CHANGING OF THE GUARD?

Christians and New Leadership

By: Carlos Solórzano

As the world prepares itself for the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama we need to ask ourselves how much change will indeed affect our lives. In other words, while an Obama administration will indeed make an immediate impact in terms of the change that he wanted us to believe in we need to ask ourselves how much really changes in regards to the game of politics that has been played in Washington for close to two and a half centuries. And, as Christians, how much of that is really supposed to affect our lives?

Christians confess their belief in the Gospel of Jesus Christ therefore if some of us voted for John McCain we need not be too disappointed as he was indeed not our light and our salvation. However, if we voted for President elect Obama we need not look to him for all of life's answers especially in this time of great challenge as he was not the one who died on the cross for our sins. But we must not be afraid to ask ourselves a very important question in an environment where two wealthy political parties battle for the rights to our minds.

Does our political ideology rank higher than our Christian beliefs?

If so, Christians need to seriously ask themselves if they are perhaps guilty of idolatry as we may not only be looking to a man for all of life's answers but also the various man made laws to justify our position. If we are guilty of either then we are indeed worshipping Caesar and are actually giving God what is due to God only on Sundays.

But as Jesus promised there is always hope in his word and I believe we can remind ourselves of that if we are willing to ask ourselves a number of challenging questions. I would love to have the privilege to start the discussion.

•  Are we victims of fear? In other words, do we allow the media's method of brainwashing affect our thoughts? If so, we are hypocrites. Take for example the number of Americans that shudder at the idea of President elect Obama using his middle name during the Inauguration proceedings. Didn't our first President also share the same first name as the King of England during the time of the American Revolution?

•  Obama's professed Christian faith along with his stance on abortion confuses and disappoints many Christians. Did we offer John McCain the same reaction in his support for the Iraq War along with his support for capital punishment?

•  While many of us opposed the Iraq War how many of us were further outraged at the hanging of Saddam Hussein? If there were indeed no weapons of mass destruction then an innocent man was ousted from his political position yet how many opponents of the war didn't speak out against his execution. Is that an indirect way of saying that these people really supported the war? (Note: How many Christians knew that Pope John Paul II offered Saddam Hussein political asylum in order to prevent the war?)

•  How many of us prefer to legislate our beliefs rather than evangelize them? Is that what Jesus did? If that were the case, it wouldn't have made any sense for Jesus to be a wandering preacher when he could've simply spent his ministry debating and convincing the Jewish leaders that his interpretation of the Mosaic Law was the correct one. Perhaps Jesus not only wanted us to listen to his message but also imitate his method of approach.

As Alan Jackson says in his song Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning , “faith hope and love are some good things he gave us, and the greatest is love.” We are called to love as Jesus loved and only love will change this world. Love not only for each other but also love for our opponents. Jesus sought to convert the hearts of people in order to teach us to see each other as a family, not as a threat. Yes, we can all agree that it is difficult to love as Jesus loved but we must have faith and hope in the true source of life, Jesus Christ.

I would like to close with a wonderful quote that I once read on a Christian greeting card: I never said it would be easy. I just said it would be worth it.

God bless us all!

CARLOS SOLORZANO has a BA & MA in Religious Studies from Cal State Long Beach. He lives in Southern Arizona and teaches theology at Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson , AZ

Contact Carlos at: desert_drumming@yahoo.com