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Letter from America

President Obama? Huckabee? Romney?

As long as it’s not Clinton (and at this stage it still could well be), America will have someone in the Oval office whose name is not Bush or Clinton for the first time in five terms. First there was Bush Sr., then there was Clinton, then Clinton again, then Bush Jr., then Bush Jr. again. Now — well, if Hilary gets it that will make six Presidents in a row coming from two families. Whoever said America doesn’t have ruling elite?

Intriguingly, though, it could be someone different. Huckabee is an ex-Southern Baptist pastor, who, despite his relatively unsophisticated sounding educational or professional background, is gathering a reputation for impressive speaking abilities. Obama — wouldn’t it be something for America to have a President called ‘Obama’? That would certainly strike against those who caricature the current global war on terror, if it be such, as simplistically cultural, or religious, though Obama, of course, seems to be a church attendee of some sort. (Mind you, it’s hard to get anywhere in current American politics unless at some point you say something about your ‘faith’.)

Which brings us to perhaps the most intriguing, from a religious point of view, possibility of all — President Romney. If he gets the nod, after all the expense and elections and all that, America will have a Mormon for a President. It looks unlikely at present, for if Romney is to make progress he needs to win the hearts and minds of the ‘values’ voters, the evangelicals in the Mid-West or South, and his running in Iowa was unimpressive in that regard.

From the sidelines

As a Brit, I enjoy watching these things from the sidelines, totally aware of my complete political lack of stake holding. I can’t vote. (Though I do pay my taxes — no taxation without representation anyone? Just kidding…) It’s perhaps easy for me to strike a pose as non-political, because that is what I am in these here waters, but nonetheless I continue to believe, whatever one’s personal political views, that the pulpit is the wrong place to advance them.

However the current Presidential election year unfolds, I’m praying that there’s one thing we will see less of than last time: pulpits aflame with politics. Brothers, let’s keep our pulpits untarnished. Let’s keep them for the gospel, irrespective of party politics. The gospel’s pretty important too, you know. Some might say even more important than who sits in the Oval office. And Jesus would be one of them: ‘Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’ That’s what I call a radical thought.

Josh Moody,
New Haven, Connecticut