Amy Deardon

Normally I do my writing first thing before I turn on the internet, but today I just wanted to "check" my email and you know how that goes! Anyway, I found this blog entry on Miralee Ferrell's blog and was so moved that I decided to post this letter as well.

Huntley Brown is "a Christian concert pianist whose versatile repertoire includes classical, jazz, gospel, reggae and many other styles." In part of his confirmation letter to snopes he writes, "To be honest I can't wait to vote for the first black President but it has to be a person who shares the values I read in the Bible."

Huntley Brown is an African American who was born in Jamaica and now is a US citizen. He wrote this letter privately, but it was picked up and forwarded on email. He writes in his confirmation letter to snopes that "I am not a politician. I am not a Democrat or a Republican. I am a Christian independent who just loves the Lord...The sad part is I have been getting hate mail and family is being harassed."

There were some parts of this letter that he wished had not been shared, and I've cut those places out of respect for his wishes.

*****

Why I Can't Vote For Obama
By Huntley Brown



Dear Friends, A few months ago I was asked for my perspective on Obama, I sent out an email with a few points. With the election just around the corner I decided to complete my perspective. Those of you on my e-list have seen some of this before but it's worth repeating...

First I must say whoever wins the election will have my prayer support. Obama needs to be commended for his accomplishments but I need to explain why I will not be voting for him.

Many of my friends process their identity through their blackness. I process my identity through Christ. Being a Christian (a Christ follower) means He leads I follow. I can't dictate the terms He does because He is the leader.

I can't vote black because I am black; I have to vote Christian because that's who I am. Christian first, black second. Neither should anyone from the other ethnic groups vote because of ethnicity. 200 years from now I won't be asked if I was black or white. I will be asked if I knew Jesus and accepted Him as Lord and Savior.

In an election there are many issues to consider but when a society gets abortion, same-sex marriage, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning to name a few, wrong economic concerns will soon not matter.

We need to follow Martin Luther King's words, don't judge someone by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I don't know Obama so all I can go off is his voting record. His voting record earned him the title of the most liberal senator in the US Senate in 2007.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Obama: Most Liberal Senator in 2007 (01/31/2008)

To beat Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton as the most liberal senator, takes some doing. Obama accomplished this feat in 2 short years. I wonder what would happen to America if he had four years to work with.

There is a reason Planned Parenthood gives him a 100 % rating. There is a reason the homosexual community supports him. There is a reason Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Castro, Hamas etc. love him. There is a reason he said he would nominate liberal judges to the Supreme Court. There is a reason he voted against the infanticide bill. There is a reason he voted No on the constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. There is a reason he voted No on banning partial birth abortion. There is a reason he voted No on confirming Justices Roberts and Alito. These two judges are conservatives and they have since overturned partial birth abortion. The same practice Obama wanted to continue.

Think about this: You can't give a kid an aspirin without parental notification but that same kid can have an abortion without parental notification. This is insane.

There is a reason he went to Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years.

Obama tells us he has good judgment but he sat under Jeremiah Wright teaching for 20 years. Now he is condemning Wright's sermons. I wonder why now?

Obama said Jeremiah Wright led him to the Lord and discipled him. A disciple is one in training. Jesus told us in Matthew 28:19 - 20 'Go and make disciples of all nations.' This means reproduce yourself. Teach people to think like you, walk like you; talk like you believe what you believe etc. The question I have is what did Jeremiah Wright teach him?

Would you support a White President who went to a church which has tenets that said they have a ...

1. Commitment to the White Community
2. Commitment to the White Family
3. Adherence to the White Work Ethic
4. Pledge to make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the White Community.
5. Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting White Institutions
6. Pledge allegiance to all White leadership who espouse and embrace the White Value System
7. Personal commitment to embracement of the White Value System.

Would you support a President who went to a church like that?

Just change the word from white to black and you have the tenets of Obama's former church. If President Bush was a member of a church like this, he would be called a racist. Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton would have been marching outside.

This kind of church is a racist church. Obama did not wake up after 20 years and just discover he went to a racist church. The church can't be about race. Jesus did not come for any particular race. He came for the whole world.

