By Obery M. Hendricks

THE BIBLE CONTAINS LAWS AND GOSPELS, PRAYERS AND PROVERBS, STOUT PROPHETIC UTTERANCES AND words and phrases so obseure that they hide as much as they reveal. All of this is there and more. That is why, if you become our next Commander-in-Chief--as I pray you will--and are blessed to solemnize your presidential oath with your hand on that sacred text, it will be important for you to have settled on the passages upon which you will stake your presidency and the future of our nation. In fact, I believe that the American people are even more likely to choose you as our leader if, during these last weeks of your campaign, you have clearly chosen the biblical principles that will guide your administration and express them in ways that all Americans can understand. I know that some would have you choose verses of hatred and vengeance. Others would offer texts of bloodletting and warfare, stoning and killing. Still others would proffer scriptures that seem to portray love as an abstraction, and caring as mere sentiment. Others still would turn you to self-righteous proclamations that, they will claim, sanctify the right of Americans to act in the world however we wish.

Yet I would lift up other texts for your consideration. I would point you to the holistic conception of spirituality that will never fail to rightly guide your path of service:

You shall love the Lord our God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength ... [and] you shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:30-31)

I would offer the primary judgment the Gospels have given to people of faith to judge the fitness of our own souls--and the righteousness of our leaders:

Then he shall say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his messengers; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and inprison and you did not visit me.' Then they will also answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' Then he will answer them, "Truly I tell you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' (Matthew 25: 41-46; 25: 31-46 in this entirety)

Then I would turn you to the words of the prophet Isaiah as Jesus proclaimed them when he announced to the ages the purpose of his ministry. As his follower, this must be the purpose of your presidency as well:

The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (Luke 4:18-19; Isaiah 61:1-2)

If these or like passages are the texts that you choose--and I have every hope that they will be--I will rejoice, for I believe they will bring truths to your remembrance that will guide your presidency--should it come to pass--down a just and loving path. Of what will these remembrances consist?

You will remember what the Lord requires of us all, but especially of you: to do justice, to practice steadfast love, and to walk humbly with God and every living soul.

You will remember Paul's call for humility: "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others." (Philippians 2:3-8).

You will remember the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln--"The almighty has his own purposes"--and never presume your judgment to be the judgment of God. You will forget the selfish ways of self-righteousness and every moment remember the selfless ways of faith.

You will remember that the welfare of children already living is as worthy of concern as those yet to be born.

You will remember that a true faith demands that other nations and other peoples must never be demonized, never cast as incarnations of evil or children of a lesser God.

You will remember to stake all that you say and do upon hope and never upon fear, for hope makes room for love, while fear is the spawning ground of hate.

You will remember that as the holder of our nation's hopes, the rule of law and the precepts of the Constitution will apply to you especially--and before all others.

You will remember that if there are certain truths that cannot yet be spoken, you must keep a holy silence. You might be forgiven for uttering beneficent lies, but you will have forfeited the people's fullest trust.

You will remember to say to every American official--volunteer, appointed and elected; corporate, political and religious--what Franklin Roosevelt said to those in his day: "I shall deem it a favor if you will write to me about the conditions in your community. Tell me where you feel our government can better serve your people."

You will remember that true patriotism is not defined by the quality of our hatred for others. It is defined by the spirit of striving to make our nation healthy, whole, and secure, by conducting itself at home and abroad according to its best and most righteous self.

You will remember to ferret out every vestige of the unholy elitist spirit that loves the needs of some and despises the needs of others--the same loveless spirit that caused shepherds to abandon the most vulnerable sheep of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans to unconscionable suffering and much needless death.

You will remember the words of Woodrow Wilson--"Without the watchful interference, the resolute interference of the government, there can be no fair play"--and do righteous battle from your presidential perch to stay the hand of the powerful and the privileged from lording over the vulnerable, the weak, and all for whom even the smallest privilege remains a distant dream.

And yes, yes, you will remember to treat war-mongering as the greatest sin a president can commit.

How, sir, will you know when you have truly remembered?

You will know because you will have already begun to ask of your every policy decision: Does this treat the needs of the many as holy without carelessly harming the few? Or, as the indefatigable freedom-fighter Fannie Lou Hamer put it, "Is this right? Would God like it?"

And you will know because of the tenor of your allegiances. Your allegiance will not be to partisanship, party or power. Your allegiance will be to making sure every child has enough to eat, that elders can live out their days in security and freedom from undue anxiety and fear. Your allegiance will be to lowering infant mortality rates, to ensuring that no one within our borders suffers for lack of healthcare, for lack of adequate education, for lack of opportunities to thrive because of their race, gender, class, or creed. Your allegiance will be to keeping credit markets from becoming slave markets, and creditors from becoming enslavers. As surely as your heart heats and your lungs draw breath, your overarching allegiance will be to crafting policies with every neighbor in mind, no matter how great or small, and to hearing and constantly contemplating the people's needs and challenges with solemn prayers and heartfelt love. If you have remembered.

There is one other way you will know that you have truly remembered: From then and forever, your spirit will call you to begin and end every day the same--on your knees. And on your knees a prayer will rest upon your lips that will sound something like this: "Lord, please give me the steadfast love and the righteousness of heart to treat all people and their needs as holy, for as long as you grant me strength." That is, if you have remembered. My prayer is that you already have, and will never forget.

Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., is professor of biblical interpretation at New York Theological Seminary and author of the Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus' Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted.