Gentlemen,

By way of introduction, I own a small business in Northeast Georgia, and am a member of an an OCA church in my home town. I am a convert to Orthodoxy, and have been Orthodox - or trying to become Orthodox - for at least 10 years. I am married to the same woman 20 years, and am the father of 5 children.

I just listened to your pod-cast about watching President Obama during his coronation - I mean inaguration - this past week, and I have to tell you that your take on it being something of a harbinger of "hope" is very confusing to me. It is enough that I see and hear the unchurched, the lost and the blatantly anti-christian folks in this country calling the ascension of this man to this place of power an example of hope. It is enough that I see and hear those who are simply not well educated, or who have grown up in an environment where their very living - their food and clothing and housing - are given to them not by a father and mother, but by a government who continues to keep them enslaved to this system by giving them food and shelter rather than requiring them to work for it. It is enough that I hear those who are getting rich by committing legalized infanticide in abortion mills across our land. It is enough that I hear the vitriol of those men who desire to marry other men and women who desire to marry other women, and "educators" who desire to teach our children and grandchildren that each person is responsible to determine their own "sexuality". It is impossible for me to understand, however, how those who are followers of The Way can be encouraged in any way by this election, or even by the results we hae already seen. How can we they can be duped into believing that this is somehow a victory for racial equality, when in fact, this man and those like him will put into place extremely racist actions which will make it even more difficult for white males to be employed as they watch underqualified minorities take their place in the workplace. Oughten we rather to be sounding the alarms? To be warning our people not to trust this smooth operator? Not to fall for the new trick question we're all getting? (You know the question don't you? "Do you want to see President Obama Succeed"? It's a trick question, because it sounds either unpatriotic or racist to say "no", but if you say "yes", then you have to sort of tacitly agree that he is going in the right direction. For the record, my answer is "no", Mr. Obama wants to take this country in the exact opposite direction I think it should go - of COURSE I don't want him to succeed. I want him to fail -miserably - and I want him to fail in a way that it makes it very obvious to all that the failure is HIS FAULT, and in this way, the bankruptcy of his ideas, and the construct of lies he has woven will all come down around his feet, and we will all be able to see our error in putting this man, or anyone like him in office ever again). Oughten we to be calling one another to repentance and prayer, and mourning as we see so many innocents about to be slaughtered both in our country and around the world due to the stroke of this one man's pen? I do not care that his father was an African. It is irrelevant. We will finally be beyond racism in this country when we stop allowing the color of a man's skin to matter. I do not think that either Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King (both Republicans, by the way) would have approved of putting a man without moral integrity in office due to the color of his skin. This is indeed a sad day. I really think we should hear more mourning, more sadness, more calls-to-repentance. Mark my words, freedoms will disappear under this administration. I am especially concerned that we will begin losing our religious freedoms as well. But I am guessing that you are already aware of most of these things I have said about Mr. Obama. How is it then, (may I ask this?) that you are not greatly saddened by his taking office, that you are not sounding the alarms, concerning the direction this man has promised to take us?