Congratulations to George W. Bush, the President of the United States, on his landmark victory last night. The President now joins an elite group of Americans to be twice elected to the highest office in our land. He surpasses the election victories of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, the only other father and son presidential team in American history. The President “redeemed” his own father’s 1992 election defeat, by achieving what George Bush, Sr. was unable to achieve—a second presidential victory. Unlike the election of 2000, the President won both the popular and electoral college vote. Though the margin of victory over Senator John Kerry was nominal, high voter turnout gave the President the largest popular vote in history.

American Christians have a biblical duty to pray for, love, and honor the chief magistrate in our nation. We also have a duty to help our President by holding him accountable to his oath of office to uphold the Constitution, and his non-optional, biblical duties to uphold and enforce the moral law of God.

The Next Four Years
We must learn from history and experience. Republicans are significantly more conservative when they are out of office. With Republican control over the Senate, House and Executive Branch, key checks and balances are absent. Christians must rise above partisan loyalties, must remain informed on the issues, and must hold our friends accountable to an objective and transcendent standard. If we love the President, we can do nothing less.

Paralyzed by the fear of a Kerry victory, Christians have largely failed to speak truth to our President and to one another. We have made the issue John Kerry, rather than the objective standards of God to which all leaders are held to account. The present Administration has embraced civil unions and legal rights for sodomites, sending women into combat, the highest tax payer subsidies for Planned Parenthood in American history, and massive federal involvement in education, and he has denied the essence of the Christianity on national television by claiming that Islam can lead people to Heaven. By and large, Christians have refused to believe the truth, have refused to act on the truth, or have actively covered the truth because they have made their goal partisan outcomes rather than the righteousness of God which exalteth a nation.

We can not continue down this path for four more years. We should fear the impact on our nation of Christian compromise more than the spread of humanism. Because Christians are God’s chosen people, we have a special duty to rise above partisan interests and factionalism so that we can be the Lord’s representatives in this nation. We must be the first to praise a leader for righteous conduct and the first to hold leaders accountable for advocating policies which are an offense to the moral law of God. We must eschew the hypocritical and idolatrous tendency often found in our camp to berate Democrats for sins, but to cover, deny and even facilitate the sins of Republicans. We must be the one group that is known as truly independent of partisan factionalism. We must be the one group that always raises the righteous standard in the land.