I have just received another anti-Obama e-mail. It is purportedly a set of quotes that show him as a hate-filled black radical who is probably Muslim. As with many e-mails of that type, it is either made up or deliberately twisted. In fact, one of the quotes attributed to Mr. Obama was actually made by a conservative reviewer of one of his books, not even by Barack himself. If you want to, you can find the corrections to that e-mail at more than one independent urban legend site. One link is: http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_obama_write_that_he_would_stand.html
I think what troubles me more is the question of why my fellow conservative Christians are so intent on the personal destruction of the man. (Yes, the e-mail was sent to me by more than one person, and more than one of them are conservative and Christian.) I can understand the political and philosophical disagreements, for certainly Mr. Obama is no advocate of unfettered capitalism or any of several other causes. But, I am also mindful of the Scriptural stricture to not bear false witness, and certainly the forwarding of these emails without any fact-checking is a type of bearing false witness.
And, perhaps that is one of the reasons why Christian involvement in politics has such a low reputation with the general public. When we, as Christians, lower ourselves to using the tactics of the world, it is not surprising that we cease to be considered salt and light. I do believe in Christian involvement in politics, but not at the cost of breaking the Lord’s commandments.
I always like how people like to harp on this Muslim thing and Obama. Lots of subliminal damage being done there, but really who care if he is or not, what if he was Jewish, Zoroastrian, Sihk or Hindu. No where in the Constitution does it stay the President needs to be Christian. Matter of fact many of the early Presidantes were just Deist, no church affiliation at all.
Hey, long time no contact! I agree, I want a candidate that truly has the best interests of people in mind, regardless of religion. I am, however, old enough to realize that we often have to pick the candidate who is the closest approximation to the ideal.