The Worst Of All Time

"I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

(The following article may be my opinion...but there are certainly a LOT of presidential historians who agree with me!)

If you ask any American in any setting to name the greatest President, he or she might have a hard time identifying just one.  Our country is very fortunate; we have had many great Presidents, and many of the others have done great things - while not always getting the credit they deserved.

But if you ask that same American to name the worst President of all time, he or she might not even hesitate to answer.  

Any conversation about the worst American President is bound to anger or frustrate someone.  In modern times, just about every President was loved or hated; there wasn't much middle ground.  If this conversation involves someone with a calm demeanor, he or she might admit that even a hated President might have some good qualities;  for instance:

• President Bill Clinton was a master politician who worked with Congress to pass a lot of legislation that helped our country.
• President Ronald Reagan was a master at communicating with the America people.
• President Barack Obama never had a personal scandal during his 8 years in office.
• President George W. Bush responded forcefully following the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center and calmed the American people.
• One political "enemy" of President Theodore Roosevelt remarked when he died, "You had to hate him an awful lot not to love him."

So it's even possible to call up something good about a President that many might hate.

But for my money, the worst President of our country was the 15th President: James Buchanan.

If you do just a little research, you will find that Buchanan should have been a very good President.  He had a sterling political background serving in the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as serving two different Presidents as ambassadors to Great Britain and Russia.  But for whatever reason, Buchanan is known today by many Presidential experts as the worst President of all time.

When Buchanan was elected President, the country was on the brink of the Civil War.  Everyone knew it and many had tried to stop the war from coming.  Buchanan stood in the perfect position to try to do something to stop the war...but he did virtually nothing.

When he declared that he would not seek the Presidency in 1860, no one was upset.

He eventually supported Lincoln during the war, and he died in 1868.

It is an incredible thing: he knew the war was coming, he was the President and he had some power and influence to stop it...but he did nothing.

It should serve as a lesson to every single President that followed him:  DO SOMETHING.

It should also serve as a lesson to every single Christian: DO SOMETHING.

The Lord has put each of us in the place we are with the skills we possess.  He calls every single one of us to serve, to try, to do our best.

He never calls anyone to just sit and do nothing.

Because if we do that, we run the risk of being judged as the worst of all time...and possibly not just by our fellow humans.