praying for mr. clinton

One of my professors made a few comments the other day that rubbed me the wrong way. He decided that instead of spending class time to instruct us on the topic of the class, he'd go off on a political party he didn't like for a good while. (Be this the party that I agree or disagree with- I don't think that that really matters for this post), but here's why it bothered me so much:

When I was a child, I can remember my mom and dad kneeling down to say prayers with me. We'd pray for every member of our family, we'd pray for rain (in good 'ol Utah fashion), for our safety and protection, for missionaries, the prophet, and for the President of the United States, Bill Clinton.

The last one really puzzled me as a little kid, because although I hadn't picked up on a lot of issues in politics yet, I knew that my dad wasn't 'voting' for Bill Clinton and that he was bothered about something that Bill Clinton had done with a lady he worked with named Monica. So, why on earth would my father take the time every night to pray for the president, and make sure that I heard this part of his prayers?

He explained to me that this man was the president of our nation, that the office of the President deserved respect. To my dad, even if we didn't agree with the president, and probably especially if we didn't agree with him, there were plenty of reasons to pray for his wisdom and success.

Fast forward to 2001. 12 years ago this week, thousands of Americans were killed in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Like most of you, I remember exactly where I was, everything I did that day, down to which day of the week it was (it was a Tuesday). But I also remember how our nation rallied together. For a little while, it didn't matter whether or not our president was Republican or Democrat. It didn't matter what everybody thought about gun control, or the economy, or social security.

After a long war (which I'm not stating any position on) and a downturn on the economy, I've heard a lot of biting criticism across partisan lines from both parties. I'm not saying it's not right to question the government; in fact, I'm a big believer that it is necessary. However, when we decide that it's okay to make personal attacks on the president instead of policy critiques, slurs against those who vote differently from us, or to make sweeping generalizations about some sub-category in the population, we forget the American part of us. Yes, we're all different, but at the same time, we're all human beings. We're all children, and siblings, and parents, and friends, and Children of God. So let's implement the 10 second rule, and think about what we want to say before we say it.