An Open Letter to My Fellow Right Wing Nuts

With everything inside me, I detest this kind of conversation, but I’m going to give it a try. I’d like to pour oil on troubled waters. If it turns out I’m just stirring them up worse, I apologize and will drop this.

So, you’re upset that Senator McCain lost the election and that Senator Obama won. You cannot believe that any Christian who cares about God’s Word and Christ’s glory and society’s survival would vote for Obama. After all, he’s pro-homosexual, pro-abortion, and pro-a lot of stuff which “normal” Christians do not go in for. On top of this, Obama sat under Jeremiah Wright’s teaching all those years without a murmur of discontent and only disowned him when the public learned of the poison that pastor was spreading.

You’re so upset you’re emailing your friends around the country despairing over the foolishness of the American electorate.

You believe people were just voting their pocketbooks and not their convictions in rejecting McCain and choosing Obama. You are upset that Obama is the most untried, green, mysterious president-elect in history. You worry about what this nation is coming to.

Me, too. I voted for McCain.

However, I have several thoughts I’d like to call to your attention.

  1. Obama’s fellow Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, had an even thinner resume when he was chosen in 1860. He’s been a one-term congressman and a state senator in Illinois and beyond that, a trial lawyer and nothing else. In choosing Lincoln over Stephen Douglas, America rejected the one with the lengthy resume for the one with the message.

    The size of one’s resume is irrelevant.

    We call Lincoln the greatest president for good reason — what he did after reaching the White House. Let’s give Obama a chance. See what he does.

  2. We have had 20 years of anti-abortion presidents in Reagan, Bush senior, and Bush junior, and Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land. So, apparently, a president’s position on that issue is not the only or even major factor in ending abortion. The most important factor may be the appointment of conservative judges like Alito and Roberts, and Bush junior will forever have my gratitude for those two justices on the high court.
  3. Can we cool the rhetoric and act like adults here? Give the man a chance. Pray for him. I didn’t care for Bill Clinton, either personally or politically, but he didn’t wreck the nation. We do not have a one-person rule in America. The forefathers set up a system of checks and balances for good reason.

There are people around Obama I don’t particularly like, Oprah being one of them. But it has nothing to do with race. I don’t care for John Stewart (Jon Stewart?) either. His snideness turns me off and his humor misses me entirely. I love Doonesbury comic strip and have one of Garry Trudeau’s originals on my wall, but I detest the cartoonist’s politics and am disgusted by his mean-spiritedness.

John McCain had his share of hangers-on and supporters who brought only grief to his cause, too, and I didn’t care for them either.

I hated the way both campaigns would seize on some innocuous statement from the other side and try to spin it into a scandalous attack, making the others out to be unpatriotic and dangerous.

My father went to heaven a year ago. Mom, age 92 and a half, said last week, “I don’t think Pop would have voted for either one.” For any number of reasons, Mom was more interested and better informed in this campaign than any in memory. But she admits that had Pop been alive and seen her watching the debates or the latest news reports on the ins and outs of the campaigns, he would have said, “Turn that mess off.”

Those of us with a vested interest in the future of this country cannot turn it off. We want things to go well. And for that reason, we want Obama to do well. We want to be wrong in our earlier assessments of the man.

That’s why, even though we may have been “turned off” by both campaigns, we need to stay “tuned in” these days to everything going on. We must stay informed, must be willing to speak out positively when the new administration does well and negatively when it errs, and most of all, we must pray for God to guide the incoming president and his team.

Before losing your cool, conservative Christian, let me direct you to Proverbs 21:1. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord. Like rivers of water, He turns it wherever He wishes.”

My trust is in God; not in man. I will rejoice when our leaders do right, but will not despair when they do wrong. My God is greater than any leader of any nation.

16 thoughts on “An Open Letter to My Fellow Right Wing Nuts

  1. I’m with you Pop.

    I tuned my radio to music on thursday, away from talk radio. Now I enjoy a good fight as much as anyone — and this was a fun election season — but listening to sour grapes from sore losers is hardly entertaining.

    And I’m not going to go out of my way to set Mr. Obama up for failure either. I hope I was totally wrong about the guy. I hope he becomes one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen. I’m not holding my breath of course, but I’m not going to try and undermine him either. I’m gonna pray.

  2. I agree with you Joe. I am glad to see more and more of those like us, who know that God is in control. It’s not the end of the world, in fact it may be a new beginning, and God is in control. We are Christians we should start acting like it.

  3. One HUGE difference between Barak Hussein Obama and Abraham Lincoln. Linclon grew up reading the Bible by candlelight, Obama was trained in the Koran and his spiritual mentor up till the last several months was a racist. You are right though, God is still in control just as he was when he allowed ungodly rulers to bring judgement and captivity to the Israelites. Yes we MUST pray for our leaders!!!

  4. Well said, Joe, as always. You seem to say what many of us are thinking! Keep writing and I’ll keep reading.

  5. As an Australian it’s been fascinating to watch the Presidential race from a distance.

    I like your balanced comments

    For what it’s worth, as an outsider who’s looking from a long way away, Obama looks like a good choice.

