Obama & Romney: Debating the Future

 

James 4:14

 

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

 

I find this picture fascinating because it shows two faces Janus-like of America. Obama, a person of color, Liberal, a believer in the efficacy of government is meeting human need. Romney, white, corporate, and proponent of business. Smiling, all happy. But, there is a less than happy side to their visions of the world. 

 

Both men are religious. Obama's social gospel is a tired replaying on the evils of structures and institutions. Romney's do-goodism in the Mormon church realm seems divorced from Bain Capitals strategy of busting companies into bankruptcy regardless of the human consequences to enhance the bottom line of Bain and its clients. Both belief sets mutate biblical teachings. 

 

On the upside, there are admirable qualities that both men have. They work hard, are intelligent, loyal husbands, and responsible fathers. America could do a lot worse. Maybe we couldn't do better. I am not necessarily one who thinks a Christian leader as President would be best. Lincoln and Washington, considered our finest Presidents, were hardly orthodox yet were pious men of virtue and courage.

 

I watched the first debate on C-Span in small doses yesterday, taking time to reflect on a segment, pausing the streaming, to consider what each were saying. One thing I picked up on was the disputation of each other's facts. I got frustrated because it became a contest of trying to figure out who was telling the truth. They could not both be right. Then, it occurred to me that they were primarily arguing about projections and predictions of their policies in future, something by its very nature is not yet a fact. Even the past is a tangled mess of variables where cause and effect are hardly a clean line. There is no doubt that the presidency is important in charting the national course but the seas are hardly under our control.  

 

Man plans and God laughs. It surprised me that the debate got into this mode because it does not allow for a sifting of the truth. The debates should be more about principles, philosophy of governing, not boasting about what will happen if the man is elected. Who really knows, but the Lord. A little humility in our political discourse and debate will go along way to minimize the rhetoric and unrealistic hopes that we put into the political process. 

 

On a personal level, we should be exceedingly cautious about pronouncing and promising certain outcomes where we don't take into account the unpredictability of such prognostication. What we should promise is our principles. That is about the only thing that we internally control. Even Jesus didn't know when the world was going to end when He was on earth. He may still not know the date and time. That should give us pause.