I was in
But while there, I was confronted by the ad in the Grand Rapids Press challenging President Bush?s Christianity. Before the president spoke at the commencement at
Now, I believe, of course, that Christians are free to protest. And though the majority of evangelicals support this president, some do not. And that?s okay. In my book Kingdoms in Conflict, I wrote that Christians should never get enmeshed in a partisan agenda.
But there?s a time and place to do it. And a college commencement that the president is gracious enough to attend is not the place. Calvin ought to make a course on civility and manners mandatory.
The ad said, ?Your deeds, Mr. President?neglecting the needy to coddle the rich, desecrating the environment and misleading the country into war?do not exemplify the faith we live by.?
Ironically, right before the president appeared at Calvin, he announced that he would veto any stem-cell bill that destroyed life, despite huge pressures to sign it. No president in my lifetime has been more consistently pro-life.
What about the sanctity of marriage? The president strongly supports a constitutional amendment to protect marriage.
Human rights? When I told the president one day of the uncontrolled state of sexual trafficking, he was horrified. He spoke to the United Nations about it. And at home, he got a bill passed in Congress to stop women from being kidnapped into the sex trade.
When a number of us urged the White House to get involved in
And neglecting the needy? At a summit meeting on AIDS in
I have talked with the president about his faith, which, I can tell you, is rock solid. You may dislike the president?s policies, but challenging this man?s faith in this way?no, that?s out of order.
John Calvin, the great reformer for whom this once proud school was named, said, ?The first duty of subjects towards their rulers is to entertain the most honorable views of their office, recognizing it as a delegated jurisdiction from God.? People in office should be held in ?esteem and veneration,? and he added that we are to ?bear patiently their failures.?
The best advice I can give these upstart students and faculty at
For further reading and information:
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?Calvin College faculty, grads, students protest Bush visit,? Detroit Free Press,
Kathleen Gray, ?Pomp and Politics in Grand Rapids,?
Chuck Currie?s blog includes the text of the advertisement.
Read the text of President Bush?s commencement speech at
In this press briefing by Scott McClellan and this press briefing by Trent Duffy, President Bush?s position on embryonic stem-cell research and related legislation is described.
Steven Harmon, ?Anti-Bush ad ?out of love for Calvin?,? Grand Rapids Press,
Michael A. Fletcher, ?Bush Issues Call to Service at Michigan College,?
Charles Honey, ?Calvin College endowment will honor Charles Colson,? Grand Rapids Press,
BreakPoint Commentary No. 040106, ?At the Foot of the Cross: A Story You Haven?t Heard.?
BreakPoint Commentary No. 031103, ?Mankind Is Our Business: Christians and Human Rights.?
Learn more about the problems in Sudan and of sex trafficking and prison rape.
Charles Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict (1986).
Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Not the Way It?s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (Eerdmans, 1996).
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1585).