March 16, 2009

We should certainly pray for the president. We should pray for wisdom for him, for strength for him, for protection for him and his family. But where his plans clearly oppose righteousness, we should pray they fail. Where his plans clearly are intended to do harm to the people he leads, contrary to the oath he swore before God, God’s people should pray that those plans do not succeed.

Reasonable men are now beginning to question whether or not Barack Obama is intentionally acting to harm the interests of the American people. (See the American Enterprise Institute’s Kevin Hassett, and mainstream media pundit Howard Fineman). Can God’s people stand idle and allow their elected leader to undermine righteousness? To do so is to be complicit in the unrighteous deeds of our elected leader. We have an obligation to hold him to account, and Barack Obama is ultimately accountable to the Judge of all the earth.

During his first 50 days in office, President Obama has clearly acted in opposition to righteousness by lifting the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, reversing the Mexico City Policy which forces the use of your tax dollars to fund abortions at overseas abortion facilities, and by acting to rescind the “conscience clause” which protects doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical personnel from participating in abortions against their personal, private convictions.

He has elevated science above God by appealing to science rather than to morality in deciding to sacrifice the lives of future generations of unborn children for the false promise of “cures” for the present generation.

His economic policy, which has been touted as a "stimulus," puts an unfair burden on future generations as they assume the responsibility for repaying the debt he is amassing, and unfairly takes the income from those who have worked hard to earn it and gives it, in some cases, to the slothful, a vice the word of God clearly says should not be rewarded.

His planned closure of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay places the security of every American in jeopardy, as does his announced plans to negotiate with terrorist actors like Hamas and terror-sponsoring states like Iran.

His call for government-run day care for children as young as two years old removes children from the care and nurture of their parents and turns them over to the state, undermining parental authority, which is given by God.

We could go on (we haven’t even touched on Obama’s plans to destroy the institution of marriage and the family through his legitimizing homosexual practice, the lobbyists he has appointed to his administration after promising not to do so, the corruption of some of his cabinet members who knowingly evaded paying their taxes, and on and on).

Based on the policy positions alone, there is solid evidence that Barack Obama has made himself an enemy of God and the enemy of God’s people. God enjoins us to pray for our enemies, therefore we should pray for Barack Obama—but not that his plans succeed, but rather that they fail.

There is scriptural precedent for praying that the ungodly plans of God’s appointed leader fail. David repeatedly prayed that King Saul’s plans against him would fail. 

Because President Obama has so clearly revealed an agenda that de-values the cause of life and has provided abundant evidence that his policies do not serve the cause of righteousness, I am encouraging all God-fearing followers of Jesus Christ to begin praying that God in his sovereign grace would hinder him and the agenda he has sought to advance with such breathtaking speed.

Will you join me?

Paul Edwards is a regular columnist and the host of “The Paul Edwards Program” heard daily on WLQV in Detroit. Contact Paul at paul@godandculture.com.