On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, took the oath of office. Part of the ceremony included an invocation that preceded the swearing in. To offer it, Mr. Obama selected Dr. Rick Warren, the pastor at the Saddleback Baptist Church in Irvine, California. Mr. Obama took quite a bit of political heat for choosing Dr. Warren. Why? Dr. Warren had actively (and successfully) fought against California Proposition 8 during the previous election, defeating a bill that would have sanctioned gay marriages in California. So the homosexual community, with Barney Frank, an openly gay congressman, leading the charge was outraged by his choice. This was not the only problem. Many other religious zealots were also discussing whether Dr. Warren would use the name of Jesus in his prayer. Dr. Warren did pray in the name of Jesus, and the ACLU wrote a statement saying that, by using such a controversial name, he had offended every Muslim, Jew, Hindu, etc.

Mr. Obama tried to calm these people's fears by asking for men of other faiths to offer prayers during some of the other parts of the inauguration. Reverend Joseph Lowery, a black minister for the United Methodist Church gave the benediction. His remarks also caused quite a stir. He said, "brown would stick around; the yellow would be mellow; the red man would get ahead, man; and the white would embrace the right."

In the spirit of today's ecumenical religious culture, Mr. Obama was trying to give all faiths a voice. By the way, President Obama believes in abortion (one of the first previous-administration bills he rescinded was the removal of the Global Gag Rule for countries who openly practice abortion). He offered his reasoning concerning his stance on the subject: "In the quiet statement that accompanied his move, the new man in the White House described abortion as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back-and-forth debate that has served only to divide us. I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate." He also favors the legalization of homosexual marriages.

Sadly, our newly elected President is on the wrong side of these two very important moral issues. By trying to placate and allow all voices to be heard, he drowns out God's voice. Abortion and homosexuality are not issues that belong in the political arena. God-not man-determines what is morally right and wrong. If we read Romans 1:18-32, we see that God speaks very clearly on these issues.

Unfortunately, it has become politically expedient to stand on the world's side of these moral issues in order to win election to higher government offices. God's people need to be very careful not to lose sight of our duty to stand on His side.