Presidential Faith ... in Action

Donald and Melania Trump attended at (Washington, DC) church yesterday - the day he had called the nation to prayer.

Trump had designated yesterday as National Day of Prayer, specifically asking the country to pause to pray for the victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana. That hurricane, which hit the Gulf Coast last week, appears to be the most devastation natural disaster ever to hit the U.S. President Trump has already asked the U.S. Congress for nearly $8 billion in aid to the victims of this hurricane and the resulting flooding. The Texas Governor estimates they will need more like $125 billion to recover. But I digress.

Here's what I want to talk about today. It was front page news that our President & First Lady attended church. Looking back, it seems that neither of them have attended any regular church services since he took office. They have only attended when the church service was to inaugurate or otherwise honor Trump. This isn't a strong expression of Trump's faith.

Now, lest you think that I'm ragging on Trump, let me also mention the fact that Obama rarely attended any church services during his eight years as President. It was the same with his predecessor, George W. Bush. In fact, of all the modern Presidents of the U.S., only the Carters and the Clintons are known to have attended church services on a regular (weekly) basis.

I long to see our modern Presidents more open about their faith. Maybe Trump, with his addiction to expressing himself on Twitter, could tweet the Scripture passage that he and his wife read and meditate on together each day. (They do do that, don't they?) You know, I wouldn't mind if our President and his wife were zealous about the God they serve. I'd like to know that my President is a man under authority, that He is surrendered and submitted to Christ in every way possible.

I'd really like to see our President at least occasionally leading the nation in public prayer. To be fair, Melania Trump publicly read the Lord's prayer in a ceremony a few months ago. But again, that made front page headlines because it was so remarkable. We're not used to seeing much in the way of outward 

expressions of faith from our President or First Lady. It's something I'd like to get used to. And of course, I'd like to know that they are regularly attending corporate worship services - as God's Word commands them to. 

I've read the arguments (maybe excuses) about modern Presidents don't attend church regularly. Those range from not wanting to be disruptive to not creating a security scenario. But really don't those are valid reasons. The Scriptural command doesn't have an exception clause that lets Christ-followers off the hook if they think it might be an inconvenience to others or that it would be too much trouble for their security detail. Both of those things can be overcome. 

If the President and his family were attending the same local church regularly, the drama would die down. Jimmy Carter still teaches Sunday School, for example, and his fellow parishioners seem to be managing pretty well. Similarly, the security details could be worked out so that the church would be secure enough to ensure the President's safety. Years ago I worked in England, and had occasion to visit a couple of the Queen's castles. I recall that even the Queen of England attends local church services in well known cathedrals or chapels where security has been arranged and where chaos has been overcome.

Quite frankly, if the President and his family wanted to join my local church, I would be deeply honored to get to worship, pray, and study God's Word with them. And I know that as a pastor, if I knew the President and his family would be at my church each week, I'm confident that my staff and I could work with the Secret Service to keep it secure. Moreover, I could work with my staff and parishioners to keep the carnival atmosphere to a minimum.

The faith of our Presidents is documented. Not a single President of the United States has ever identified himself as an atheist. All have said that they believed in God, and there was an assumption that that meant they also worshiped and submitted to God. The only exceptions have been Thomas Jefferson - who eventually denied that Jesus is God, and Abraham Lincoln - who was so secular that even people who knew him well questioned his faith. (See chart below.)

What is less documented and less known, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the lives of our Presidents. Jimmy Carter, for example, is the only President of the United States that is ever known to have taught Sunday School. (He still does!) We have few examples of Presidents praying, reading their Bibles, worshiping, or making disciples as Jesus commanded us to. (Matthew 28:19-20) 

I remember one time the pastor of our large church actually got up on the stage with the singers and worshiped in front of all of us. He is a terrible singer - bad voice and can't carry a tune. But seeing his heart surrendered to the Lord and him delighting in the worship moved me to tears. It encouraged my heart to see my leader worship our God.

So here's the thing. If I were President of the United States, I'm pretty sure that I would want to start my Presidency with a prayer service. In fact, my inauguration speech would include a call for the nation to pray with me. I would ask Americans to pray for me to have wisdom and discernment. I would ask them to pray that God would allow me to see what He sees, hear what He hears, and even think through things with the Mind of Christ. I would ask that my people pray for me to be humbled before the Lord and before my fellow Americans.

