His copious reference to the values and convictions of the founding fathers also resonates with me. And I hope and pray that he weans America away from political correctness by hearkening to the voice of America’s first president, George Washington who in his Farewell Address in 1796 warned: ” And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” Let him also take to heart the wise words of Washington’s successor, John Adams who said: "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."
It’s over – the long nights of dreaming, that is. Now it’s time to live the dream, or more correctly, the reality. It has been a long, tortuous march through long stretches of dangerous valleys and daunting mountains; a long energy sapping swim through a vast shark-infested ocean. Now, the young man who dreamt of studying law and did it; dreamt of becoming a law professor and became it; dreamt of becoming a State senator and became it; dreamt of going to Capitol Hill as a Federal Senator and made it; who in his first term as a senator slugged it out with the best of them for his party’s presidential ticket and won it; who dreamt of becoming President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of America is safely in the saddle at the White House of Pennsylvania Avenue! Dream fulfilled!
It was an electric moment. When Chief Justice Roberts spoke the last line of the presidential oath, it was a question: “so help me God?” Barack Hussein Obama replied in the affirmative: “so help me God.” And then, in the full view of millions of people across the globe, with his hands outstretched to the man who until then had only been president-elect, Warren spoke the final words: “congratulations, Mr President!”
And so, the skinny man with the strength of a hulk, in Davidic version, became the 44th president of the world’s most influential nation; the very first man of colour, to lead the white dominated rainbow commonwealth that used to be known as God’s own country. Or still is?
Through all the revelry, through the celebration of the historicity of the inauguration of the first black president in Barack Obama, it is this poignant irony that continued to haunt me. “God” was the last word this man had to mention before he became president of a nation whose founding fathers had nicknamed God’s own country. But God had long since been relegated to the background in this land of opportunities. He had been banned from the schools and from public places. The nature and form and extent of His involvement in the affairs of the State have to be negotiated among contenders who each claim to represent Him. He Has been democratized to the point of being indistinguishable! And whatever changes this celebrated apostle of change, this symbol of audacious hope, was promising held little hope that God and His values were on the road to restoration. Or perhaps it did and I had missed it.
So, I listened to his inaugural address. It was good. It was a beautiful piece of inspiring rousing rhetoric. “Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath,” he began. “The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents. So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.”
That got my attention. With rapt attention, I listened as he continued:
“That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet. …Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.”
He went on and on, analyzing the challenges, hinting at the response of his administration to them and rationalizing those responses in broad colourful strokes. He was at his inspirational best. But it is his references to the ideals of their forefathers and the place of God in it that I chose to focus.
Making his only passing reference to the Bible he said: “We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things…” and spoke about “that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”
He said “Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake…Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. …Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history…This is the source of our confidence— the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny. …Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations…”
All of these made good music to my ears. And for once, I am excited at the possibilities that an Obama Era might hold. He spoke of “the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.” How wonderful. Whom God calls, He equips by talking directly to and sending prophets of truth to for confirmation. So if as Obama says, this was a call from God, then he really has to stay close to the one he says has called him. Compromise might be the stuff of politics; it is anathema to an ever faithful, ever true, unchanging God. And He sure will accept no less from those who claim to answer His call to service.
His copious reference to the values and convictions of the founding fathers also resonates with me. And I hope and pray that he weans America away from political correctness by hearkening to the voice of America’s first president, George Washington who in his Farewell Address in 1796 warned: ” And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” Let him also take to heart the wise words of Washington’s successor, John Adams who said: "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."
I have said it before and I’ll say it again and again. All the wisdom in the world will not rescue the US economy or guarantee her safety and security, if Obama does not back off from and actively resist policies that would replicate Sodom and Gomorrah in that wonderful land of opportunities. As Edwin Louis Cole once said, “a nation is not great by virtue of her wealth; a nation is great by the wealth of her virtues.”
Kingdom Perspective wishes Barack Hussein Obama, first black, first black president of the United States of America, a God-honouring stay in the most powerful office in the world.
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