“The rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower is servant to the lender.” – Proverbs 22:7

President Obama’s trip to Asia this week, particularly to the People’s Republic of China, was proof that God’s Word holds true for nations as much as individuals. Many on both the right and the left had hoped for big results from this first engagement of the new era president and the new era China, but alas, it was not to be.

Whether on trade or human rights, not much came of the encounter. USA Today opined, “Obama goes to China, brings home a T-shirt.” Even the President’s attempt at challenging China’s audacious censorship of the Internet was–well–censored!

Why so little change in our relationship to China from the President that promised so much change on a global scale? Because China practically owns America now, and the beggar has little clout with his benefactor.

Just as the President likes to do his town hall meetings–as he did in Shanghai this week–I like to do mine. In the last few churches that I’ve preached in, I’ve held town hall style meetings on Sunday evenings. During these very stimulating give-and-takes, I inevitably get questions about the growing threat of Muslim militants and terrorists. My response, though, is that while Islamic extremism is extremely dangerous, there is a much larger and greater danger lurking right under our noses. In fact, it looms up at us from the very aisles of, well . . . Walmart!

That’s right–your favorite place to shop. Just turn over those products you buy and the majority of the time you’ll see the label: “Made in China.” But China doesn’t just own your ironing board and Christmas tree lights; more seriously, it now likely owns your bank or even your mortgage,

So, President Obama, in both the frustratingly meager outcome of his much heralded call on the Sino-Power, and his perhaps unintended but none-the-less muted tet-a-tet with Premiere Wen Jiabao, learned what preachers have been preaching for a long time: Borrowing from others is a Faustian pact with the Devil. And when it’s a devil as big as the PRC, Walmart shelves become as frightening as a suicide bomber on a scooter!

Rob +

Tags: barack, china, hu, japan, jintao, made in china, obama, president, proverbs 22:7, sino, wal-mart, wen jiabao

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 9:22 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.