Here's How

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How Can Any Christian African American Vote for Obama? Throwing the Race Card on an All Black Table

This is a very thought-provoking article, and it is a must-read for my white brothers and sisters, who need to understand our black brothers and sisters. I really appreciated it. I would love to vote for Obama, but I cannot do it in good conscience. Race is the main thing he has going for him. He has very little experience in Washington (3 years). I also cannot support his socialistic tendencies or his positions on abortion and homosexual marriage. For Americans to vote for Obama solely based on the color of his skin is foolish, and in a sense, racist. If it is wrong to vote against Obama because of his skin, is it not just as wrong to vote for him because of his skin?

However, the main thing that bothers me about Obama is that he markets himself as a Messiah figure. Even as this article displays, the black community looks to Obama as the anointed one who will right all the wrongs committed against blacks in America. They look to him to be their savior, and he promises to be. Yet, there seems to be very little behind his pomp. He says "Change can happen!" but what kind of change are we talking about? Even more scary is that Obama runs for office as a man on a mission, and this mission is to be president. Once there, what will he do? Obama has some very powerful and influential backers. How else could he become the democratic nominee after only two years in the Senate before announcing his campaign for presidency. The Senate was merely a presidential springboard for him. When/if he becomes president, Obama will be strongly pulled by their pursestrings to enact legislation favorable to this mysterious group. In other words, Obama is not his own man: he is a figurehead for a group of political powerbrokers. These two things make Obama a very scary persona.

What scares me more is that America, more specifically African-America, looks to Obama as its savior. He has replaced Jesus Christ as the one who corrects injustice and makes all men equal. Only the sovereignty of Jesus can bring reconciliation and equality for black men and white men in the United States. I beg my African-American brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as my white brothers and sisters in Christ, to remember that Jesus Christ is our Messiah. No man, whether white or black, can fix the problems in America. Our hope must be in Jesus Christ. Political action and affirmative action have their place, but what America needs, what blacks and whites need, is the grace of Jesus Christ. We need revival.

I also cannot vote for McCain. To me he typifies the greedy, sleazy Republican. Issues of social justice are important, and should be. There is something wrong with politics that profit the wealthy but overlook the poor. I get the sense that McCain is only concerned about the typical fiscal conservatism of the right wing. McCain may be pro-life and against homosexual marriage, but I ask why? If McCain is truly pro-family, how can it be that he divorced his first wife after she was maimed in an automobile accident, even though she still adores him, and married a beautiful woman half his age? Does being a POW give him superior character and class? His campaign seems to think so.

Contra McCain, I do not support the war against terror or the war in Iraq. I do not think we can impose a Western form of government with American ideals on an Arabic, Islamic culture. No matter what America does in Iraq, there will be civil war and much bloodshed at the end. I think America should pull out as smoothly as possible as soon as possible. We are accomplishing nothing in Iraq. It is also foolish to wage war against an idea, because you can never kill an idea. You can only kill an enemy.

I cannot support a candidate merely because he fires on some issues that I support any more than I can support another because of his skin tone. I am convinced that we Christians need to start voting out of conscience rather than choosing the lesser of two evils. We need to vote for men—or women, come the day—of solid character, who we believe can run this country well. We need to vote for men who don't have all the answers, but who see the problems with our country. However, we can only do this if our hope is in Jesus Christ. Christian America has to realize that Jesus is the only one who gives us safety. He is the only one who can protect us. He is the only one who can bring justice and equality. Jesus alone is the Messiah, and he doesn't restrain himself to party lines. Jesus is bigger than Republican or Democrat. His followers need to be too.

We will never have the perfect presidential candidate. No man will ever save America, no man except Jesus Christ.

The modern world clamors to give us the appearance of safety and security. We have removed insecurity, poverty, illness, and death to the far corners of acceptable society. That is, we have removed them until they hit close to home, until the gas prices soar (as does everything else), until 9/11, or until someone we loves dies from cancer. We live in a fragile world.

Jesus Christ upholds the universe by the word of his power. Jesus Christ will never leave us or forsake us, but will be with us wherever we go. Jesus Christ is the shade at our right hand and our keeper; he will keep his children from all evil; he will keep our life. He will keep our going out and coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Brothers and sisters, we cannot forget this. Jesus is our only security and refuge. He is our only Savior. Only as we turn to him will we have hope, security, or success.

This means we need to repent of our idolatry and return to the Lord. We need God to work in our hearts. We need revival.