Special Bulletin 13-2011

     The debate in Las Vegas Wednesday night obviously caused significant alarm among Republicans. The bickering and fighting among most of the candidates hit a new, and very discouraging low. As David Gergen said afterwards, President Obama was the biggest winner of that debate. There was no doubt much rejoicing in the White House as they watched this one.

     Though this debate may not have been fatal to any one candidate, it was no doubt a major setback to all of them, and to the Republican Party. As a conservative, and a Republican, I was deeply grieved by this debate, and I do not doubt that we will be seeing video clips of this debate from the Democratic Party and Obama campaign in ads through the election. Even so, there is hope!

     It is not time to give up, but it is time to wake up. During the debate the candidates looked more like capricious children fighting over a toy at the playground than those who could be the most powerful leader on the planet, with the notable exception of Newt Gingrich. Newt stayed on point, refused to attack his fellow Republicans, and tried to steer the others away from this devastating behavior. Newt did stand out as at least looking like an adult through the debate.

     Herman Cain was assailed from every side, and he might have done about as well as could be expected, especially having so little experience on this level. He may have held his ground, but it’s unlikely he gained any ground.

     Gov. Perry may have gained back some ground, and likely would have gained a lot back with his own more energetic performance if he had not been pulled into the personal bickering that just does not look presidential. However, it was the first time Romney did not look presidential in his demeanor. Romney probably lost the most by letting this happen because it was the main thing he had going for him, a seeming presidential demeanor, has now been penetrated.

     Even though this was a most discouraging debate, the encouragement is this—it has happened before, and often. Our Founding Fathers got into an even worse brawl at the Constitutional Convention. It got so heated, and the attacks so personal, that many feared fistfights, or even duels. When just about everyone was threatening to go home, and there was a real possibility that the fragile union would dissolve, a remarkable breakthrough happened. How? The same way we can get through the present state and come out into a remarkable place.

     At the height of the vitriol Benjamin Franklin prevailed on the delegates to take three days off to go to church and pray for Divine intervention. After this time of prayer such a unity came that the delegates returned to the convention hall and quickly drafted the Constitution that has preserved our nation to this day.

     Capricious, immature leaders is what the Lord told Israel they would have if they departed from Him. We are a nation that has departed from the Lord. Our leadership, in virtually every field, reflects just such a condition. We are not going to be able to get ourselves out of this one—but we have One who will most gladly help us if we will turn to Him.

     Let’s face it—there is no champion on the horizon that can save us. That is not a negative confession, but rather it can be an acknowledgement that causes us to turn to the only One who can get us out of this.

     In the great promise of II Chron.7:14 He promises that if His people will humble themselves and pray, turn from their wicked ways and seek His face, He will hear from heaven and heal their land. We are beyond human remedy, and the sooner that we realize this and turn to the only One who can get us out of the mess we’re now in, the better we will be.

     I am not saying this to disrespect any of the candidates. I still think all of those that I know much about are remarkable, but if we are going to make it through what we are now facing we will need more than the best human leader could provide. We must turn to the Lord, as a nation. We must have revival. We must have another Great Awakening that will return us to the only foundation that can stand the shaking that the whole world is now going through.

The Corinthian Model

     The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that they were still carnal because they had divisions. They were starting to form groups who followed certain leaders—some Paul, some Apollos, some Peter, and some Christ. We might think that they should have all been following Christ, but in this case Paul was rebuking that group too. Certainly being devoted to the Lord above any other is right, but this group at Corinth were using their devotion to Christ in a divisive way to separate themselves from the others, and therefore were just as guilty as the others of causing divisions. According to the Lord Himself, and the apostles, causing divisions is one of the worst things we can be guilty of.

     Could this be true in politics too? The mature can profoundly disagree without personally attacking those they disagree with. After my last bulletin on the candidates I received substantial evidence that many, if not most, conservative Christians are rising above this type of Corinthian divisiveness. There are many other ways I’ve been seeing evidence of this growing unity in the church. The most encouraging emails I got were from those who disagreed with some of my positions, but their responses were so gracious that I could not help but to consider their positions.

     Of course I always get some responses that are so shrill that it’s not possible to hear them, but these are a very small percentage of what I’ve been getting. This is even more remarkable because angry or negative people are far more prone to write responses, usually on about a ten to one scale. There is much evidence that the great sectarian divisions within the body of Christ have been coming down, and Christians are starting to honor and appreciate one another. This could even lead to us loving each other, and then the whole world will have to notice.

     This new respect for the different members of the body is not the result of compromised convictions—it is the result of real maturity. At the same time the sectarian divisions in our government are growing. Can the church help our government? That is what we are here for. Just as the Founding Fathers learned at the Constitutional Convention, prayer can move the hand that can remedy any problem—even our human differences.

The Eagle Will Soar Again

     Right now just getting conservatives to quit fighting and turning their energy to giving us solutions would be a major miracle. Could we stretch even more and bringing the whole country together? I know that takes incomprehensible faith just to consider, but an eagle needs both a left and a right wing to fly. Think about it.

     I would never advocate compromising our convictions, especially on moral and social issues. However, our entire ship of state is sinking, and if we don’t quickly decide that we are going to work together to fix some of the biggest holes in the ship we’re all going down.

     The divisions are so great right now that only a move of God could bring us together, and if we wake up to this it would end up being the best thing that could have happened to us. The solution:

	Pray
	Humble ourselves
	Turn from our wicked ways
	Seek His face

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