Candidates Called by God

This political season, God has been busy.  In addition to God's regular work of being all-knowing, all-powerful and all-seeing, God has been urging some politicians to run for various political offices at the local, state and even national level.

 Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum have all said explicitly that God called them to run for president.  (God, how is it that you only speak to Republicans these days?)  I have no problem with that at all.  God, the Creator does call the unlikely, reluctant or unexpected to do things all the time.  God called Moses and Jacob and Paul, and Joseph and Mary and Rahab for greater work.  All reluctant or recalcitrant in some respect.

I do note that when supporters of the current president made the same claim as he was running for president, the president's supporters were accused of trying to elevate Obama to prophet or even Christ-like stature.  And, I want to put the claims made about God's calling on Obama's run in perspective.  Obama outlasted the wife of a former (and beloved) president, moved past questions about his drug use, his flamboyant Chicago pastor, and his ties to Islam, and found a way to win the election.  And he didn't even have one stripper, one escort, one blond porn star come out of the wood work to accuse him of sexual misconduct.  Not one.  That doesn't happen today.

In some circles, that does amount to evidence of a human called to run for president.  Heck, that might even get someone canonized for sainthood or at least a book deal and some TV commentator jobs.

So now that Bachmann and Cain have dropped out of the presidential race, and Rick Perry is on his way to doing the same, people are questioning God's wisdom, or rather whether God called them at all.

For people like Bill Maher and others who want to poke fun at God and Christianity, this is a fair question.  If God calls you to run for president, why are you not winning?  In fact, why are you dropping out of the presidential race?

The answer is this:  In the scriptures, Job asks God why all of the things he was going through were happening to him.  And God, in essence replied, that there are some things that God does that pass human logic and understanding.

Perhaps Cain was in the presidential race to advance a discussion on sexual harassment in the workplace, and Michelle Bachmann was in the race to bring attention to Minnesota or give another young woman the motivation to run for president, and perhaps Rick Perry was in the race to forward a discussion about poverty.  I don't know for certain why any of them were called to run. 

But, perhaps the Creator called them to run to move something else forward, but not necessarily to win.