How would Jesus vote?

I am often quite befuddled at how Christians view Presidents.  For the past few decades, it seems as if Republicans pretty much get an automatic pass while Democrats are demonized no matter what brand of Christianity they profess.  


I had a short, but interesting political/religious discussion about this on Facebook today.  A relative posted this article about a person who spoke before the President at a recent national prayer breakfast.  The speaker, Eric Metaxas (starting at 35:40 in the video), apparently spoke negatively about the President's professed Christianity, insinuating that Obama is a phony Christian.  The article implied that Metaxas is a "prophet," since his speech supposedly preempted many of Obama's topics -- and there was no possible way Metaxas could have had an advance copy of the President's speech.


So, Metaxas is a "prophet" because he's smart enough to call Obama's bluff before he does it?  Or is it because he's echoing the judgmental sentiments of the Christian right?

A few hours after I posted those questions, a commenter responded, "When does God hear the prayers of the wicked?  Only in a prayer of repentance.  The stiff necked, like the Pharaoh was used to do God's Will...before that there were many lessons to be learned by the unrepentant.  This prayer breakfast should have been a prayer vigil on their face behind closed doors!  Obama had no place there, period!  Unless he repents and turns from his thinking and his sin."  Sadly, another person cheered that one on.

I'm no Democrat, but just what is it that makes Obama "wicked"?  Why are Republican presidents practically canonized while Democrats are the devil incarnate?  Perhaps the first reason is that Democrats typically are "pro-choice," while their Republican counterparts are against any form of legalized abortion.  Not to debate that topic, but maybe Evangelicals have a point.  However, Dems are always in favor of social welfare programs, especially for the needy, the sick, and the elderly.  Isn't that a good thing?  I'm pretty sure Jesus said it was.  Maybe it's because since WWII, most Democratic Presidents avoid wars while Republicans do not.

Let's review a little recent history, bearing in mind that just about all of our Presidents were professing Christians.  Nixon said publicly after his fall from grace that he thought he was above the law.  Carter drove us into recession, then there was Reagan -- the "gold standard" of modern Christian Republicans.  Reagan, who spent us into the ground, compromised his principles on numerous occasions, and whose wife regularly consulted with astrologers.  And, I will remind you, that Evangelicals in his time used to say he was a candidate for Antichrist since Ronald Wilson Reagan = 666.  His successor, Bush 41, got us into Iraq the first time (a proximate cause for 9/11, mind you) and broke all his campaign promises for "no new taxes".  Clinton did some good for social welfare, but arguably some of his legislation ended up causing at least some of the fiscal mess we're in now.  He could have been a greater President if he had kept his pants zipped.  Bush 43 (professed Christian) bullied us back into Iraq, castigated everyone in the DoD who criticized how we did it -- ignoring every Clausewitzian or Sun Tzu principle along the way -- and got us even deeper in debt.  Obama has spent more than almost all previous Presidents combined, arguably with some benefit.

I watched the video of Metaxas's speech, and realized that it was not he who was insinuating anything against Obama's religion -- in truth, it was the article's author, Mark Joseph, who twisted Metaxas's words to express the chip on his own shoulder in order to demonize Obama.  If you just read the article, it would appear that Metaxas was downright disrespectful to the President -- but nothing could be more false, and any intelligent person could see from the video that it is Joseph, not Metaxas, who echoes the judgmental sentiments of the Christian right.

Metaxas's 30-minute speech was actually quite interesting.  He talked mostly about two men about whom he has written biographies: William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, two men who had the moral courage to stand up against injustice, and changed the world because of their faith.  In fact, Metaxas makes a particularly interesting point in his thesis with this statement: "dead religion demonizes others."  (at 59:10 in the video)  He goes on to say that whether you are against abortion or homosexual marriage, those who support them are not necessarily evil.

Alas, I should know better than to try to have an intellectual discussion with an obvious Evangelical.  Here was some more pseudo-spiritual rhetoric from the Facebook discussion:  "anyone who supports the things [Obama] does cannot enter the kingdom of God...[I am] just making a comment and interested in hearing from those who may feel the same way."

Falling back on the "Obama is wicked" side of any political argument is the na-na-na-na-boo-boo way out, especially when you can't even express why you feel that way.

But again, why is Obama "wicked"?  In the eyes of Evangelicals, it's only because he's a Democrat.  Perhaps Evangelicals follow a dead religion.

Which of course is a perfect excuse to embed this loosely related video of an old 80's Christian rock song by one of my favorite artists, Steve Taylor.