Prophets

Blairology Poll:
Do you believe in modern day prophets?

A. Yes- 58.33%

B. No- 16.67%

C. Maybe- 16.67%

D. Undecided- 8.33%

_____________________________________

Do we still have prophets today? Was Jesus not the last of the prophets? Who knows? In a lot of ways I see myself as a prophet, much more then a priest or a pastor. Prophets are always challenging the culture and the people that they are speaking to. I have seen that as my job over the years. I always questioned and challenged the status quo. I am a maverick and a wildcard. I’m a crazy old man with reckless ideas, who speaks to God. I am a liminal figure, in between this world and the next. Never really belonging to either. Not fitting in anywhere. Drifting from place to place. Going wherever the spirit of God leads. Living by no one’s rules but the Lord’s.

Jonah is the prophet that I have identified with for most of my life. Always having a relationship with God but not always doing what God told me to do. And when I did, not caring about the other people in the world. Not realizing that God love’s them just as much as God loves me. I was and am always confident in the ultimate power of my God to do whatever, whenever. Afraid that I would be a false prophet because God had compassion on the evil people of the world and the doom I predicted would not come true. As in the story when the people of Nineveh repented and God spared their lives. But enough about me, lets talk about a true modern day prophet.

Jimmy Carter is from a small town in Georgia. He was the thirty-ninth president of the United States of America. Jimmy Carter is a prophet of the one true God. It is said that Jimmy Carter has been the best ex-president in the history of our nation. Considering the fact that, among other awards, he has won a Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work at the Carter Center I can see why. In his latest book, Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis President Carter prophesizes about the rise of fundamentalism in religion and politics, the marriage of the two and the dangers that they pose to America’s traditional value of freedom.

It is a mystery to me how so many Americans have been misled to believe that it is in the best interest for Christians to vote for and support George W. Bush and his Neo-conservative cabinet, with such a purposeful agenda to protect the wealthiest one percent of our population while oppressing the poorest and most helpless. Not to mention a foreign policy that has continued to alienate America and foster hatred and resentment toward America from the rest of the world.

In his book Jimmy Carter says,
"The revolutionary new political principles involve special favors for the powerful at the expense of others, abandonment of social justice, denigration of those who differ, failure to protect the environment, attempts to exclude those who refuse to conform, a tendency toward unilateral diplomatic action and away from international agreements, an excessive inclination toward conflict, and reliance on fear as a means of persuasion.” (p43)

Like an Old Testament prophet the words of former President Jimmy Carter need to be heard by this generation. Before it is too late and the favor of God is lifted from the people because of their turn from the one true God for the false gods of materialism, judgmentalism and elitism. I fear, though, that there is no one to hear the words of God from the Messenger of God and that the people will fall. The nation will crumble under the weight of its own pride and we will all be left in the dark with no hope.