
Unfortunately it is common in politics for extraneous issues to cloud the decision-making process. Some individuals are keen on throwing up smoke screens to confuse and delude voters, seeking to make things an issue that shouldn’t be an issue and to take attention off matters that should be an issue.
A candidate’s race, ethnicity, sex, age, religion or socioeconomic status should not be a basis for disparaging the candidate. It is important for a voter to consider the whole of candidate. If, for a example, a candidate is an elderly Asian woman who owns a multinational corporation and attends a Lutheran church, it doesn’t mean that the candidate’s positions are not to be evaluated vis-a-vis God’s Word, even if you are not an older American or Asian or Lutheran or a woman or a person of means.
We should hope for a high standard of decorum among voters and among the candidates.
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2008 Presidential Election: Another Y2K?
Posted by: Kaylan Christopher on June 13, 2008 Hot Issues •
Do you remember toward the end of 1999 when people around the world began to slip into mass hysteria because rumor had it that the world would end at midnight on January 31 at the start of the new millennium?
I remember it. People were freaking out so bad that it even started to scare me a little. You could go to the grocery store and see empty aisles where cases of water and essentials used to sit. Gas prices rose. People stocked up with loads of non-perishables. And some of the crazies even gathered together to welcome in extraterrestrials they believed would take over the earth.
I wouldn’t say that this year’s election will have the same effect on people, but more than once, I’ve heard people around me express the nervosa they’ve developed around which candidate will win and what will happen once he takes power. Again, I’m noticing increasing intensity in end times talk and panic rising in the voices of those believers who think this is it for us and our freedoms as followers of Christ.
Just this week, Barna came out with some statistics about the current presidential election status and said this:
“Unless Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama commits political suicide between now and Election Day, the Senator from Illinois is in a very comfortable position to win the November race against Republican challenger John McCain. A new survey from The Barna Group, exploring the voting preferences of registered voters who are likely to vote in the upcoming election, found that not even the existing strong support of the evangelical community will be enough to lift the Republican hopeful over the top. … The Christian community in the U.S. has largely shifted its loyalty to the Democratic nominee in this year’s race.”
Already, people are stressing over the rise of terrorism, natural disasters, and persecution of believers. So I can only imagine that once some of my friends find out about this, they are going to panic and question what’s in store for their futures. For others, it’s not going to bother them at all. And for some Americans, this is the best news they’ve heard in eight years.
For me, no matter how worked up I may get over the way the world is going, I have to keep one thing in mind—God is sovereign in all situations and nothing that happens in our lifetimes will take Him by surprise. He holds the past in His hands, is powerfully moving in the present, and is in complete control of our future.
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Marriage in California: Ignoring the People’s Will
Posted by: Kaylan Christopher on June 4, 2008 Hot Issues •
On June 17 (and maybe a few days sooner), gay marriages will begin to legally take place in California—a ruling that recently came about by the California Supreme Court to overturn a state ban on same-sex unions.
However, a http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355836,00.html>Fox News article said, “A group opposed to gay marriage has asked the court to stay its decision until after the November election, when voters are likely to face a ballot initiative that would once again define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Passage of the initiative would overrule the Supreme Court.”
A http://www.field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers>Field Poll recently stated that over half of Californians back the legalization of same-sex marriage. However, the “http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=28117>Los Angeles Times/KTLA poll of 705 voters released…found 54 percent backed the proposed gay marriage ban and 35 percent opposed it.”
If this amendment holds up, California will be the second of two states, the first being Massachusetts, to allow gay marriages to legally take place.
Do you know what you believe and what the Bible says about this issue? Many have argued against the scriptures that speak out against homosexuality (Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and Romans 1:26-28)—taking it out of context, twisting it around, and calling the Bible, in part, false and misunderstood.
The Bible is truth. It is God-breathed and infallible. This we can know for sure. God’s Word is clear on this subject. So should we be learned on what it says for the sake of preserving marriage between a man and woman, the family, and some semblance or morality left in our nation, while also loving, praying, and sharing Jesus with those who are dealing with homosexuality.
Do you know where our presidential candidates stand on this issue? Does this affect your decision in this year’s upcoming election? How are you going to stand for truth in our culture today?
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Politics a useful tool?
Posted by: Don Kirkland, Editor, ,The Baptist Courier on June 2, 2008 Hot Issues •
According to a recent poll conducted jointly by LifeWay Research and the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, a majority of Americans—though only a slight majority—do not believe that Christians are too much involved in politics.
When the survey figures zeroed in on Americans who attend religious services of any kind at least weekly, that modest majority of 52 percent increased to a more substantial 65 percent of our citizens who find no fault with Christian participation in politics.
And for the record, most Southern Baptist pastors—65 percent of them—expressed their disagreement with the notion that believers are too greatly involved in politics.
The results of the poll, taken at a time of heightened, if not yet peak, interest and involvement in the political process give a timely indication of the level of acceptance by Americans of the role played by Christians in shaping public policy that is not at all surprising.
Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, found the survey “in line with the involvement of people of faith throughout our nation’s history with political issues that have a moral component,” citing the abolitionist movement against slavery and the civil rights movement in opposition to racial injustice as “religiously motivated.”
Politics, which by one definition is “the process by which groups of people make decisions on who gets what,” is not limited to government. It is evident wherever people interact, whether in corporate, academic or religious settings.
Especially as the time for annual meetings of the Southern and the South Carolina Baptist conventions draw near, and often when decisions are made having a major impact on convention ministries, criticism over the prevalence of politics in the denomination is voiced.
Nevertheless, the political process has been and will continue to be a vital and visible component of denominational life for Southern Baptists and for believers from all walks of Christian faith.