As President of the United States, I would pledge to my constituents that I would make confession a regular practice - and I would tell them the name of the individual that I would be confessing my sins to on a regular basis. (James 5:16) I would tell them the name of the spiritual adviser whom I would be giving authority to hold me accountable, to challenge me and ask me the hard questions on a regular basis. My weekly radio address (a Presidential tradition) would include prayer for our nation - my people would hear me pray. And I would implement regular time of prayer and worship with my staff, and even invite members of Congress to pray and worship with me. (We might have to move that Bible study to the National Cathedral!)

I don't believe the God of the universe can be expected to bless our nation if we as a nation are not submitted and surrendered to Him in real, tangible ways. I believe that there must be evidence that we are actively service the Lord in our everyday lives. (It's called Fruit of the Spirit.) Most of all I don't believe any of this will happen without our country's leaders setting the example. So of course I'm very glad to see that Mr. & Mrs. Trump were in church yesterday. I only hope and pray that this will become a regular thing for them!

Won't you join me now in praying that the Lord put a fierce hunger and thirst for God's Word into the hearts of our President and First Lady? Let us pray that God will draw both of them to Himself, and that a desire to seek Him first will overwhelm both of them.

Obama Discipled?

Okay, I just had a revelation. I've been trying to figure out who Barack Obama is. His walk doesn't seem to match his talk. I couldn't figure out why. The man has said he is a follower of Christ. I know what that means. I just didn't see it in Obama's behavior. I was looking for the fruits of the Spirit - and not seeming to find them.

I've prayed about this issue. Specifically, I've asked God to show me what He sees in Barack Obama. I was stunned by the revelation He gave me. The poor man may have made a decision for Christ - but he has not been taught what it means to follow Christ. It's called discipling. It seems to me now that Mr. Obama has never been properly discipled, or taught the ways of Christ.

Barack's family background is dicey. His mother went through two marriages. He moved around a lot. Between his mother, father and step-father, we have Muslim, atheist, agnostic - or just indifferent at best. Certainly no one there was teaching Barack who Christ is and what His followers really look like.
(http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2007/dec/20/chain-email-gets-obama-religion-wrong/)

Given the fact that Obama's encounter with Christ and profession of belief in Christ as the Messiah didn't occur until adulthood, he would have to look at his adulthood for that teaching.

Jeremiah Wright, Jr., the long-time pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago was the man that Obama credits for his conversion to Christianity. After that conversion, Obama sat and listened to Rev. Wright and his teachings. This would be discipleship. At least one would hope that to be the case.

Now not everyone is really discipled by the pastor of their church. Some find spiritual mentors and teachers whom they can spend more quality time with. Some won't listen to their pastors. Some of the pastors in churches today see themselves as the "senior preachers" instead of senior pastors ... and do no discipling themselves.

But everyone born into God's family, as followers of Christ, must learn the ways of Christ. They must acquire the mind of Christ. If they don't, then they aren't. They may be "saved," as the evangelicals call it. But they remain ignorant of Christ's ways and don't produce what the Bible calls fruits of the Spirit.

So I'm looking at Mr. Obama's life. He's tried to be as open as possible about his personal life. (That's a good thing.) But the only spiritual father I see in his life is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. And I'm afraid he doesn't look too good. Why? Look at his teachings. Hatred. Racism. Divisiveness. Blame. Judgement.

This man even claims that the U.S. government "invented AIDS" to wipe out the black race! So we can add flawed, deluded thinking to his list of character defects. It may be that Mr. Wright is a charismatic speaker and has a lot of people attending his church. But it is clear from his teaching that the man doesn't really know who God is. It is even more clear that he is not someone who could effectively disciple a Christian leader.

Barack Obama has not been taught the importance of tithing. He has not been shown the close relationship between humility and leadership. He has not been taught how to live a life above reproach. It may be clear that Obama has become a Christian and that he lives his life to his best understanding of what that means. It is becoming increasingly clear that his knowledge of what it means to follow Christ (or his willingness to obey Christ) are lacking.

So if we elect Barack Obama as our next U.S. president, how are we going to get this man discipled?