Unfortunately, I have need to speak to the recent contest to elect a Commander-in-Chief for the United States of America.
My intent was to say nothing. However, it is coming to my attention that many are upset, bewildered, distraught, angry and depressed over the outcome of the recent election. Let me say at the outset that I do not understand this. I mean, I understand that many had hoped for a different outcome. What I don’t understand is why they can’t simply accept the fact that the contest did not go their way? Get over it and move on. I do not understand why they would doubt that God is still in control.
I would not even bring this up but I am hearing that there are people whose displeasure with the outcome of the election is causing them to expect me to respond in a way that affirms their attitude towards the whole thing. Some are sending me correspondence, wanting me to speak to it on Sunday morning. Frankly, I think that a lot of the attitudes are not godly attitudes at all. These types of attitudes lack faith in God’s sovereignty. They lack the ability to decipher the things of God from the things of man. They lack the spiritual discernment to consider that God raises up kings and kingdoms for his use. They fail to consider that God can turn the hearts of kings (and presidents) and use them for his purposes. They lack the common Christian sense to know or accept that God is not now, nor has he ever been, affiliated with any political party.
Here is my stance: I will not use the pulpit/platform to influence, urge, persuade or sway people to vote for one political party or the other. God has not called me to preach politics. He has called me to preach the gospel. He called me to encourage us to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to give a warm coat to a child and to go and make disciples. A person is free to vote in any way their convictions lead them to vote. And, let me be clear, I will not make Republicanism synonymous with Christianity, nor will I be narrow minded enough to think that there is no such thing as a Christian Democrat. Additionally, I will not doubt a person’s patriotism because of their party affiliation. I will not be sucked into the vortex of political debate by disgruntled voters who want me to condemn all things non-Republican. If someone wants to vote moral issues, go ahead. If someone else wants to vote social issues, fine. If another person wants to vote ethical issues, be my guest. Just remember, Jesus was concerned about all three.
I am telling you this because you need to know what my response will be to folks who are so passionate and upset about the issue that they are expecting me to speak negatively about the perceived “tragedy that has befallen America.” You need to know that I will not publicly endorse an attitude of negativism and berating of our next president. The man has been elected. Whether we like it or not, he will be the president of the most powerful nation on the face the planet. My job is to pray for him, long, hard and continuously,… just like I did for the last president.
Let me be frank, I realize that, because I am an African American, people here are very curious as to where I stand. Some are even a bit nervous about it. I can let you know this: they may find themselves very frustrated to find that where I stand is with Jesus; what I will preach is Christ crucified and risen; and what I am interested in doing is everything within my ability to win lost souls to Christ. I will do this regardless of who is in the White House.
In closing, and at the risk of making some of you nervous, I must say to you: my grandparents and my parents knew what it was to experience hatred and discrimination beyond human comprehension. Due to my age, I am old enough to look back and am able to tell you vivid stories of discrimination, name calling, and hatred due to the color of my skin. This led me to come to the conclusion that it would be light years before America would elect a Black man into the highest office of the most powerful country on the face of the earth. My grandfather thought this day was a dream that would never be realized, before the return of Christ. The last time I was home, my father suggested, if a black man was elected, he will have seen everything and can’t imagine what else there would be to top that.
It is so sad to see that so many allow their blinding passion for party affiliation and some of it under the insincere guise of moral convictions (not all of it but some of it), that they missed the image of all those people in Grant Park, in Chicago. All those people, Black, White, Asian, Latino, with their arms around one another, some of them weeping, united in one place. Sure, I know that they were rooting for a Liberal. Nevertheless, and say what you will, it was a defining moment in American History.
There is no other nation on the face of this planet that is so culturally, racially and ethnically diverse, and yet, we are able to work and live together (at the very least) with a significant measure of civility towards one another. That is amazing. Absolutely amazing. We witnessed history in the making unfold right before our eyes. I am so glad to have had the opportunity to witness it.
Now, having done so, I return to my work, to my studying, to my preaching, to my praying, to my counseling and dealing with people’s problems and to my making ministry plans. I do so with the passion that my citizenship in heaven will supersede my citizenship as an American. I do so with the conviction that my ethnicity as a Saint of the Savior supplants my ethnicity as an African American. I do so knowing that, as great as this history making moment was, it cannot hold a candle to that moment when I will witness our Lord—when he cracks open the sky and comes for His Saints. He will not come only for Black men. He will not come only for White men. He will not come only for Latino men. He will not come only for Democrats and he will certainly not come only for Republicans. He will come for all men. And when he comes, I want Him to find me busy working the works of Him who has called me, while it is day.
With an attitude of grace, and in Sincere Awe of my Savior,
