catholic_girl left a great comment that summed up my feelings today. " I get so depressed and angry when I see what these people are doing to Christianity. What do I do? Ignore it? Not an option. Back to the drawing board."
I was reading about Tom Delay this morning. Remember him? He has lately been accused of taking trips and money from foreign lobbyists (something other Repubs defended saying: "everyone does it"--has become the classic defense of conservative everywhere--"democrats do it too" or "the other side is even worse.") and most recently allegations that PACs under Delay's control payed his wife and daughter half a million dollar salaries. I remember when conservatives hated the government and hated how "special interests" profited from government. Evidently it is ok when they do it.
But enough snarking about Repubs. Well, kind of. Delay really gets under my skin. And I am not naive about politics. I have been studying it for sometime and understand that it is not pretty sometime. The old saying about strange bedfellows is so very true. We all find ourselves supporting people that we don't really want as neighbors or friends. I supported Clinton. As the saying goes, he is a "sumbitch, but he is OUR sumbitch." We have all sorts of unlikeable people on the left--Ted Kennedy (btw, think about how much Kennedy still pays for his youth, while all of GWB's has been washed away and then remind me about Christian charity and forgiveness, eh?) Hilary Clinton (still am unsure why she is so hated--except she is strong and smart), Michael Moore (he bugs me too), and many many others. All sumbitches and all ours. But I know they are sumbitches and I have no illusions about their faith or morality. They are politicians, and I support what they do for me and the country, period.
Back to Tom Delay. As you can see, I have no problem with voting for a sumbitch. So, I can deal with my conservative friends voting for him. But Delay presents himself as a good conservative Christian. He has said that his Christian faith is very important to him and that informs his views on evolution, school prayer, abortion, etc.
Yet he is a complete dick. I mean prehaps the worst kind of human you can find. He treats his enemies with nothing approaching Christian charity--after all he is known as the "hammer." He makes a big deal about his church attendance in Sugarland and wears his affilation on his sleeve. Yet, he is a total dick. A horrible excuse for a human being. A real sumbitch.
The problem I have is that good Christian people are not calling him to task. This is exactly what I was talking about, well, this whole last year or so. When you make overt Christianity a political commodity, you are asking for this. You are demanding to be lied to, to be conned. You are asking for sumbitches to pledge their undying devotion to Jesus for your vote!
This is not good for our democracy. It isn't good when you make excuses for a scumbag like Delay, or you elect a Bush for vague statements about his faith. But worse, as I noted around the election, you do irreparable harm to the faith. I no longer respect so many who quote the bible and talk about moral values and "right and wrong." Why should I? If Tom Delay can compare himself to Christ and you don't blink? Or if George W. Bush can mock a condemned woman or play the race card in South Carolina and you say he is "a good Christian man?" Your credibility on the big issues of the day is shot.
Our republic is harmed, for sure. But the modern Church is harmed even more. Time for the grownups to stand and be accounted.
No comments:
Post a Comment