“Hope and Compassion” by Rev. Parrish Jones

Rev. Parrish Jones

I am a Christian and a minister of the Presbyterian Church USA. I do not in anyway wish to imply that the only conclusion one can reach as a Christian is mine. However, this is why “a Christian”, namely, me, supports Obama.

I believe that Jesus did not nor never would condone the use of weapons against others. That claim is a conclusion based on an argument that I cannot make here. The most I believe Jesus would allow in the way of violence is protecting oneself, family or others with whom one is in direct contact. That exception is made on the basis that self-defense responds immediately and directly to the one attacking. No collateral damage. There is no way war is self-defense even of a nation and it also involves massive collateral damage and, let nobody fool you, contemporary war is more violent and causes more collateral damage than any time in history.

Jesus taught that love was the tool of Christian response. Does that mean Christians need to be wimps? Quite the contrary, Christians must be persons of incredible courage, but not courage derived from oneself or from adrenaline, but from the soul fed on the spirit of God. We have seen such courage expressed by Christians and non-Christians. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Lech Walensa, Nelson Mandela, and even the young people at Tianamen Square, thousands of Filippinos who stood against Ferdinand Marcos. The book “A Force More Powerful” tells the history of peaceful movements that led to revolutions in the 20th century or effectively confounded the Nazis in Poland, Denmark, Hungary, and against the Czars and Soviets.

Thus I support Obama who I hope and pray will end the Bush era trenchant for using war to carry out U.S. policy. There are many other ways to deal with the regimes we find threatening. Yet, we also need a less ideological approach to determining who is really a threat. Senator McCain seems bent on continuing the hard line approaches of the Cold War. We need more diplomacy. Who knows? If we actually talk to Iran instead of sending ultimatums as the EU recently did, they may actually come around. After all, they want to participate in the world economy and their people want freedoms we have but are willing to forego freedoms in the name of national esteem.

I also support Obama because I believe he wants and will work for a more just and hospitable culture with themes of compassion instead of fear and anger. The scriptures are filled with the demand of social, economic and political justice. We even pray in most churches every Sunday “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven.” As Jim Wallis says, “What is it that Christians don’t get?” Is not heaven supposed to be a place of justice, peace, economic equality, and so on. So what are we praying for? We must be praying that through the body of Christ, we will work for those aspects of the Kingdom to be realized on earth.

I am also for Obama because the Earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof. That means a concern for the creation must be high on our priority list. While Senator McCain is far better than GWB on this issue, he is not likely to buck the leadership of his party, nor their dependence on supporters who wish to trash the environment. With Gore as a supporter and adviser it is most likely that Obama will be an environmental president.

Finally, I am for Obama for my children and grandchildren and not for the usual reasons, although those are a part. When children are baptized they are not baptized by one congregation or minister, but by the church in the name of God, Christ, and Holy Spirit. As members of the body of Christ, they share a unique identity with all Christians and all Christians vow to nurture them. I do not want my children growing up believing that revenge and violence are proper responses to danger. I hope they will experience love and peace. Nor do I want them living in a perpetual state of fear. Eight years of that is enough. [One may say that we've only had six, but from the beginning of his administration, GWB was perpetrating the notion that we lived in a dangerous world (Axis of Evil) where we had nothing to do but be afraid and depend on him to protect us]. I hope for a world in which my children and grandchildren and yours and theirs will not see people who differ from them, will not see those who live outside our borders or wish to cross our borders as dangerous and threatening. I hope for a world in which children are nurtured in hope and compassion.

Peace, if it means anything, is a sense of certainty that the overwhelming majority of people in the world want that for themselves and their children also.

Peace,
Rev. Parrish Jones
Washington, DC

“What Might We Become?” by Rev. Steve Westbrook

Rev. Steve Westbrook

What might we become if someone would have the audacity to hope? What could we overcome if someone would call us to a higher vision of ourselves as global citizens? How might the world change if someone does justice, loves kindness, and walks humbly?
Imagine a world where those who can’t hope for themselves… find it… by those who hope on their behalf… and work to help them. Dream of a world where people seek first to rid the enemy within before the enemy without. Think many thoughts about a picture-perfect world in which the hungry are fed, the lost are found, the wounded are healed and the forgotten are named and claimed.

I am one person, like Barack Obama, who has the audacity to hope. I am one person, like Barack Obama, who yearns for us to have a higher vision of ourselves as global citizens. I am one person, like Barack Obama, who strives to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly. I am one person, like Barack Obama, who cares about those who can’t hope. I am one person, like Barack Obama, who looks deep within before ever looking out toward others. I am one person, like Barack Obama, who dares to dream of a picture-perfect world… until it is so.

I am one person.
I am one clergy.
I am for Barack Obama…
not only as he seeks to become President of the United States, but as he seeks to be an historical voice of help and hope and healing.

Rev. Steve Westbrook
Lee’s Summit, MO