My Soapbox

So, this is a chance for me to be on my soapbox about something that has really started to bother me lately. It started with two things I saw today. 1) A church bulletin sign that read "A golfer can't do anything about his lie, but politicians...WELL!". 2) On the news this morning, I saw that Pres. George H. Bush was a guest speaker at A&M and had invited Pres. Obama also to speak -- only to have students protest against this and bring in more protesters from the outside -- there were so many there! I find all this ridiculous. What has happened to our country? What has happened to the unity of our country, the support of our authority, the respect of the offices that govern us? WE, THE PEOPLE, voted him into office. Don't get me wrong -- if I had been able to vote this past election (and I wasn't able to unless I wanted to take a 3 hour bus ride to the capital), I would have voted for McCain. But I realize that McCain is not our president, and our president for at least the next 3 years is Obama. He is the head of our country and is looked upon as the head of the world! How can he run our country, keep this country together, help the world, if his own people don't support him? As my husband says "If you are not going to respect the president, then at least respect the office!".

Here was another thing that got to me. I saw on the news several weeks ago about people throwing fits about a school assignment giving to students that made them write letters to Obama on how they could support him. Ok, please no one throw things at me when I say this but...GOOD FOR THEM! Whether we respect Obama or not, we HAVE to teach our children to respect those put in authority about us! What are we teaching them if all they hear is negative comments about the president? They don't know anything about what he stands for -- they just know he is president and if we don't teach them to support those put in authority above us, then what are we doing to our kids?!

In Matthew 22, the pharisees asked Jesus if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar or not. Jesus asked them "Whose inscription is on the coin?" They answered "Caesar's". Then, Jesus replied "Give to God what is God's and give to Caesar what is Caesar's!"

I found this at http://www.ucg.org/issues/gn19/respect_wrestling.htm.

Regardless of the outcome of the crisis of the presidency, Christians are obliged to obey God by respecting government authority—the law and national and local leaders. Two of the apostles made this point in their letters.

"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities," wrote the apostle Paul. "For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God" (Romans 13:1). This includes the payment of taxes and other obligations (verses 2-7). Remember that the Roman government of the time had its own problems with corruption and abuse of power. But such behavior does not give people an excuse to disobey the law or disrespect the authority of their leaders.

Peter gave his readers the same instruction: "Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors ..." (1 Peter 2:13-14). We are also to "honor the king" or chief ruler (verse 17). Paul echoes Peter's instruction to Titus: "Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no one ..." (Titus 3:1-2). Elsewhere Paul exhorts us pray "for kings and all who are in authority" (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

All this does not mean that we are to disobey God in situations where the law of man may conflict with the law of God (Acts 4:18-20; 5:40), but even then Christians are to continue to respect government authority—even when those in positions of authority have abused their offices. GN

-- John Ross Schroeder

My final thought is this: The president is not disunifying the country -- the people of this country are by cursing, bad-mouthing, refusing to support the president. Other countries look at our country, the blessed country of the world, and can't understand why we "hate" our leaders so much when WE are the ones that elected him. Many countries don't have free election, and they are left with dictators and people over them that cause their country grief and turmoil, and often times death for thousands to millions of people.

No, America is not perfect, it definitely has it problems, but how is a president supposed to do anything about it without support of his country? No matter how bad things are here, we are still an incredibly blessed nation. I lived in a country for 1 1/2 years where the citizens couldn't leave their country for any reason unless they worked for the government. It's a bad world out there, so be grateful and supportive of the country and leaders you have!

Thank you. And remember, this is just my opinion...and I'm pregnant...so hormones may rage a little...