The Culture and Media Institute notes a revealing moment from CNN’s American Morning.

CMI’s Eric Brown reports that the moment occurred when co-anchor Kiran Chetry questioned Christian Broadcasting Network political reporter David Brody about his interview with Christine O’Donnell, the Tea Party-supported GOP Senate candidate in Delaware,

Specifically, Chetry asked about O’Donnell’s reply to a question Brody asked regarding the role of God in her campaign, to which she answered “God is the reason
that I’m running. If I didn’t believe that there were a cause greater than
myself worth fighting for, if I didn’t believe that it takes a complete dying of
self to make things right in this Election cycle I would not be running and when
you die to yourself you rely on a power greater than yourself so prayer is
what’s gotten us all through. The day that we saw a spike in the polls was a day
that some people had a prayer meeting for me that morning for this campaign so I
believe that prayer plays a direct role in this campaign and I always ask please
pray for the campaign; please pray for our staff; please pray specifically that
the eyes of the voters be opened.”

Later in Brody’s interview there was also this exchange:

O’Donnell: God will give you the desires of your heart. Some people think its what you
want. God will give you what you want but He will create those desires in you so
that you have a passion to do what He is calling you to so through this whole
campaign that ‘s what I pray: God you gave me this desire. You gave me this
desire of my heart to serve the people of Delaware to go in there and be your
voice in Congress. Help me here! (Laughs)”

Brody:  “And win or lose God is
God.”

O’Donnell: “You know, I don’t
even go win or lose. I believe win. I know that God called me to this. We’ll
tackle that last part after November 3rd but I truly believe in the power of
prayer. I believe in the power of declaring and that’s what we’re doing. We’re
praying every day and we see it working.”

Back to CNN:

“For some people,” Chetry suggested to Brody, “they think this
seems so arrogant, to pray to win a senate race, um, but how is it viewed in the
evangelical community?”

Brody replied that, in his view, O’Donnell isn’t praying for victory but for “God’s
protection, and for, you know, people within her staff and the eyes of the
voters to be open, so to speak.”

Overall, it seems to me that O’Donnell is letting go and letting God while, at the same time, honestly admitting that she’s hoping He’s leading her toward electoral victory. To me that sounds more like humility than arrogance.

Of course, Chris Coons and his supporters, her Democratic opponent, may very well be praying for victory too. In the end, somebody’s gotta win and somebody’s gotta lose — and the result should not be presumed to be evidence of God favoring one person or party over another. Ultimately, I believe, God wants us all to win by seeing Him in our opponents and showing respect and grace whether in victory or loss. There’s nothing in O’Donnell’s words that lead me to think she’s not prepared to do that.     

Of course, it is always worth remembering the words of Abraham Lincoln: “We trust, sir, that God is on
our side. It is more important to know that we are on God’s side.”