FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 8, number 6, February 5, 2009

Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate, Amos 5:15.

Open Letter to President Obama

President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

January 26, 2009

Dear Mr. President,

I, along with millions in our nation, rejoice that we have progressed to the point where a majority white culture has elected an African American man to be President of the United States. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and vividly remember as a young child the Whites Only, Colored Only signs over drinking fountains and bathrooms. I remember Whites Only restaurants. I was eleven years old when Bull Connor turned the German shepherd dogs and fire hoses on the children at Kelly Ingram Park in April, 1963. I remember the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in September of that year, killing four young black children. I remember the confrontation in March, 1965 in Selma when the Alabama State Troopers turned back hundreds of demonstrators with tear gas at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Indeed we have come so far toward racial justice. I am not naïve. I know racism and bigotry still exist in our country, but the progress is truly encouraging.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 began the slow movement toward racial equality in our country, and I am thankful for those who gave their lives to guarantee all American citizens the right to vote. In your recent inauguration you drew parallels between yourself and President Lincoln, taking a train along the same tracks, from Philadelphia to Washington, as Lincoln did in March, 1861, laying your hand on the Lincoln Bible as you took the oath of office. Your desire to stand on the shoulders of one who did so much to abolish the injustice of slavery is commendable.

If you are earnest in your desire to hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate, as Lincoln so wonderfully was, then I urge you, Mr. President, to change your position on abortion. Surely the unborn are an oppressed minority in America. Surely you know they are human, made in the image of God, and should thus be protected by the Constitution of the United States. The slaughter of the innocents has now passed fifty million in our nation and their blood cries out from the ground. Abortion surely is a blot on our collective conscience as slavery was.

I want to believe that you are endeavoring to love justice, to do mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. I hope you are one who wishes to let justice roll down like waters, righteousness like a mighty stream. Will you not reconsider your position which denies unborn children the light of day?

Science has proven without equivocation that the fetus in the womb is fully human from the point of conception, but this argument does not sway the abortionist. Instead he says that the woman’s right to abort her child is an inherent right. Such thinking places humans in the place of God. In this view “might makes right”, and this is precisely what the slave owners in the antebellum south believed. They were the majority. They were in power. “Might makes right.” Thankfully Abraham Lincoln stood against such error. In essence he said, “Right makes right.” He knew slavery was unjust and stood against it.

Mr. President, you know in your heart of hearts that abortion is unjust. You have the Bible which clearly upholds the sanctity of human life. You have the law of God written on your heart. You know your dear Malia and Sasha are made in the image of God and you would do anything to protect them from injustice. There is no need whatsoever for children to be aborted. There are plenty of couples in our country who would gladly adopt our unwanted children. You have a wonderful opportunity to continue the legacy of Lincoln. You too can say, “Right makes right.” It is simply the right thing to do, to outlaw abortion. You are currently riding a wave of unparalleled popularity. Will you not use your position of power and popularity to take the heritage of Abraham Lincoln to an unprecedented level? You can become the greatest President since Lincoln by becoming the advocate for the last oppressed minority in our country. I humbly urge you to do all you can to turn back the evil of abortion which is destroying the heart and soul of our great nation.


I am,

Sincerely yours,

Allen Baker, Pastor, Christ Community Presbyterian Church, West Hartford, CT

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.

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