How About Sending an Ear Full to Mr. Joel Belz?!?!?!

[Lisa Karres]

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14734

Copyright © 2008 WORLD Magazine
December 13, 2008, Vol. 23, No. 25

Hoping for a stumble

Nobody should want to destroy a presidency, but many do | Joel Belz

Nothing was uglier—bordering even on treasonous—during the recent presidential campaign than the way George Bush's opponents seemed so regularly to welcome bad news from Iraq. Included among his "opponents" in that sense were the Democratic campaigns, for sure. But displaying the same despicable habit were many in the mainstream media.

Nor was the tendency limited to bad news about the war. Who will ever know the extent to which Democratic connivance and media lopsidedness didn't just respond to, but actually helped bring about, the current economic disaster?

But I mention that here not to heap still more criticism on Bush's opponents. I cite these issues instead as examples of behavior that biblically directed conservatives should take care to avoid in their own opposition in the months and years ahead to the presidency of Barack Obama.

I am hearing regularly from WORLD readers who seem intent on only one goal: They are zealous, already, for the failure of the Obama presidency. Indeed, nothing would make them happier than for the Obama presidency to be stillborn.

So, instead of quietly thanking God for a peaceful election and an apparently tranquil transfer of power—and then getting on with the monumental tasks before us—some of these folks won't be satisfied until they can prove that the Obama presidency itself is illicit. "In what sense," one Indiana subscriber asks me in an email, "am I biblically responsible to be subject to a man who unconstitutionally calls himself my president?"

Which makes me wonder: Did Nero have to produce a Roman Empire birth certificate before there was binding force to Paul's instruction in Romans 13? He's pretty straightforward: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment."

But it's not just individual letter-writers. You get the impression that whole conservative watchdog organizations face extinction if you don't give generously—today!—to ensure their ability to maintain litigation that will finally expose our new president's Islamic faith and alien roots. To which I am inclined to say: Good riddance! Let them collapse of their own awkward weight. If there was once a time to explore such bizarre possibilities, that time almost certainly ended with the election.

It's not the risks to the direct mail operatives that should worry us. It's the risk to the republic if we set millions of folks over against each other debating such technicalities. Do folks have any sense at all how devastating to orderliness it might be for a challenge to the legitimacy of Obama's presidency to gain even minimal traction?

Here's the point: Never let it be legitimately said that our main goal is to destroy our opponent or his presidency. Always let it be said that our focus is on the issues themselves—and that, having debated those issues, we are content to leave in God's sovereign hands the political results.

Admittedly, such a distinction may not always be easy to maintain—and especially so with someone who has an agenda so unambiguously fastened to the liberal left. His support for abortion, for special privileges for homosexuals, for state-controlled education, for overweening government regulation, and a hundred other liberal causes is well established. And his calculated coolness in driving that agenda heightens the temptation to expose every conceivable weakness of the man instead of seeking, through the electoral and legislative process, to defeat the policy enactment of his program. It's time to prove it possible again to say: "We respect you, Mr. President—along with your office. And at the same time we think you are very wrong."

Unless we learn to do that, though—and not just in a trivial way—we demean the very office we want to uphold. Indeed, we demean the very Constitution some folks claim they are honoring in their efforts to prove an Obama presidency an illicit affair. We end up doing the very thing to our present opponent that we found so ugly and distasteful over the last few years when we were watching it in reverse.

And no more now than on the playgrounds of our youth will it count for much to say: "He hit me first!"

If you have a question or comment for Joel Belz, send it to [e-mail].

[Tankwagon]

I am an avid reader of World Magazine and for the most part have agreed with Joel Belz in other articles. To call him an idiot, commuinst, or islam extremist based soley on this article is very innacurate. This was one issue I disagreed with him on. But if you have read his collums in the past, he is a very staunch conservative, and is quite harsh on liberals when they promote their agenda. Belz took on Obama harshly over the last year on several occasions and hammers liberals at every chance that arrises. He differs from me in that he does not go out seeking a battle, he waits for it to come to him. More than anything I detected a hint of defeatism in this article compared to previous writtings. It's like, ok, Obama won, we can demand a birth certificate but because the media and the courts are in the tank for him, it won't do any good. Like move on, lets take on his policies when they oppose Christian teachings and look to 2012. My judgement of this article is based on what I have seen of him as a whole and not one piece of work.

[Mary Brown]

How can he say we are going against our Constitution by demanding proof of Obama's eligibility to hold the office of President? Since we can't be discouraged by deing denied by the courts and being derided by the leftist liberals, this jerk is trying to make us feel guilty and using the scripture in his own self serving way. Our demands are legitimate and our concerns are with the best interests of our country at the very center - none of our efforts are to benefit ourselves. Should Obama release his birth certificate and provide proof of his "natural born" citizenship that will make his Presidency legitimate, we will stop our objections to his being sworn in as President. But, until he does this, he will not be my President nor will he receive or deserve my respect. Obama is the one who is demeaning the office of the President and trampling on our Constitution.

[JJ]

having debated those issues, we are content to leave in God's sovereign hands the political results.

Is this man an idiot, communist, islam extremist, or paid to say these things??

I hoope this idiot isn't in my detention camp!!!! He will likely have an unfortunate accident.