Thursday Thinking - Hail to the Chief

Dr. Russell Moore is a conservative cultural commentator who serves as the Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he also serves as Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics.

I hope all my thoughtful Christian friends, both conservative and liberal, will take a few minutes to read what he posted on his blog the morning after the 2012 election--a short essay titled "Christians, Let's Honor the President."

Here is a short excerpt from that post:

However we voted in the election, let’s pray for God to bless our President. We can pray for him to be granted wisdom and health. We can pray that God would prosper his good ideas, and change his mind on his bad ideas. Moreover, we can teach our children to respect our President, starting with referring to him as “President Obama” or “Our President,” not as “Obama” or “the guy our parents voted against” or what have you.

There’s a time to vote. There’s a time to campaign. And there’s a time to petition. But, through it all, let’s be the people who, even as we speak with conviction, are marked by kindness and respect. When we have to differ with President Obama, let’s do that, with backbone. But let’s make sure we do all this with honor, with respect, with prayer, and, most of all, with love.

Let’s render unto Caesar, as free people with natural rights. Because we know as believers that we will eternally say “Jesus is Lord,” we can as citizens temporally say, “Hail to the chief.”

Click Here to Read the Entire Post

One more post-election observation...

I thought Mitt Romney's concession speech was a class act. He was gracious, poised, and respectful. He kept the focus on America, his concerns, and his hopes, not on fear, partisanship, or his personal loss. This helped set the tone for his audience who, though disappointed, managed to be positive even in the first intense moments of defeat.

This was a marked improvement over what I remember seeing during McCain's concession speech back in 2008 where much to McCain's genuine embarrassment the newly elected President Obama was booed. So kudos, Mr. Romney, for taking the high road and showing us the respectable way to face a difficult loss.