    I’m praying he will turn out to be so.

  6. Joe,

    I feel the same way my friend. I took the Wed after the election to address the concerns much in the same way as you did. I then gave everyone a piece of paper and challenged everyone to write a Godly word of encouragement to the President Elect. Afterwards I read a few and I believe it finally began to sink in that God is still God and He is in control. Wish I lived closer, would love to sit down with you periodically, but for now you mentor with articles. When you swing back through Birmingham let me know.. I would love to show you the new sanctuary…

    Be blessed Joe!

    Bo

  7. Your last sentence rather says it all and I tend to agree with Marty’s comments. Did I really just say I agree with the “boy down the street”???? Proud of you Marty (not necessarily for the conmments) but because you were once part of our lives and we like what we see and hear from you.

    cjm

  8. I cannot help but believe that Obama’s election will create a better environment around the world for Christians to do missions. Electing a person of color says to the world that we are what we say we are as Americans and as Christians, which some people in other places see as the same thing. Most of the people to whom we share the gospel are people of color. Now American missionaries come from a country where the racial divide, a scandal that has always challenged our mission endeavors, has at least been smudged a little if not partially erased.

  9. God sets rulers up, and takes them down.

    Nothing happens without His approval.

    Though I voted for McCain, I am obligated to pray for the new administration,I am praying that He will make sound, moral decisions, which will point the country back to God.

    Remember ”The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, and he turneth it whithersorver he will, like rivers of water.”

  10. Good Morning Joe,

    I voted for the McCain/Palin ticket as well. What concerns me is Obama’s well publicized empathy for two items that sit atop a long list of those that sadden our Creator ; abortion, and same-sex marriage notably. In combination with a liberal-minded legislature, Obama is poised to strengthen those Godless views. Yes, I am praying for the President-elect—-praying that Almighty God will alter Obama’s determination to take this nation farther down the slippery slope!

    Thanks for hearing another viewpoint. God bless you, Joe McKeever.

  11. Dear Pastor McKeever:

    Thank you for your essay / open letter to your fellow “right wing” nuts about the elections. I am a LCMS Lutheran. Many of my fellow Lutherans are one-issue Republicans. I am not…..and after much prayer and thought, voted–somewhat reluctantly–for Obama based on all the issues our nation is confronted with. In my congregation this Sunday we offered special prayers for president-elect Obama and were reminded that for whatever reasons, God permitted this election result.

    I hope you aren’t bashed too badly as a result of your opinions. We can’t undo the elections and everyone needs to move forward, together, as Christians. I hope your reminder will be taken to heart.

    Keep up the good work–I enjoy your essays and know that you put a lot of time and effort into giving us something to think about several times each week.

    Linda in Michigan

  12. Once again your article and the resulting comments are priority reading. I, too, rest in the fact that GOD is in control.

    That doesn’t stop me from being concerned that the matter of his eligibility to be President has not been taken up more widely. If ever there was a Conspiracy it would seem that the media is dismally failing to seek out the truth and spread it as far and wide as they have the attacks upon various people.

    Surely the simple matter of producing a certified copy of his birth Certificate would settle the matter one way or the other. Is the delay because it is taking a long time to produce an authentic looking forgery with the correct paper, ink etc??

    I wonder too if GOD is not ready to say enough to the slaughter of Millions of little ones in your country, my country(Australia) and western nations in general. Are we prepared to face I Peter 4:17?

    Brian

  13. You did provoke me, Dr. Joe:

    When I went to Lafayette Caterpillar in Indiana in 1982, I interviewed prospective employees. We used “Targeted Selection” which is based on the premise that people repeat what they have done in the past. “Past behavior predicts future performance”. The Bible says in Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

    Sinners cannot change their sinful natures, only God can change the heart. I will pray that God will change his heart of the past (past behavior).

    He has already announced that he will reverse the decision to de-fund stem cell research that Bush implemented, with an executive order.

    “O’s” heart has not been seeking after God. He proclaimed in his book that he did drugs; it is public knowledge that he served on a board with a domestic terrorist (Bill Ayres) and it is on Illinois public records that he promoted late term abortion.

    I agree we should pray for the office of president. We should pray that God gives ‘O’ a new heart that obeys God’s commandments and seeks God’s face and not man’s(or his own).

    Dr J

  14. I agree, Joe. The election is over and we should step up and pray for Obama and his family. I saw an interview of Jeremiah Wright the other night as he gave his testimony about growing up in a Christian home and how he gave his life to Jesus (he said Jesus, not Christ) and how he had tried to preach Jesus in his ministry. This election was about sound bites from the media (as are all elections), and while I am sure that I don’t agree with the things I have heard from Rev Wright (the sound bites at least) I am sure that some of his remarks were published out of context. I hope that as Barack Obama sat in the Oval Office yesterday and conversed with George Bush, that the enormity of what happened a week ago settled in over him. He is the President-elect of the United States of America.

    I hope he will be open to be led by God’s spirit as this mantle has been placed upon him by the American people.

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