Christians and Obama

CNN reports the following about a minister speaking at a McCain rally:

A minister delivering the invocation at John McCain’s rally in Davenport, Iowa Saturday told the crowd non-Christian religions around the world were praying for Barack Obama to win the U.S. presidential election.

“There are millions of people around this world praying to their god—whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah—that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons. And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their God is bigger than you, if that happens,” said Arnold Conrad, the former pastor of Grace Evangelical Free Church in Davenport.

If this is evidence of anything, it is the twisted American Evangelical idea that Christian values are the same as Republican values.

Many Christians want Obama to win, not primarily because he professes to be a Christian himself, but because he has plans regarding the economy and health insurance which are in line with the teachings and emphases of the Bible, and yet are part of a key blind spot in conservative Christianity’s vision of the Bible.

It is to McCain’s credit that, for the most part, he has denounced a number of recent instances of hate speech and false claims made about Obama. (In the video that follows, are people in the crowd really shouting what it sounds like?!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVFWahLTdUo

The most bizarre thing of all is not that many Christians are opposed to Obama. What truly boggles the mind is that anyone could in essence shout “Execute him! Crucify him!” and think that they are standing on the side of Christianity.