Obama: Heaven Sent?

Its hard to discuss something these days that does not involve the election of Barack Obama as the next President of the United States. One of the first questions I thought of after last week's historic election was - was Obama a gift from God? Its not out of the realm of normalcy to ask that question. After all, many conservative Christians believed that George W. was selected by God. In fact, W himself thought so.

I had a debate with someone several months back about how the Obama campaign was trying to portray Obama as the Messiah (a.k.a. Jesus). My argument was that I highly doubt the campaign was intentionally doing it. If any comparisons to Jesus were made, they were only because Jesus himself is an amalgam of common themes of revolution, change, and redemption.

Call me crazy, but I can see how some people believe Obama is ordained by God to lead our country. I can't believe I'm saying that, because when people said that about W, I thought they were nutso. After all, what else could explain the financial meltdown that so greatly contributed to his landslide victory, if not God's intervention? ***Editors note: (Iif you really want to know what caused the U.S./world financial crisis, This American Life did a great episode entitled "The Giant Pool of Money" that explains it.)***

A look at what Obama's targeting for his first few weeks in office certainly seem divine. He's already planning on closing Guantanamo Bay, where many have been wrongfully imprisoned for years without any sort of Constitutional (and arguably any civil) rights, and giving those detainees fair trials within the U.S. It's also speculated that he will immediately reverse some of W's executive orders that allow oil drilling in the national parks.

I think rather than him being sent from God, its probably more likely that he's just a good follower of God. Someone who knows how to truly mesh his faith with his job. Not just someone who *says* he does.