Here is a photo of Obama’s chum, William Ayers, taken from a profile on him in Chicago Magazine. There are about five reasons why I believe Obama cannot win the general election in the fall, and this is one of them. HT: The Pearcey Report
But here is the problem for Christians. We are commanded to honor the emperor (1 Pet. 2:17), and this includes all forms of appropriate honor even when rendered to the imperial gear. That includes this kind of imperial gear, which means that Scripture requires us to be respectful of the American flag. If I had been physically present when Ayers stood on the flag that way, I would have knocked him down.
That said, worship belongs to God alone, and the line between appropriate honor rendered to a creature, and the worship that belongs to God alone, is always getting smudged up by a certain kind of fan-boy Christian. That means that I need to have knocked Ayers down for the same reason I would have knocked him down for spitting on a picture of somebody’s mom. I would not have knocked him down for blasphemy, because that was not his offense. To knock somebody down for blasphemy, you would be more likely to have to take that action in a Christian bookstore. For an example of some political “hyperdulia,” take a gander at this.
Now the first photo is one that shows us an insolent, rebellious and disobedient contempt. The sentiment is negative, obviously. The second is a “positive” sentiment, full of Fourth of July Uplift, but that doesn’t keep it from being blasphemous. And in this country you can ruin your political future merely through being associated with a contemptuous jerk like Ayers, but you wouldn’t put anything at risk by taking campaign contributions from a T-shirt manufacturer who was hovering on the brink of saying that America is God. I completely share the revulsion that Christians generally have of Obama’s nut-roots world. But I wonder where our revulsion disappears to when it comes to the outrages we can easily find in our world.
Now all this relates to the campaign in the fall. As I have written here in the past, I cannot bring myself to vote for McCain — he is out this week doing his global warming schtick. (I got up this morning — and we are within shouting distance of June — and it was snowing, for Pete’s sake. The good news is that it was not sticking.) Global warming is not that big an issue in comparison to others, but McCain’s behavior here is revealing. It reveals who John McCain thinks he has to please. And when he is in office, there is no toggle switch that we can flip that will make him not want to please them anymore.
But though I cannot vote McCain — and will be writing more about that as the campaign unfolds — I have also acknowledged that this is a relatively painless decision for me. I live in Idaho, which is about as likely to go for Obama as our ranchers here are likely to start flying our cattle at the ends of kite strings. Not going to happen any time soon. But if I lived in a swing state, and it was a nail-biter, and my very pure convictions looked like they might help make us an Obama-nation, I do confess that I would feel the pressure — mostly because of upcoming Supreme Court appointments.
So I want to make a deal with my Christian friends who are going to vote for McCain for reasons of realpolitik. I understand it, and I can even sympathize with it. I know what the pressures are. But if you understand biblical worldview thinking at all, you have to be holding your nose while you vote. Your bumper sticker has to be “McCain I Suppose” and not “McCain for Savior!” Blasphemous adulation is far more likely a sin for conservative Christians to commit than blasphemous hatred. As the apostle John would tell us all, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”