I Threw a Rotten Apple at the President

Just because we don’t have a vote doesn’t mean we don’t have an opinion. Most of those who aren’t old enough to vote do have an opinion, and will find a way to express it.

That was certainly the case with my friends and me during the presidential election of ’04, when George W. Bush ran against John Kerry. I was twelve at the time, most of my friends younger. On a field trip to Fir Point Farms the fall before the election, we were given the chance to express our opinion to the world—well, the local farm staff anyway.

We were each handed an old apple, and could throw it into a basket at the foot of the Bush mannequin or the Kerry mannequin. Our votes were tallied up on a chalk board and I had been pleased to see that if we could vote, Bush would win.

But for a small group of boys, that wasn’t enough. The votes weren’t real. They picked up their rotten apples and hurled them at Kerry’s mannequin. Their aim left something to be desired, but they did knock its head off.

Returning to the present, most of my friends and I were not old enough to vote in the ’08 election. But that didn’t stop us from having an opinion, and expressing it. Many of us worked on campaigns, wore stickers, put signs up in our front yard, spent hours phone-banking at the Republican office, and stole time from our school books to watch debates and updates.

But unlike ’04, when President Bush was re-elected, our candidate didn’t win. A man we did not agree with was elected to office and we felt, perhaps more strongly than at any other election, our lack of a vote. And we were angry about it.

I’ve read and heard my share of derogatory statements concerning President Obama since the election. In their frustration and feelings of helplessness, I’ve seen my friends lash out against the new administration with bitter jokes and uncomplimentary names; perhaps feeling it was all they could do now. I have heard, and at times repeated, the stories, rumors, and personal commentary. And I am challenging their legitimacy.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you have to vote for President Obama. I’m not saying you don’t have a right to be upset. I’m not even saying you have to like him. What I am saying is that we need to respect him.

It’s easy to say that we respect authority when someone we voted for (or would have voted for, as the case may be) is in office. It’s a lot harder when someone we don’t agree with is in charge. If we say we respect authority, then turn around and forward a malicious email about the President we don’t like, how are we any better than the man who threw a shoe at President Bush? Aren’t we just chucking rotten apples at our president?

God takes the issue of respecting authority very seriously, and for a good reason too. Check out what Paul says in Romans 13:1.

“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” (NKJV) (Emphasis mine)

Did you catch that? There is no authority except from God. It doesn’t matter who is sitting in the Oval Office right now, God put him there.

This has grave implications, as Paul lays out for us as he continues in verse 2.

“Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment upon themselves.”

That sheds a different light on things, doesn’t it? If God established the authority, it puts us as Christians in a different situation than we might have originally thought. It’s time we realize that we aren’t just throwing rotten apples at the President. We’re throwing rotten apples at God. And you can speak for yourself, but I’m not convinced that the satisfaction of seeing a well-aimed, smelly missile hit the President I dislike is worth bringing God’s judgment upon myself. Thanks, but no thanks.

I’m not claiming to know why God decided to place President Obama in authority. In fact, in my meager human understanding, it would seem to me that His name would have been more glorified if someone else had won. But that wasn’t God’s plan, and we need to respect Him, and His choice of President.

We also need to rest in the knowledge that He is still in control. No matter how rulers and empires may rise and fall, our God is still on the throne. As a T-shirt I once saw said, the Heavenly Administration doesn’t change. We need to trust in His wisdom and sovereign power.

That is definitely something worth respecting.