Pro-war Evangelicals

CIL suggested that the angry and jaded Streak had never left. Well, I hope to post some on my latest cooking efforts, but need to address a couple of things that make me angry. This one is really a common refraint by the angry Streak, Evangelicals who seem to think that Jesus was pro-war and anti-peace. Zalm points us to a great NY Times column, where we hear that some 68% of white evangelicals supported the war. The author, Charles Marsh, makes several great points, but this sentence summed up (for me) the essential problem for evangelicals:

"The single common theme among the war sermons appeared to be this: our president is a real brother in Christ, and because he has discerned that God's will is for our nation to be at war against Iraq, we shall gloriously comply."

Just chilling. That kind of mindless following is what leads to monumental disasters.

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Speaking of Republican problems. I read yesterday that Karl Rove has come out saying that the GOP will use terrorism in the 2006 election. Well, sure. We should expect that people willing to politicize 9-11 will do whatever it takes. Rove went on to say that Democrats (though he was careful to say we weren't unpatriotic) are stuck in a pre-911 world, while Republicans are beyond that.

I think he is right. I think Democrats live in a world where our constitution still matters--where warrantless searches are still a bad thing.

I am considering a new possible bumper sticker or email signature. "Would you support unwarranted searches from President Hilary Clinton?"

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The Abramoff scandal is still percolating. Republicans keep trying to paint this as a bi-partisan scandal even though the only politicians under investigation are Republican. One of the more interesting tidbits is the potential connection to Bush himself. At the very beginning, McClellan said that Bush didn't know him. Of course, Bush also said he didn't know Chalabi, remember that?

Well, we shall see. One Washington mag is reporting having seen pictures with Bush and Abramoff together--and also saying that Abramoff will testify that Bush new him well enough to ask about his kids and wife by name.

This might really cause Bush problems. Of course, given the first note in this post, those who believe that God elected Bush won't care. Evidently if God is behind your candidate, they can even break the law.

Sheesh.