Twice a year at general conference, Latter-day Saints have the opportunity to raise their right hands and sustain their church leaders. We are taught that this is an important moment. Through the physical representation of our faith and support of the office that our leaders hold, we help them to succeed in their callings.
However, with that said, there have been times in my life where I have respected the office of the leader but not agreed with the actions of the leader.
I believe that there is a difference between sustaining and upholding the office of the leader and agreeing with that leader’s opinion.
In this presidential election, I have not agreed with everything either candidate has said. While I may agree with one candidate’s policies more than the other, I do not believe either candidate is perfect. Each has their negative and positive sides.
Looking at the future with President Obama elected for a second term, I foresee him governing a deeply divided nation. He will have the responsibility of healing a country in economic crisis.
Reflecting back on the past four years of Obama’s presidency, I have not agreed with a lot of the decisions he has made for our country, particularly when it comes to how he has handled the economy. But Obama is still the President of the United States, and for that he deserves a certain amount of respect.
We can support the office and not necessarily the actions of the man or woman holding the office.
Soon after the election the president will face looming deadlines over budget cuts and tax changes. He will have to debate with Congress over a subject that admittedly already has “raw feelings.”
President Obama has pledged to further federal funding and support for public and post-secondary education in America.
The media has reported that Obama plans on shifting more power and money into the federal government and less power to the states.
In Obama’s platform, he says that in order to improve public education, he will hire 100,000 new math and science teachers at the K–12 level over the next 10 years. He will continue to support his program “Race to the Top,” which will provide funding to states, based on states’ own improvement plans.
Education is something that is very important, especially when it comes to the competition between the United States and other countries. We need a plan that will help us improve our students so that we are competitive in the international world.
Looking back at the past four years of Obama’s presidency, I have a hard time believing that he is going to do anything to help the United States get out of the tremendous debt that we are in. His polices have only sunk us deeper in to the hole that already existed.
Many Americans have been talking about the movie “Obama 2016” and comparing that to what the country will look like if Obama is re-elected for another term.
While watching the movie I was personally a bit troubled at what the future would look like under another Obama term, but I also realized that the movie was quite biased.
Although I am personally not in agreement with all of Obama’s foreign polices and his economic stance, I love my country, and I support the office of President.
With Obama as the president I can support and respect his office while not agreeing, and fighting against, some of his policies.
In our country there is a separation between the person who we vote for and the office that a person holds. I may not agree with every decision that my church leaders have ever made, but once they hold that office, I will not oppose them.
The separation comes when I am choosing how to support them in my own life. Under Obama’s presidency I can vote against some of his policies while at the same time respecting him as the president of the United States.
Now that Obama has been re-elected as the president of the United States we should not bad-mouth him to others but respect and sustain him as our president. If you have an issue with his policies, take a stand, vote against the policies, start a petition, and get involved in the democratic process.
That is the beautiful thing about the United States: there is a variety of opinions, and we personally get to choose and vote for what we want to support. The future is as bright as we make it. We can choose to fight for what we believe in or not.