Central to—and for that reason inseparable from—the political process is the acquisition and application of power and influence. How the power and influence are acquired likely provides the key to understanding how they are applied, and that will determine in most instances whether the political process works for the benefit of detriment of the denomination.
We as Baptists would be wise to embrace the political process as neither inherently evil nor inevitably good, but rather for its potential as a helpful tool in building the kingdom of God on earth when power and influence are used appropriately by those who seek to be our denomination’s servants, not its masters.
[This commentary originally appeared in The Baptist Courier (S.C.), May 15, 2008. Reprinted with permission.]
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The Next Generation of Leaders
Posted by: Kaylan Christopher on May 27, 2008 Hot Issues •
This month, the Associated Press published a story about a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Oklahoma who was elected mayor of Muskogee, Oklahoma—a city of 38,000.
John Tyler Hammons said, “The public placing their trust in me is the greatest, humbling and most awesome experience I’ve ever had in my life.”
Hammons plans to continue his college education and will transfer to a school closer to Muskogee. He said, “Being elected does not change my desire to continue my education. We will schedule our time in an appropriate fashion so that I can be mayor and stay in school.”
When I first read this story, I began to think of all the other young people around this age who are doing something, like John Tyler Hammons, to impact and change our country and world.
It seems to be a growing phenomenon among young people today to do great things. What is it about this generation that wants to step into leadership positions and change the world at such a young age?
Today, more young people are being encouraged from elementary school to high school to get involved in what is going on in our communities, country, and world. I’m encouraged to see this generation of young people stepping up to the plate and doing something about their culture.
Proverbs 20:11 says, “Even a young man is known by his actions—by whether his behavior is pure and upright.”
I think this—being just one of many passages on this topic—should be an encouragement to the youth of our culture. Their votes count. Their opinions matter. Their godly leadership is needed. It’s true—they’re going to be the ones leading our country in the years to come. Now is the time to start investing in them and moving them to making a change in our society.
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As the Wind Blows
Posted by: K.D. Hastings on May 19, 2008 Hot Issues •
I work downtown but there is a flagpole on top of a building in midtown—a mile or so to the west—that I can see from my office window. I use the American flag on that pole as a rudimentary weather predictor in the spring and the fall.
When the flag is blowing to the south, I know it is more likely to be cooler outside. When the flag is flying toward the north, warm temps are on the way. If the flag is fully extended, flapping heartily, I know the change in temperature will be dramatic—or that stormy weather is at hand. When the flag ‘changes direction’ during the day, I know change is on the way. I have to admit my spirits are buoyed on a cool spring day when I see the flag turn northward. I know warmer weather is on the way as the breezes come out of the south.
My method of forecasting by flag, what a farmer calls a wind vane, is a more refined version of the wetting a finger and sticking it in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. I don’t have to put my hands in my mouth to determine the wind direction.
Politicians are notorious for checking to see which way the wind is blowing and testing the waters. And it’s not for meteorological purposes. They sample public opinion to ascertain the best way to package their policy presentations. In order to ruffle the fewest feathers, particularly in an election year, politicians prefer to know the mood of the voters before they go too far out on a limb. The same candidate in three different venues can present the same idea three different ways—to suit each crowd. It’s not automatically disingenuous, in fact it can be very wise campaign tactic.
The problem comes when a politician tells one group one thing and another group something markedly different. In an attempt to gain support (aka “votes”) he is tickling ears with a message that may omit critical details, but that appeal to those he is addressing at the moment.
We can appreciate the value of discernment when it comes to spiritual matters, but it is also invaluable in evaluating the policy positions of public figures. Whether in spiritual or civic matters, it is critical that we look below the surface to make a proper judgment on the issue at hand (John 7:24).
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Please Step Aside, Ma’am
Posted by: Brent James on May 10, 2008 Hot Issues •
Is it over? Howard Dean hopes so. Rush clearly doesn’t. Whatever your take, George McGovern, speaking aloud what many democrats would only whisper quietly, has urged Hillary Clinton to step aside by declaring that Barak had won the nomination.
The Clinton campaign, despite numerous suggestions and pleas for a white flag, has given no signs they intend to shut down. George Stephanopoulos encouraged Hillary to accept the vice presidential role.
Speaking with John Gibson on radio last week, Geraldine Ferraro, who has been working with Clinton from a distance, advised that there is still a chance for a Clinton victory. The thinking is this: If Hillary could win 80% of these remaining Democrat primaries, she would tie Barak H. Obama for delegates, but not the popular vote. That’s a big “if”.
May 13 - West Virginia
May 20 - Kentucky, Oregon
June 3 - South Dakota, Montana
There is another possibility that in recent days has gathered optimism based on comments from Howard Dean. That is, whether or not the Florida and Michigan delegations will be seated. Dean told CNN “I think the delegates are eventually going to be seated in Florida and Michigan as soon as we get an agreement between the candidates on how to do that.” Then last week, he followed that statement on the Daily Show, by confirming that both state’s delegations would definitely be seated.
One issue remains for Clinton and Obama, how this is going to be worked out.
For Barak Obama, including the full delegation would complicate his winning the nomination, which for many, is a done deal. The full inclusion of both delegations would cut his lead and mean that Clinton would be ahead in the popular vote.
But the superdelegate count may be the deal breaker. Clinton once led 169-63. By March 2008, her lead was a scant 35. As of May, the New York Times has Clinton leading by only one. ABC shows Obama leading by two.
Howard Dean, Chairman of the DNC, announced last week that one of the candidates must step down by June so the primaries can be wrapped up.
However things seem to be evaporating, remember Clinton is a pro, and as such is not easily deterred. She has Bill in her corner as well as a host of brilliant political strategists probing each and every contingency as they search for daylight. Don’t count her out. All she needs is a little breathing room and sometimes, that can come suddenly out of thin air.
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