A video clip of a recent remark by actor Jamie Foxx referring to "our Lord and Savior Barack Obama" has been burning up Facebook, to predictable outrage from folks who didn't vote for him. "He's not the savior of anything," they're sneering. Of course not, and I don't think either Foxx or the audience who cheered that statement truly believes that, either.
Rather, I think that Foxx was trying to make a point -- recall that his adversaries spent the past four years trying to defeat him by whatever means they deemed necessary and in the process focusing on issues that had nothing to with governance. And even now people are saying "I fear for my country ... " just because Obama was reelected earlier this month despite their aggressive campaign to keep him from a second term.
Foxx's point? He was saying to the haters, "You ain't boss here."
Going deeper, too many of us Christians who lean conservative have convinced ourselves that adhering to that agenda was key to our nation's economic and spiritual prosperity when the Scripture doesn't even come close to saying that. Worse, we have our own demigod, Ronald Reagan, to justify our nostalgia kick, never mind that he paid only lip service to the "culture war" and that his economic policies ultimately resulted in disaster. Remember that he raised Federal taxes many times more often than he cut them, a sign that "supply-side economics" just didn't work, and -- horrors! -- even cut deals with Democrats.
To this day many Republicans say when they find themselves in a quandary, "What would Ronnie do?", never mind that it was Reagan himself, not the ideology he championed, that was popular.
But we also have become idolatrous in believing that the removal of the folks we consider God's "enemies" (read: liberals and Democrats) would be efficacious to God's intent. That we were unable to dislodge Obama and, before him, Bill Clinton from their places of power should give us pause. But I doubt that it will.
And that's the message that Foxx was trying to deliver. It's not that Jesus was on his side -- He wasn't on ours, either.
To this day many Republicans say when they find themselves in a quandary, "What would Ronnie do?", never mind that it was Reagan himself, not the ideology he championed, that was popular.
But we also have become idolatrous in believing that the removal of the folks we consider God's "enemies" (read: liberals and Democrats) would be efficacious to God's intent. That we were unable to dislodge Obama and, before him, Bill Clinton from their places of power should give us pause. But I doubt that it will.
And that's the message that Foxx was trying to deliver. It's not that Jesus was on his side -- He wasn't on ours, either.
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