False Saviors in Everything: Political Edition

First of all, tip of the hat to the geniuses at the Marginal Revolution blog, as I appropriated their common blog title for my own (theirs is markets in everything).  I hope to make False Saviors in Everything a regular installation, basically whenever I see a culture setting up a false savior.
Second, I want to make clear: This is not a knock on any particular candidate for the Presidency.  I do not endorse any candidate, I will vote, I just don't know for whom.

Yesterday I have the privilege to attend an Obama rally (I was told there would be free food), and I began to notice how Obama had become a false savior.  I got into the rally, which was held in our campus chapel, and there was a large sign in the front with a picture of Obama and the word "HOPE" below it (not unlike our cheesy Christian bookstore posters with the permed-hair Jesus).  Then one of the Senator's from Oregon got up and shared a story about Obama, showing what Obama has taught (similar to preaching of a parable from the Gospels).  He asserted, "America wants change" and "Obama will make things better."
You see, the hopeful people at this rally are scared of another 8 years of "bad president hell" and "hillary clinton hell."  (I will stay out of the debate from both of these...).
So where do we turn?  We turn to Barack Obama of course!  He is our savior from our self-defined hell.
The senator at the rally ended his speech by telling us that we should tell our friends to vote for Obama, sharing the "good news" of his presidency hopeful (not unlike the strategy taken up by youth groups when their numbers are down).
It was asserted that Senator Obama is "going to win."  (As opposed to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ [1 Cor 15]).

Then, after the speaker, some volunteers ran to the front to throw out t-shirts.  The lead volunteer, a friend of mine, yelled, "how much does this side love Obama?" which gave me vivid flashbacks to church camp, when some random Oriental Trading Company piece of junk was being thrown to someone in the crowd, presumably to the area that yelled the most for Jesus.

After the throwing of t-shirts,  one of the acapella groups at our school, who renamed themselves Barackapella for the events on campus, served as the Church of Obama choir.  Their final song was an acapella rendition of "yes we can," the famous Obama speech that has become the slogan of his campaign.  What struck me during this song was its opposition to the Gospel (big G), that "Jesus will."  No longer is Jesus the center, but we, as a society, can make things better if we just elect the right candidate and try hard enough.
The assertion throughout the afternoon, explicitly and implicity, is that Obama will make life better.  But the Gospel stands in direct contrast to that:  Jesus doesn't just make life better;  He is better than life (Ps 63:3).

The hilarious thing to me was that while the acapella group was singing, people began to clap in unison.  Now these are the same people, many of them, who think it completely weird that Christians sing in church.  It was semi-spontaneous that they began clapping, but I bet none of them would clap in church, because it would be "weird."  Which is utter ridiculousness.

The group's final song was 525,600 minutes from Rent, which they said reminded us for the real "reason for the season," which is clearly Love.  Ultimately, two things stood out:  that Love is God, and that the rally was an utter praise of the human ability.

Juxtaposed to that is Jesus.  He came to show, once and for all, that we aren't good enough.  That HE ALONE is the Saviour of all humanity, for there is no other name under heaven by which men are to be saved.  Political leaders are fine, but we need to remember that they are temporary;  Jesus is eternal.  We gain joy from that which we praise.  If we praise something other than God because it will give us pleasure, we aren't getting more pleasure;  we are getting less.  Because there is only so much to praise, until we begin to praise God, who is infinite, and then we can gain eternal joy from praising him, because he rightly can be praised eternally.  We do not settle for less joy when we begin to follow Christ;  We gain more.  We gain more than we could ever imagine.

And now, to him who can do immeasurably more than we can ask, think, or even imagine, who lived, died and rose, and then ascended to the right hand of the father.  Let us praise him forever, and put our hope in nothing but him.
Amen, so help me, Amen.