A church can't have a value system based on race. The churches value system has to be based on biblical mandate. It does not matter if it is a white church or a black church it's still wrong. Anyone from either race that attends a church like this would never get my vote.

Obama's former Pastor Jeremiah Wright is a disciple of liberal theologian James Cone, author of the 1970 book A Black Theology of Liberation. Cone once wrote: 'Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him.

Cone is the man Obama's mentor looks up to. Does Obama believe this?

So what does all this mean for the nation?

In the past when the Lord brought someone with the beliefs of Obama to lead a nation it meant one thing - judgment.

Read 1 Samuel 8 when Israel asked for a king. First God says in 1 Samuel 1:9 'Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.'

Then God says

1 Samuel 1:18 ' When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.' 19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. 'No!' they said. 'We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.' 21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. 22 The LORD answered, 'Listen to them and give them a king.'

Here is what we know for sure.

God is not schizophrenic

He would not tell one person to vote for Obama and one to vote for McCain. As the scripture says, a city divided against itself cannot stand, so obviously many people are not hearing from God.

Maybe I am the one not hearing but I know God does not change and Obama contradicts many things I read in scripture so I doubt it.

For all my friends who are voting for Obama can you really look God in the face and say; Father based on your word, I am voting for Obama even though I know he will continue the genocidal practice of partial birth abortion. He might have to nominate three or four Supreme Court justices, and I am sure he will be nominating liberal judges who will be making laws that are against you. I know I can look the other way because of the economy.

I could not see Jesus agreeing with many of Obama's positions. Finally I have two questions for all my liberal friends.

Since we know someone's value system has to be placed on the nation,

1. Whose value system should be placed on the nation.

2. Who should determine that this is the right value system for the nation?

Blessings, Huntley Brown

*****

In his letter to Snopes, Mr. Brown also states that "if Senator Obama wins he can count on my prayer support ever day." Mr. Brown emphatically declares he is NOT "against gay people or against people who have had abortions... We are all sinners saved by grace but we need to have some absolute laws to govern society or else we will self destruct."

This articulate letter touched me deeply, and I hope it does for you too.

My dear friends, we stand on the cusp of great changes in this country, changes that may last for generations, and may affect this country in a profoundly negative way.

America is founded on great and true principles: that all men are created equal, that the government derives its power from the people rather than people receiving *rights* from the government. Yes, we have blemishes and incidences of hypocrisy in our history, starting with the ownership of slaves by some of the Founders (an evil, BTW, fought and finally excised with the blood of many more than half a million men). What other country offers the freedom, the generosity, the *City on a Hill* that so many peoples from other countries run to? What other country has liberated so many others, not to keep but to help and guide to become free, independent?

Read again the words of Emma Lazarus, whose poem is engraven on the Statue of Liberty:

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
by Emma Lazarus, New York City, 1883

Our God-given freedoms have been eroding for awhile, but this election seems to have the potential of putting in place a great acceleration in the process. Please, dear friends, don't let our blood-bought freedoms go so easily. We need to turn back to God. Pray for His mercy on our land.

*********
2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (NIV)

As I watch the playing out of this election, I find myself increasingly dismayed. One thing that I'm noticing is the very different outlook of the two major candidates. There are many policy points, but a general observation might be that one party champions individual efforts while the other wants to establish governmental monopolies that will produce *universal* solutions to groups of people to *make things more equal*.

Whenever people start talking about *groups* I get nervous, because it's very easy to lose the individual's autonomy within the group's well-being. For example, I am horrified at the vilification of *Joe the Plumber*. Doesn't the character assassination of this man seems like overkill for his simply asking an honest question? Is *Joe the Plumber's* individual reputation worth trading for whatever group benefit may supposedly result? The point is, ad hominem attacks don't change the fact that he asked a good question that applies to many many people.

I'd like to quote CS Lewis from "Man or Rabbit?" in his collection of essays, God in the Dock. He says:

"To the Materialist things like nations, classes, civilizations must be more important than individuals, because the individuals live only seventy odd years each and the group may last for centuries. But to the Christian, individuals are more important, for they live eternally; and races, civilizations and the like, are in comparison the creatures of a day."

No matter what your political views, I hope that you are in prayer for our country for this critical election. (2 Chronicles 7:14)