Of Tweets and Men

Just recently, a slew of my left-leaning friends were enraged as a slew of my right-leaning friends retweeted Mark Driscoll's statement:

Praying for our president, who today will place his hand on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know.


To be fair, I will clearly state my biases:
1. I do not often feel that the core values of my faith are represented by Mr. Obama.
2. I do often feel that the core values of my faith are misrepresented by Mr. Driscoll.

Another disclaimer: my goal is not to crucify Mr. Driscoll for his man-sassy (massy?) antics. In fact, I don't actually think that he personally condemns Mr. Obama in his heart. Rather, I think that his bombastic ministry style is designed to stir people's hearts into deeper convictions... one inflammatory tweet at a time. The efficacy and integrity of said ministry style is subjective, and I'll leave it at that.

Okay, enough diplomatic speech. Here we go... Mr. Driscoll's tweet is a reflection of the paltry intercession demonstrated in our culture. The most beautifully gifted intercessors that I know say "praying for you" with so much authority. They are, in effect saying: "I am putting aside my desires, an going before God Almighty to petition Him on your behalf. I am going to walk with you when others abandon you, I am going to cry out with you when you're in pain, and I'm going to dance with you when the blessings fall." These people love others through weakness, they share wisdom patiently, they pray (and say!) the hard things, and God is always faithful to hear their prayers and CHANGE things!

Mr. Driscoll's tweet reflects another kind of "praying for you." At its worst, it says: "I don't know how to respond, so swallow my spiritual cliche." At its worst, it says: "You are wrong, I am passive-aggressively telling you that you're wrong, and I am going to tell God to change you because you're wrong." It is, in effect, an attempt at spiritual regulation rather than intercession... where we try to command God to do things, rather than stand in the gap for things that He already wants to do.

Mr. Driscoll may be right to question the health of Mr. Obama's walk with Jesus Christ, as the man has made some very troubling decisions. But Mr. Driscoll's "praying for him" approach seems to be: "God! Git him outta here... he ain't like us!" The intercessors that I respect might approach "praying for him" with something like: "God, surround him with wisdom and understanding so that he might be reconciled with you."

Intercession comes from a place of humility, love, and wisdom. I am not suggesting that Mr. Driscoll lacks these things, however, soundbites such as these suggest unnecessary disdain for Mr. Obama as a person. It'd be just as easy for us to intercede for the specific issues that have led right-leaning Christians to speculate about Mr. Obama's spiritual inauthenticity.

Personally, I see Mr. Obama as a prodigal son... and I would love to see him revitalize the core of his initial message of social justice with faith. However, neither you nor I have any idea how difficult it is to live out faith under the scalding hot magnifying glass of modern media. Poor Tony Blair kept his devout Catholicism in the closet during his time in office.

We would do well as Christians to have our prayers empower men of faith into action, rather than condemning them for their lack thereof.