Tina Rae Collins

Every day I hear and read disparaging comments and mocking remarks about our present president, the latest an e-mail calling President Barack Obama brainless. While I can appreciate disapproval or disappointment in any president, this behavior concerns me as I believe it exhibits a lack of faith in God. I do not understand why we Christians are so up in arms about politics or the economy or anything else related to President Obama. As the song says, "It's only the world we're living in." This world is not our home; we seek a better country. So we can rest knowing all is well.

On the other hand, do we not believe that God still controls the affairs of men? God raises up whom He wants. We do not want to rail against God. We have no idea what His purposes are or how His plans will unveil. We do not know how many people might turn to God because of what happens during this presidency. In fact, it may be that the abortion laws will be turned around because so many people will turn to God.

God raised up Pharaoh in Egypt and it did not turn out well for the Israelites. No, they were greatly oppressed. God then raised up Moses to go down and bring His people out of Egypt. But what happened to those people who were let go? They all died (except for Joshua and Caleb) in the wilderness. And why did they die? Because they failed to trust God and they murmured and complained. (Sound familiar?)

We need to stop our bellyaching and start trusting that God knows what He is doing here. He will work through this present situation in our country and make it turn out for the best.  And we need to learn to give thanks in all things and wait—wait, I say—upon the Lord!  It may not even be in our lifetime. We may never see the good God is doing today, especially if we keep complaining about it. But good will come!

President Obama must be pretty smart to have made it to the White House. He at least knew how to connect himself to the right people. His view is socialistic. He behaves with that in mind. That is not stupid. That is what we all do—act upon our principles and beliefs. If a man is democratic, he behaves democratically. If he is a socialist, he behaves like a socialist. That is not brainless.

God did not put His stamp of approval on democracy and only democracy for the earth. Sure it gives us freedom, and we like it. But God works just as well in a socialistic government or even an extremely oppressive society. God Himself puts people in oppression for a reason.

Christians, we prayed diligently that God not put this man in as our president. But He did anyway. So what are we to do now? Whimper about it, or trust that God knows best? We say, "Please, God, please, please, please, please, please do this for me. I love you so much. Please!" And God says no and then we say, "Man, I'm so upset that we didn't get this!" Whine, whine, whine, whine, whine.

Is that really to be our response to God when He answers our prayers and says no? Or are we to thank Him for hearing us and thank Him for doing what He knows is best even though we do not know it? What are we expressing when we whine? Are we saying we do not trust God's judgment or are we saying we don't believe God answers our prayers? Either way, it is not pretty.

My son Seth at fourteen behaved better than we do. He begged to go to high school. I told him no. For three days a misery hung over our house because of his sadness. But after the three days he came to me and knelt down at my bed and said, "Thank you, Mom, for doing what you think is best for me." Do you think he didn't still want to go to public school? Of course he did. But he trusted me to be doing what was best for him by homeschooling him. And in the next four years—yes, four years, the length of President Obama’s term—not one bleat or griping word came out of Seth’s mouth. Not one. He showed total respect for me, total faith in me, and total obedience to my decisions. Would that we were so mature and could show the same respect for God’s judgments!

Maybe we need to start thinking about why God has allowed President Obama to become our president. He does have a reason. And I know it is not so we can call the man brainless and murmur constantly about God’s choices. Come on, Christians, we can rise above this kind of thing! We need to put our hearts and minds on things of God and spend our time ministering to others and having graceful conversations seasoned with salt, not bad mouthing the President of the United States of America.

Plain Talk About Sarah Palin

or

Sarah Palin's Skirt Tails

The Republican Party has chosen a woman to run for the second highest office in the land. What have we come to that no man in this country is qualified to do the job and we had to pick a woman? Sodom and Gomorrha couldn't produce ten righteous souls, and the Republican Party can't offer up one man that is more fit than this woman to run for Vice-President of the United States. 

Isaiah 3:12  As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

How are we feeling about this shameful condition in our country? Surprisingly, some are excited. They are happy. In fact, they are downright jubilant. They are fascinated by Sarah Palin. Yes, men who aren't fit to run the country are pleased that a woman is seeking to be second highest in command of them. These are men who think they are in authority over their own women and wouldn't allow their women to be over them in any way in the church. But for some reason they like the idea of a woman's having power in other ways over them.

A funny thing happened on the way to the White House. Women flung off their role in the home. They flung off their femininity. For all intents and purposes, they flung off motherhood. They flung off their submission to their husbands. So why would it surprise us to see a woman pursue a high office in the country, and why wouldn't we accept it and even be excited about it?

