Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Please Mr. President do the right thing even if it is not politically expedient



I know that Jeremiah said that the human heart is deceptive and that no one can really know it. Having said that I do not believe my heart is racist. I try to see men, women, boys, and girls the way I believe that God sees them; namely lost or saved. I believe in the truth of the song we sang as kids at vacation bible school: “Red and yellow, black, and white, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

Are there things that ‘people of color’ do that irritate me? Absolutely – but when I say ‘people of color’ I mean people of all colors, including Caucasian. I have to constantly remind myself that “sinners will act like sinners 100% of the time.” But I am disturbed when a person who claims the name of our Lord acts like a lost person, or at best a very carnal believer. I know that I am in no position to judge another man’s salvation and the only person that I can speak to their salvation with 100% accuracy is Tom James.

I must point out that I have not been one to needlessly bash President Obama. On January 27, 2013 I preached a strong message entitled ‘Praying For Our President’ using 1 Timothy 2:1-7 and a few other texts as the basis. I shared how we have an obligation as believers, according to the Word of God, to pray for our President and those in authority over us. Do I agree with all of his policies? No, but then I didn’t agree with all of President Bush’s policies either. This is not a Republican or Democrat rant; this is simply a “Mr. President, please be consistent, do what is right, and lead our nation with integrity before the world rant.”

Many of you who will read this will not agree with me and I’m fine with that. As you read this please read this as Tom James, Christian, husband and father as the author and not Tom James, Pastor of Eastwood, or Tom James, President of the KBC as the author. I am certain that my thoughts do not reflect the attitudes of all who call Eastwood home or all who call themselves Kentucky Baptists. I’m writing as the son of a man whose father went to Vietnam four times when I was a small boy, and he left each time as a hero in his son’s eyes. I’m writing as the brother and brother-in-law to a brother, his wife, and a sister’s husband who all gave their adult career lives serving in our military. I’m writing as a very frustrated citizen troubled by the great, and tragic inconsistencies of a President.

Ok, point blank, here’s what’s bugging me … I will get it off my chest, express myself using my free speech rights, and pray I don’t lose too many friends over it.


  • Our greatest, and really only true ally in the Middle East in my opinion, Israel, was recently thrown under the proverbial bus by our President and his administration in the nuclear deal with Iran. Ask yourself why in his 1st term President Obama never visited Israel once after he said that ‘peace in the Middle East’ would be a top priority of his administration. Iran has vowed repeatedly that they will not settle for anything less than Israel being wiped off the face of the map, and yet we make an agreement with Iran that gives in to many of the things Iran demanded while never securing guarantees from the Iranian Administration that they will recant the demand for Israel’s destruction. Neither did we win the freedom of 3 Americans possibly 4 who are being held without cause in Iranian prisons. Then when the President was asked by a reporter about not gaining the concession of the release of these Americans, as part of any deal, President Obama stared down, and then got indignant with the reporter who asked the question. Meanwhile, Susan Rice, our U. S. National Security Adviser admitted after the agreement that Iran will probably use some of the $150 billion it will receive in unfrozen assets to arm its military, create havoc in the Middle East, and yes, fund terrorism. 
  • Why can’t President Obama says the words “Islamic Terrorists” or “Islamic terrorism”? I don’t even mind if he uses the term ‘radical’ in front of it, though the case could be made that the terrorists are staying truer to the teachings of the Koran than are those who are Muslim in name only. Just going back to 9/11 there have been at least 43 attacks on American soil perpetrated by Muslim terrorists, 23 of which have occurred under this President. Yet while never calling any of these attacks Islamist in nature, at the National Prayer Breakfast this year he throws Christians under the bus with comments about Crusades, many of which happened 1,000 years ago.
  •  When it comes to race, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Freddie Gray were all Black Americans whose lives were taken either by Caucasian Americans or Hispanic Americans. In all four cases there were Department of Justice investigations opened. Please understand I’m not saying I believe any or all of the 4 deaths were justified. I’m simply pointing out that President Obama saw the need to instruct the Department of Justice to get involved. The President also spoke publicly, in some of these cases many times, about the deaths of these four men and the grief their families were going through; assuring that justice would be done. Whether justice is or has been done is not the point here. My question is why hasn't President Obama reached out to the family of Kate Steinle - the American gunned down in San Francisco by an illegal alien? Ohio Congressman Steve Chabot asked Homeland Security Chief Jeh Johnson point blank if the administration had reached out to the Steinle family. Johnson replied, “To who?” It was nearly three weeks ago that Miss Steinle was murdered. As of today her family has yet to receive a single condolence note from the president nor has he spoken publicly on the issue. Is this because doing so would contradict some of his policies on illegal aliens?

  •  At the church in Charleston, the 1st Sunday after the horrible, senseless, and racially motivated murders, our President worshipped at the church, spoke, and even sang Amazing Grace; it was a proud moment for Americans and people of faith especially. He did the right thing; he should have been there that Sunday to bring a hurting church, city, state, and nation together. On Thursday July 16th heavily armed Mohammad Abdulazeez, a young Muslim American man, who based on ISIS social-media postings both before and after the events of that day, had obviously bought in to the Muslim rhetoric of these terrorists and their thousands of posts on social media each day, opened fire at two different military establishments in Chattanooga, TN killing ultimately 5 unarmed soldiers. While President Obama did address publicly these murders calling them ‘heartbreaking’, he has not visited Chattanooga nor has he even shown a willingness to fly the flag at the White House at Half-Staff to honor these veterans who served their country so well. Where is the Department of Justice investigation into the mosque and or people who may have radicalized the shooter? Where is the visit to a Chattanooga house of worship the 1st Sunday after the same senseless, hatred motivated murders as that of Charleston? Why is it news that NFL and former University of Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning showed up with his wife announced at the site in Chattanooga to pay his respects? Part of the reason this has been such ‘big’ news is because by his being present Manning gave witness to the conspicuous absence of our Commander-In-Chief who was playing golf at Andrews Air Force Base of all places.

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