A Dog Promise
There
are no promises that a politician won¡¯t make when they want to see something
accomplished. They toss out various issues one can easily answer with common
sense in the sleek package of campaign promises. It seems almost cynical to see
how easily politicians make pledges, and the reality is that the voters close
their eyes knowing that it isn¡¯t going to be kept.
It
would really be a sight if we collected all the promises that politicians have
made, and then work out the statistics of how many of them were fulfilled. If
we added in the names of every politician who had suggested plans that they
themselves would¡¯ve thought to be impossible to carry out, a great amount of
paper and ink would be spent.
Furthermore,
another long list should be added to this. However, since this is not a great
issue and its result has nothing to do with us, I¡¯ll just touch upon it
lightly. The first black president ever in history made his first election
promise which was revealed today. It was a pledge that he would let his two
daughters raise a dog if he were to become president. He publicly promised to
appeal to young and progressive sponsors during the campaign that the dog in
the white house would be found among homeless dogs. Since lots of dogs in
But I
read today from the morning paper that the dog ¡°Bo¡± in the white house was not
a homeless dog, but a gift from Senator Kennedy, a wealthy family among the politicians.
From the moment I had heard the initial pledge from President Obama, I knew this would happen. Since my thoughts are that
a politician¡¯s promise is just lip service for the public turned out to be
correct, I felt a little bit puffed up for guessing right but at the same time
I felt bad that the promise had been broken. I didn¡¯t know what to do about my
mixed feelings. Particularly from the perspective of a republican, I don¡¯t like
all the decisions the democratic president makes. Nevertheless, since he is the
president of the country I live in, I wish he would do
well during these economically hard times.
Dog
promise: promise about a dog, and the doggy promise—on both, President Obama made a dog promise and kept it just as it should be.
Hearing the news, I tried to ignore it since it is not something new but then
it reminded me of the promises or the ministry visions of new pastors that I am
so familiar with. If we asked 4,000 Korean churches in
It is
dangerous to easily make promises that are pleasing to the ears of the public
or audience without a real solution, whether one is a politician or a pastor.
Since politicians are branded as liars who habitually break their promises,
people take it for granted that they do lie. However, the position of a pastor
is an example of trust and one should be careful when he makes a promise.
Unfortunately, no matter how good a plan a pastor has, when he does ministry
with insufficient resources the result is obvious.
It
traces back to 20 years ago when the need for a second generation ministry
first came up in the churches in
The
pledge of bringing a homeless dog into the White House to appeal to people, and the unrealistic promise of doing their best for
the second generation ministry are both something one can see through. If they
had spoken honestly by saying that they had to have a particular kind of dog
because of their daughter¡¯s allergy, or if they still do not have any plans for
a second generation ministry yet, then we could understand and come up with
some suggestions.