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Sunday, October 21, 2007

The value of these voters may be inflated

The Republican candidates for the 2008 presidential nomination went a courting the religious right this weekend; flowery words and candied platitudes in hand to prove their love to the conservative Christians christening themselves as values voters (see Religious Right Divides Its Vote at Summit from the New York Times).

They are a group who though taking the name of the New Testament's protagonist as their titular guide, never seem to get past the eye-for-an-eye morality of the Bible's first half. They like to rain Old Testament vengeance down on anyone not fitting their mold of moralistic behavior. They have an amazing propensity to ignore the bits of the good book that don't suit their purposes, even though Christ's words most often contradict their own.

Jesus may be their savior, but his lessons fall on deaf ears. Believing themselves righteous beyond reproach, they gladly cast the first, second and every other stone that lies close by their graspy hands. Proclaiming themselves the defenders of life, they were instrumental in electing a President who indiscriminately wielded the power of state execution as Governor of Texas. He also launched us into a war that defies anyone's definition of just, and caused the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and innocent Iraqi civilians.

Their inverted values prize hate over love, and retribution over mercy. Christ's example of forgiveness and inclusiveness got lost in the King James translation of their Bibles, replaced with the fire and brimstone of the Old Testament's vengeful deity. His vilification of those who seek material wealth is conveniently overlooked. His selfless model for feeding the poor, embracing the outcast, and ministering to the sick is mostly forgotten.

If these values voters looked a little more closely at their leadership, they might recognize the manipulation of good intentions that's taking place. Thankfully, the far right's political sway is diminishing as the repercussions of their favorite son's policy's manifest themselves. That's George W. Bush , not Jesus.

A plummeting dollar and upward trending inflation will mean much economic hardship for Americans, a situation exacerbated by the monetary drain of this unwinable war. The next President will likely have to deal with a major recession, needing to feed growing numbers of hungry and provide health care to the mounting uninsured. I don't see anyone in the Republican ranks up to that task. Maybe it will take the second coming of Christ himself to win them back the White House, but I don't think he'd find much worthwhile in the Republican's current platform.

Christ for President
Words by Woody Guthrie

Let's have Christ our president.
Let us have him for our king.
Cast your vote for the carpenter
that you call the Nazarene.

The only way we can ever beat
these crooked politician men
Is to run the money changers out of the temple
And put the Carpenter in

O It's Jesus Christ our president
God above our king
With a job and a pension for young and old
We will make hallelujah ring

Every year we waste enough
to feed the ones who starve
We build our civilization up
and we shoot it down with wars

But with the Carpenter on the seat
away up in the capital town
the USA would be on the way prosperity bound!

7 comments:

Jane Doe said...

Well said. I seem to recall that Christ said something akin to: "Love your ememy, it he smites you on the left cheek, turn so he may smite you on the other" Not, "If you have an enemy bomb the shit out of his counrty, rape said countries natural resources, and then torture the hell out of that enemy just to make sure he understands how much you hate him."

Go figure.

Francis Scudellari said...

Maybe there are some secret passages in George W's version of the Bible that the rest of us are missing.

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Lisa McGlaun said...

Loved this post. I had something good to say but messed up my comment. It was basically that you are right on target with your analysis of the so called Values Voters.

Francis Scudellari said...

Hi Lisa,
Thanks. Your original comment said that you heard Huckabee, who won the values voters straw poll, speak on NPR and he had some pretty scary things to say ... seeing threats everywhere. I've never heard him speak, but if the VV's like him I've no doubt he's not my cup of tea.

Jennifer Jones said...

Hi Francis...

Ohhh yes... where did we lose the message of Jesus.

The meek shall inherit the earth, the golden rule, "inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these thy brethren, ye have done it unto me," "he who is without sin cast the first stone,"... ya know?

VERY nice post my friend,

Jen

Francis Scudellari said...

Thanks Jen. Can you imagine if someone actually ran on a platform of the things Jesus said? I don't think he'd fare too well, especially with conservatives.