Guest Article - A little boy went to school

The writer of this post has graciously granted me permission to post this here. I was inspired by his perspective that the battles we fight are not against flesh and blood, or race and creed. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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We Americans are so blessed to be able to complain about something wrong with every one of our candidates running for the office of President. With speculation, suspicions, new spins, deliberate slips of the pen escorted by quick sanitized apologies, and more, who can run for office these days; certainly not the founding fathers of the nation. Some Christians have become the trifling equivalent of a character assassination Jihad when it comes to politics and religion.

It's true that America is a Muslim-shy nation for many reasons I will not cover here. There are as many types of Muslims nations as there are Christians nations, and as many types of Muslims as Christians. We live in a high security, fear driven world at war, where your every move is scrutinized, judged and categorized well. By just carrying a cell phone, your movements and lifestyle can be tracked anywhere. So it stands to form and criteria that every presidential candidate would be investigated well for job worthiness, because the people need to be safe and secure.

However, the current state of the art media feeding frenzies have turned American freedom of the press into a joke, and do a disservice to the nation in the name of freedom. The knee jerk reactions to Barack Obama's Muslim connections are unfair and ignorant of the ways other people think. It's as if being a child was Barack Obama's big penalty. Are we really saying, you can be 1000 things in America, but if you are a small boy whose parents toted you around to Muslim countries, like the many children of embassy, military or government agency employees, you're in jeopardy if you want to run for public office? I really hope America the Beautiful is not saying, "It's ok to be a Christian convert as long as you were not associated with Muslims before your run for the presidency". Is that America?

If Barack Obama's proximity to Islam is in Indonesia as has been reported, then it needs to be known that Asians think differently from Americans when it comes to family identity. They don't have all the freedoms of identity that western nations have. If your father is Muslim, then that is your legal designation in most Asian countries. If I am a Christian father, then my whole family is Christian, whether they know Jesus or not. In Singapore, if my wife is a Tamil and English speaking Christian Indian, my son's mother tongue designation is Tamil. Some may assume he is of the Hindu faith because his mother tongue is Tamil, but they would be wrong.

Racial and religious assumptions are very strong in Asian cultures. For example, I was coming home from a gig late one night hungry and I thought I might stop for some Bah Ku Teh, an herbed garlic pork rib delight in a tasty peppery broth served with rice. I told my taxi driver to go Balestier Road, the best spot in Singapore for this dish. On our way, somehow a debate arose about why I couldn't have Bah Ku Teh. My Chinese taxi driver kept on insisting that, "Muslims cannot have pork!" And of course, stirred a bit by his audacity, I said, "why not, what happens if they do?" He kept saying, "It's the law", and I said, "well I'm having some tonight anyway, because I'm very hungry, and not a Muslim, but a Christian". My taxi driver made the assumption that so many people make with regard to race and religion. In Asia, race and religion could be broken down like this.



Dark man = Muslim or Hindu
White man = Christian or Jew
Oriental = Buddhist


In America, do we make the assumption that because Barack Obama was a child in the proximity of Islam at one time, he is a threat? As Christians, our political posture is to pray for our leaders and trust in God. I'm thanking God for protecting America, the country I love no matter who's in the White House. My faith is in God's ability, not a political agenda, or issue. I'm certainly not ignorant of the dangers in this world. Yes it's a dangerous world, and I'm glad I know Jesus because our world's problems cannot be solved in carnal ways alone. There are spiritual battles that need to be addressed by a nation who humbles itself and prays.

I cried when President Clinton had his indiscretion, and cried when President Bush didn't find the weapons of mass destruction. I was hurt by Christians brothers and sister as they cheered when Marion Barry was caught on film smoking crack cocaine, and became even more enraged as they embraced President Reagan, a bigot in my book. Every time I see footage of 911, I want to re-enlist in the Army and sign up for covert operations. Yes, I believe there are dark forces rising! I'm passionate, but I know where my help really comes from, the real Hero we should be appealing to, who is above blunders, mistakes, insensitivities, anger, and darkness, our Lord Jesus. He's always steady.

It may be that Barack Obama would be a fine president for reasons that only God knows. Try our best, but we can't get it right as a people through politics and manipulation, we need to trust and abide in the Lord. We can never elect the right person. The right person is the Hero at the right hand of God, the correct Hero to worship, the real king, Jesus. God's grace is the sole reason why America is still great, and enjoys unequaled freedom in this world. To ignore or forget that as a nation would mark the beginning of the decay of our society. Whoever makes it to the White House, please don't stop praying for our great nation.