Maybe it is not surprising at all, but I am confounded. I just don't comprehend how a woman may not be over a man in the home and she may not be over a man in the church but suddenly God is pleased if she rules over a man in the rest of her (and his) life. I have to wonder how Sarah Palin learned how to rule a man. She couldn't do it in the home. She couldn't do it in the church. Where did she get the talent, ability, and experience to rule a country of men unless her boots have been walking where they shouldn't have been walking?  

I don't know whether many people have considered it or not, but when Sarah Palin became a public official, she began ruling over her husband. And, if I were so bold, I'd like to ask the men who are excited about her nomination to the Vice-Presidency: Would you allow your own wife to be Vice-President and usurp authority over you? Would you be honored or humiliated to have your wife a heartbeat away from your commander-in-chief if you were a soldier? 

I guess roshen ears aren't corn. It reminds me of our worship/Bible study situation. Ten o'clock Sunday morning comes and we flip a switch in our head and it's just Bible study and women may talk. Eleven o'clock comes and we flip another switch in our head and it's worship time and women may not talk. We're doing the same things--or some of them (praying, studying, and singing)--but somehow God likes it when women talk at 10:00 but He gets hopping mad when they talk at 11:00. That is, except, of course, that a woman may confess Christ.  However, confession of sin should be whispered to the preacher, as it is a shame for a woman to speak in church. That is, of course, with the other exception of singing, which a woman must do. Don't ask me to explain all this; I can't.

But I reckon that's also how it has to be when Sarah Palin rules over her husband. If she is elected, when she and her husband walk out of their house and into official government buildings, we all just have to flip a switch and make it okay for her to rule over men.

1 Timothy 2:9  In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
10  But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.
11  Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
12  But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

Obviously, when it comes to usurping authority over a man, some take this to be only in the church and the home. But to be consistent, they would have to say that all of this scripture applies only in the church and the home. And in that case a woman may dress immodestly as long as she isn't in church or at home. And she doesn't have to do any good works except in church or at home. When a woman leaves her home or the church building, she may fling off her shamefacedness and sobriety. More than that, she may usurp authority over a man if she's not in church or in the home. This must be what some think; otherwise, they wouldn't be excited that Sarah Palin is hoping to usurp authority over her husband as well as every man in the country--except John McCain. 

Maybe the argument is that this scripture applies only in the spiritual realm. If so, then a woman may usurp authority over her husband at home in any matter that is not spiritual. She may tell her husband what house or car to buy. She may tell him what groceries to pick up and when to fix supper. She may tell him to bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan--and never ever let him think he's a man.

If this scripture indeed applies only in the spiritual realm, we have no basis for applying any of it across the board, and women must dress modestly in the church and at home, but when they go out into the world they can let it all hang out. Who can believe it? Not I. And one thing I know: We can't take part of this scripture and apply it to the spiritual realm and then take the other part and apply it to the secular realm. That is taking scripture out of context and making it fit with our preconceived notions.

We are worried, I know, about homosexuality and abortion, so we don't want Barack Obama in the White House. I recognize that danger. In fact, the thought of that man being President makes me cringe. But will homosexuality be abolished if McCain is elected? Will abortions cease or even be diminished? I don't think so. And we need to understand that God is concerned about authority and who rules whom. The line of authority is important to God. A man might as well usurp authority over Christ as a woman is to usurp authority over a man. Maybe we want to pick a lesser of two evils. But, frankly, I don't know which evil is worse, and I cannot vote for a woman.

If a woman is elected as Vice-President of the United States, she will lead our country to the shame and humiliation of every grown man. I hope men learn to be men and women learn to be women before it is too late. God has other ways of bringing us down if we don't learn quickly. Having a woman ruling over men may be only the beginning. 

I haven't even spoken about how a vote for Sarah Palin is a vote for a woman to leave her God-ordained role at home and take on the ruling of a country instead. Let's not even try to fool ourselves into thinking she can do both, and we might want to consider whether we want to support her abandonment of her children, including her nursing baby.

Mr. Palin has agreed to be Mr. Mom. He will try to be a helper meet for Sarah. And clearly she will be known in the gates, when she sits among the elders of the land. So Mr. Palin might be what many of us women aspire to be: a Proverbs 31 woman. Will women look to him then as a role model for being a good housewife? Or will we look to his wife as a role model for being a good leader? Will men look to Mr. Palin as a role model for being a good househusband? Or will they look to his wife as a role model for being a good leader? I don't know; but I know that God is not the author of confusion, and we are one confused nation. And we shake our heads and wonder why homosexuality and unwed mothers seeking abortions continue to flourish in the land.