On NPR this morning, there were many quotes from South Carolinans who are backing Huckabee because “JESUS is our saviour and he would want it that way.”
Now I am definitely a backer of Jesus. I am also a good friend of the Buddha and I think Allah has his good points too. In general, religion as a concept is Just All Right With Me.
“The Bible says righteousness exalts a nation. We as believers should be seeking to be electing people we are convinced are going to be leading people to righteousness to honor God.” — Rev. Rocky Purvis in his SERMON at Northside Baptist Church
FUNDIES who have absolutely NO IDEA what the American governmental system is supposed to be about and how it can and should function best are the sort who make me bonkers.
Like those people who “hate America” over-there, I don’t hate individual fundies. As I wrote previously about my fundie-friend Angie Heck, I quite like them one on one. Why? Because when they AREN’T in a mass with their other believers, they have a tendancy to stop intoning and hallelujahing for a second and actually use that grey mass that GOD gave them–their logical brain.
 The ‘A’ Word
Abortion is a perfect example of the sort of issue that gets batted around by fundie-friendly candidates during the campaign season. Fundie are “pro-life” which means they are anti-abortion. This is the sort of issue that is PERSONAL one between two people or within a family and cannot ever really be legislated. Everyone knows that, but still the evil fundies like to bring out the bloody baby banner to tell everyone who believes in “choice” that they are terrible people.
Here’s the deal with the A-word: fundies who press this issue for political purposes are, finally, anti-God and bad Christians. (I can say that, by the way, because obviously I am already going to”h-e-double hockey sticks”). Here’s why. God purposely gave us the right to choose. This is one essential quality that makes us human. So being “pro-choice” as a baseline belief (which by the way, doesn’t always mean you are Pro-Abortion) means that you are choosing to follow God’s intention.
On the other hand, if you are, like the fundies, political manipulators who try to foist your choices on others based on threats and judgments, then you defy what Jesus taught directly at the Sermon on the Mount: Judge not, that you may not be judged.
Now, I know I am doing my own judging here, but I don’t use that standard. By their measure, I measure them.
3 Comments
Amen sister! Wait, did I say that?
I’m with you on the A-word issue. I would most likely never get one, and think it’s unfortunate that others get them. But by God, that is an individual/couple/family issue–not a government one.
I listened the same report while driving home, and I pulled into my driveway thinking, “Man, do we have a LONG way to go.”
I wonder if Jesus minds having his name thrown around in the political arena, then again, he’d probably be used to it since things weren’t all THAT different back then.
Very similar to the discussion I had with my wife, but slightly different. “How could almost all evangelical Christians be so wrong about W?” was my question to her. We attend a mega-church in an Atlanta suburb, and I always felt extremely uncomfortable with all the W bumper stickers and ultra-conservative points of view on most topics where I was the lone wolf. If you dig a bit deeper, this also has to do with a belief in a hiearchy of Christians. Huckabee, an ordained evangelical pastor, is somehow superior to McCain et al. The ultimate problem with the view you described from the NPR story is that they somehow believe there are “Super-Christians” who then receive some direct wisdom and direction. Huckabee is correct that being a Christian should define someone rather than being an aspect of one’s life. Where he and his following get it wrong is that this has nothing to do with leading our nation at a very, very difficult time.
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