Right after President Obama was elected, I decided to read one of his books. He's not only a great orator, but a very capable writer. I was impressed by The Audacity of Hope.
I found Obama to be a gifted story-teller, and while I don't agree with 100% of his conclusions, I think he attempts to find well-thought out and reasonable points of view. I was impressed also by the fact that the things he said in his campaign and in his first few weeks in office were incredibly consistent with the things he wrote in his book two years before running for office. I thought, "Wow, a politician who is consistent in what he believes, and who doesn't change his mind to win votes."
Recently with the protests in Egypt bringing about a somewhat-peaceful revolution of sorts, I've been remembering what the President wrote in his book. He talked about how the United States has a track record of supporting foreign leaders who support us, even if those leaders are dictators and have prevented the democratic process from taking place in their own countries. An example he gave was that the United States should not have supported the Taliban or Osama bin Laden in the 1970s even though we shared a common enemy in the Soviet Union. President Obama implied that he would support democracy even if it meant ousting a pro-American leader.
The other day I saw that Israel's government doesn't understand what the US government is doing by supporting a change of leadership in Egypt, since Egypt's leadership is pretty cooperative with both the US and Israel. I thought that Obama was doing a good job of sticking with not only what he said he would do, but with the core value of the United States.
In other words, I think that the United States (as an organization of sorts) should determine its core values and choose to stick with them above all other choices. In this case, one of our core values as a nation is democracy. We should seek to encourage this core value in other places as well. Even though peace in the Middle East is hard to come by, that isn't one of our government's core values, while democracy is. So even if the more desirable thing to me personally is a peace (of sorts) in that region, that should take a back seat to democracy when thinking about this situation from the perspective of the US Government.
Today I was reading that, contrary to what I first thought, most pro-democratic Egyptians are disappointed in what a passive role Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have taken in this conflict. They know that a democratically-elected Egyptian government will not cooperate with the US as much, so Obama has much to lose by supporting a change of power.
While this is a huge risk, I still think the right thing to do in any organization is to stick to your guns and believe in your core values. Will it work? I have no idea. I do know that the United States will not last forever, so it might not work. But in any case, Obama and Hillary Clinton appear to be (at least partially) embracing the status quo in Egypt's Mubarak rather than focusing on the core value of the organization they lead - democracy.
I'm glad that I serve a kingdom with perfect values, perfect culture, and perfect mission. More importantly, I'm glad that I serve a kingdom with a perfect king, whose government shall know no end. He is a far better example of leadership than the most capable and influential human leaders who are all too easily corrupted.
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Isaiah 9:6-7
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.
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