Monday, March 03, 2008

McCain or Obama? (Part 2)

I like Barack Obama. Here is an intelligent, well-educated Black man who is married to an equally-intelligent and educated Black woman (his only wife), who with his wife is raising two beautiful daughters (Two-parent families are becoming so rare in the Black community that I almost want to vote for him on that count alone!). Obama represents an increasingly rare find in the Black community: a male role model. Many young Black men define success as lots of money and sex, as evidenced by the inordinate amount of money spent in the Black community on fashion and transportation, and the multitude of babies fathered by these young men born to girls they never intend to marry. This abysmal state of affairs in the Black community is partially the result of the glaring lack of positive male role models within the Black community. Barack Obama is a positive Black male role model.

The success of Barack Obama’s candidacy to date seems to represent a major shift in the ongoing saga of race in America. For the first time in the history of the United States, we have a truly viable candidate for President who is Black. The possibility that a Black man could become the President of the United States is a just cause for excitement in the Black community. We’re talking about a country that enslaved Black people a mere 143 years ago—and, let me remind you, that’s not a long time ago. I knew my great-great grandfather, who was the son of former slaves. Slavery is past, but it’s not ancient history. The success of Barack Obama’s candidacy is an event of historic significance.

Yet, my excitement about Barack Obama is tempered by the fact that Obama is pro-choice in his position on abortion. He feels the decision to have an abortion should be between a woman, her doctor and her own conscience. That position sounds admirable but, of course, it leaves out the fact that abortion is the destruction of human life. Abortion is not merely a medical procedure that should be open to choice; it is a moral and ethical travesty that should be outlawed.

My excitement about Barack Obama is also tempered by the fact that Obama is in favor of homosexual civil unions and, apparently, for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). No good can come from the approval and normalization of homosexuality. The word of God is clear: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20). I do not hate homosexuals, nor do I endorse discrimination against them. But neither do I endorse the recognition, approval and normalization of sin which is the goal of the homosexual right movement to which Obama seems to be giving his support. On these two issues—abortion and homosexual rights—I believe Obama is absolutely wrong.

So, my choice should be simple: just vote for McCain. I wish it were that simple.

(To be continued…)

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