Letter from Dunnam to Obama

Maxie Dunnam is the Chancellor of Asbury Seminary and, some would say, the most famous United Methodist in the world.

Congratulations, Mr Obama, and God bless you! You have the potential...the gifts and graces...and the national circumstances are right for you to become one of the three or four greatest presidents in our nation’s history. I'm excited about your leadership.

Your arriving at this place in history is little short of a miracle. I urge you to shepherd this historical opportunity with the kind of thoughtfulness, shared guidance, and deliberate seeking of counsel that you have already demonstrated. While the Office of the President will shape you, don't let it distort who you really are.

You have inspired the nation by bringing together a diverse people. You have done this by not being so rigidly ideological, and by unfolding an expansive umbrellas of acceptance and affirmation. While some would call this "political expediency", it doesn't have to be. Compromise is not a dirty word, but an essential dynamic of leadership. You can't lead without creative compromise. But I urge you,

Don't compromise human rights for short-sighted national security.

Don't compromise a fragile environment for short-term economic gain.

Don't compromise the lives of a million babies each year for a right to privacy notion that is self-serving.

Don't compromise the health and medical care of children for the fear of crossing over some sort of "socialized medicine" line.

Don't compromise the values of a Judeo-Christian culture for a valueless tolerance that will become a religion of secularism, or on an international level suffer from a naive tolerance of radical Islam.

Don't compromise the place of America in the international community by not sharing our God-give resources and human progress with the world, or by failing to champion the principles of democracy that has made us great.

Don't compromise the most positive dynamic of our nation's life by thinking that religion and politics don't go together. There can be no separation of religion and public life, faith and politics. We within the United Methodist Church are committed to contributing a prophetic, healing faith that will not claim God's blessing for all our national policies and practices, as though God is always on "our side". Rather, with one of your favorite presidential mentors, Mr. Lincoln, we worry a lot and pray earnestly as to whether we are on God's side.

Maxie Dunnam