How would you vote?
Why would you vote that way?
Why would you vote that way?
An African-American pastor has put his fellow Southern Baptists in the awkward position of having to decide whether to congratulate President Obama, a mainline Christian and liberal Democrat with whom they disagree on just about every major social and political issue.
Rev. Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, has filed a resolution asking the Southern Baptist Convention to celebrate "the historic nature of the election of President Barack Hussein Obama as a significant contribution to the ongoing cause of racial reconciliation in the United States."
McKissic's resolution will be considered at the SBC's annual meeting June 23-24 in Louisville, Ky. The 16-million member SBC, the nation's largest body of Protestants, has never been shy about expressing its official position on anything from Disney to Mormons. It recent years, it was one of George W. Bush's biggest supporters and one of Bill Clinton's harshest critics.
But McKissic's resolution acknowledges that Southern Baptists don't subscribe to Obama's politics or policies. It asks Southern Baptists to pray the president "will use the constitutional authority assigned to his office to promote liberty and justice for all people, including the unborn." It also pledges to join hands with Obama to "advance causes of racial justice insofar as those efforts are consistent with biblical principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."