The Catholic and Christian Duty to Pray and Honor President Obama

There are times when the rubber meets the road with Christians and this past election week is hard case in point. Christian's have a duty to honor and pray for our leaders and that includes President  Obama .

To say the least that is hard because politics is becoming very personal and social media is not helping. If you are on the twitter the liberal "spiking the football" we have seen I suspects makes it harder. It also has in many cases a nasty sort of anti religion aspect that really is infuriating at times. Basically now "Christian Right" appears to mean a person that adheres to Christian teachings that have been somewhat constant for 2000 years. The message is you lost you silly intolerant theocracy  advocates so sit down  and shut up.

So it is even hard for me to pray for the President even though I suspect he really wish some of his biggest fans would tone it down a tad. That being said we must and if that means turning off the TV and getting off the internet that is how the prayer/electoral cookie crumbles.

If you read the Church Fathers one can easily see how Christians were viewed with some contempt by the majority , but they won in the end because they loved and prayed.

On that note I saw two good pieces this week. From the Baptist viewpoint the always good Dr Moore has nice post here at Christians, Let’s Honor the President As always good educated Baptists are quite good at showing the hard teachings of Holy Writ when our hearts and minds want to do the opposite.

On two Catholic notes I was first struck by some thoughts of John Michael Talbot . He repeats some of Dr Moore's  points and ends with this:

,,,Beyond that we seek to convert the populace and their legal representation in our legislation in areas where they oppose traditional Christian teaching, or pursue legal remedies to areas where Obama has sought to limit the authentic freedom of our religion in a nation built on religious freedom through the separation of church and state. These things will all take time to unfold, and must do so in a biblically Christian way described in the above quoted scripture.


I think that is exactly right!! Perhaps the biggest danger Christians face is sort of thinking in the end God is not really in control of these matters. That WE through our vote are the main mover here.

Which leads to my second Catholic posting of note that is linked with a major political protestant in USA history. See via Mirror of Justice Gratitude to Romney-Ryan for the Pro-Life Witness and Work Remaining to Be Done: Wise Words from Ben Stein. That post worth reading in full ends in part :

..David Buysse points out that Dr. King's favored quote is drawn from "The Present Crisis" (c. 1844) by James Russell Lowell:

Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record

One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word;

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—

Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

I think that poem quite powerfully sums up what is going on here. There is I fear a lot of legitimate concerns about religious freedom in this country with the HHS Mandate sort of the being the hurricane Katrina of signs. It does not help that perhaps out of political loyalty more progressive Christians seem to have blinders on this.  Still the Lord is in control.

One thing about the Episcopal Church liturgy I have always liked is in their prayers for the leaders. From the President to the Governor to the Mayor they pray for him and pray for him by his Christian name. Many of us Christian don't have that so we got to do it on our own. In the end if the media in its various forms is making you hostile to the Christian teaching of praying and honoring our leaders then time to turn it off.

It is pretty hard I know. Seeing some of the stuff online making a sort idiotic cartoon of my faith this week is tough. But it is what God command