A Letter That Should Be Famous
This past Wednesday, Joshua Caleb, a student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, published a blogpost titled, "My Letter to President-Elect Obama." His post includes the text for a letter that he actually mailed to the President-Elect, urging him to continue to expand the American founding principle of liberty and justice for all in defending the rights of the unborn.
Will the President-Elect read such a letter, when he doubtless receives an unthinkable amount of mail each day?
I think that we in the "blog-o-sphere" can help such a letter come to Obama's attention by publishing this letter on all of our blogs.
I ask you to join me in re-publishing this letter from Joshua Caleb to President-Elect Obama, the text of which follows:
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Barack Obama
President-Elect
of the United States of America
713 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, District of Columbia 20510
Dear Mr. President-Elect:
I write to congratulate you on your victory. Today will be remembered as a great day in the history of this nation because with your election we move one step closer to truly living out our creed that “all men are created equal.”
When this nation was founded, we proclaimed that equality was to all men on the basis of their common relation to their Creator. Even so, a great number of the residents of this land were regarded not as persons but as private property. Our highest court affirmed this great injustice in the Dred Scott decision. This nation affirmed the principle that one group of humans may promote their own prosperity-their own rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness-at the expense of another group of humans.
The events of the 1860s certainly tried the great American experiment forcing us to reexamine our fidelity to the creed that “all men are created equal.” Still, this nation avoided true faithfulness to our values by affirming a false doctrine of “separate but equal.” We continued our affirmation of the principle that one group of humans may promote their own prosperity at the expense of another group of humans. This injustice would not begin to crumble until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Your presidency is the fruit of those labors for equality and justice.
Nonetheless, our fight to truly and wholly affirm our creed that “all men are created equal” is not over.
Every year in this nation over one million persons die because our government and our courts deny equality and justice to them. Evidence shows that black and Hispanic persons are in particular danger to this great injustice. In Roe v. Wade, our high court reaffirmed the terrible principle that mars our history, the principle that one group of humans may promote their own prosperity at the expense of another group of humans.
Your party desires to increase this injustice by allowing tax dollars to pay for abortions and by loosening restrictions such as parental notification.
You have said that you are glad that your daughters live in a nation where they have the “right to choose” an abortion. Your reasoning is that without the threat of unwanted pregnancy, your daughters will have greater opportunity to achieve their dreams and their own prosperity. I am a father too, even though my child has not yet been born. I understand your desire to give your children the greatest possible opportunity for prosperity. Even so, I plan to teach my son to “do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2: 3). I do not want my son to pursue his own prosperity at the expense of others whether they are white, black, Hispanic, young, old, rich, poor, or unborn.
I think that you would agree with the principle that we must not promote our own prosperity at the expense of others. Indeed, you must agree since it is on this very basis that African-Americans have gone from slavery and segregation to the presidency. Therefore, I implore you to extend this American creed that “all men are created equal” to those without a voice, those who cannot cry out when their inalienable rights are violated, and to end your support of that contradictory principle that has plagued our history, the principle that one group of humans may promote their own prosperity at the expense of another group of humans.
As president, you have great power to do good, but you also have great power to do evil. I pray that you will choose good, put an end to evil in as far as you are able, and extend equality and justice to all persons on the basis of our common Creator. Remember that even though you will be called the Ruler of the Free World that title is in no way accurate for even you will have to answer to the true Ruler of the World.
“Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Psalm 2:10-12).
Sincerely,
Joshua Caleb Hutchens
Will the President-Elect read such a letter, when he doubtless receives an unthinkable amount of mail each day?
I think that we in the "blog-o-sphere" can help such a letter come to Obama's attention by publishing this letter on all of our blogs.
I ask you to join me in re-publishing this letter from Joshua Caleb to President-Elect Obama, the text of which follows:
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Barack Obama
President-Elect
of the United States of America
713 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, District of Columbia 20510
Dear Mr. President-Elect:
I write to congratulate you on your victory. Today will be remembered as a great day in the history of this nation because with your election we move one step closer to truly living out our creed that “all men are created equal.”
When this nation was founded, we proclaimed that equality was to all men on the basis of their common relation to their Creator. Even so, a great number of the residents of this land were regarded not as persons but as private property. Our highest court affirmed this great injustice in the Dred Scott decision. This nation affirmed the principle that one group of humans may promote their own prosperity-their own rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness-at the expense of another group of humans.
The events of the 1860s certainly tried the great American experiment forcing us to reexamine our fidelity to the creed that “all men are created equal.” Still, this nation avoided true faithfulness to our values by affirming a false doctrine of “separate but equal.” We continued our affirmation of the principle that one group of humans may promote their own prosperity at the expense of another group of humans. This injustice would not begin to crumble until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Your presidency is the fruit of those labors for equality and justice.
Nonetheless, our fight to truly and wholly affirm our creed that “all men are created equal” is not over.
Every year in this nation over one million persons die because our government and our courts deny equality and justice to them. Evidence shows that black and Hispanic persons are in particular danger to this great injustice. In Roe v. Wade, our high court reaffirmed the terrible principle that mars our history, the principle that one group of humans may promote their own prosperity at the expense of another group of humans.
Your party desires to increase this injustice by allowing tax dollars to pay for abortions and by loosening restrictions such as parental notification.
You have said that you are glad that your daughters live in a nation where they have the “right to choose” an abortion. Your reasoning is that without the threat of unwanted pregnancy, your daughters will have greater opportunity to achieve their dreams and their own prosperity. I am a father too, even though my child has not yet been born. I understand your desire to give your children the greatest possible opportunity for prosperity. Even so, I plan to teach my son to “do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2: 3). I do not want my son to pursue his own prosperity at the expense of others whether they are white, black, Hispanic, young, old, rich, poor, or unborn.
I think that you would agree with the principle that we must not promote our own prosperity at the expense of others. Indeed, you must agree since it is on this very basis that African-Americans have gone from slavery and segregation to the presidency. Therefore, I implore you to extend this American creed that “all men are created equal” to those without a voice, those who cannot cry out when their inalienable rights are violated, and to end your support of that contradictory principle that has plagued our history, the principle that one group of humans may promote their own prosperity at the expense of another group of humans.
As president, you have great power to do good, but you also have great power to do evil. I pray that you will choose good, put an end to evil in as far as you are able, and extend equality and justice to all persons on the basis of our common Creator. Remember that even though you will be called the Ruler of the Free World that title is in no way accurate for even you will have to answer to the true Ruler of the World.
“Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Psalm 2:10-12).
Sincerely,
Joshua Caleb Hutchens
Labels: Christian worldview
posted by Andrew Lindsey | 10:12 AM
1 Comments:
Andrew,
Thanks for posting my letter.
Joshua Caleb Hutchens
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