focusing on the two twin demonic evils of the Left in the viewpoint of the religious right: Abortion and Homesexuality. Totally missing are concerns (of which they- the Religous Right— have NONE) about ALL OTHER issues of some social impact and significance, like poverty, environment, war, and democracy itself, which is being sold out from under all of us, and all of Mr. Mohlers’ constituency included).
It sickens me, EVERY DAY, how the Religous Right, and the Southern Baptists have ceased to become Baptist and are instead some sort of Empire Religion with the theological sophistication of….well, the words escape me. Al Mohler is a perfect example of how narrowly they define the issues, and how ferciously they defend a ploitcal party that to all most balanced observers, are engaged in the most disgusting campaign andf operation of deciet and capitualtion to the large companies that it defies the imagination. What’s ironic is that most of their constiuents will suffer along with the rest of non-rich Americans under the reckless derliction of duty being carried out by the “Bush Busineses” and Caheney, Rove, and all their corporation buddies like “Kenny Boy”.
When I saw a report that one of Kerry’s biggest contributors is suspected to have ties to the mob, I immediately shook my head that they would even try this tact; Where is Bush’s biggest contributor? In Prison. Kenny Boy. Where is the special prosecutor that gave Dubbya his free pass from insider trading? On the Bush administration.
I subscribe to Mohler’s Web articles (I won’t call it a “Weblog” becuase it is basically an online magazine using some weblog tool that omits everything that a Weblog is other than RSS, which enables people to be notified of new articles, but missing are comments or trackbacks. Anyway, Mohler wrote what he considers an “expose” of Kerry, but its the same fundamentalist drivel that the Southern Baptists depend on to “push through” their candidates, whom they have unilaterally supported to the total exclusion of the most obvious messages in the Bible straight from the lips of Jesus:
34″Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37″Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40″The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
41″Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44″They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45″He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ (from the Bible Gateway, NIV)
I don’t know, for the life of me, how they get by that one and continue to support the most unabashedly anti-social outreach policies acted out in the Bush administration. The usual arguments are how government is so ineffective and wasteful in how they seek to address this. But so are the Churches in that they generally avoid the matter altogether. The Churches that DO address the problems are amazingly effective. This is where I question the “separation of Church and State” when taken the extremes it has today. I belive that it is the job of ALL governments to “protect” and to “do justice”. The answer to red-tape and ineffectiveness is to reform, not to abandon. The abandonment of ministry to the least of these is not an option, and so it requires reform. The Religious Right says that social programs should not be the job of government, and it certainly isn’t theirs, so where does that leave us? It is a corner they’ve painted themselves into. It is an avoidance of the clearest passages of scripture by a selective canon— that re-writes by omission the message of the gospel. The result is the irrelevance of “theologies” like that forwarded by Al MOhler, and scores of pundits of the Religious Right.
And so, Mohler bemonas the absence of “morality” in the Kerry platform based on his views on exactly 2 issues. And oh yeah, the fact that Kerry DOESN”T LIKE BUSH” also makes him suspect, becuase Bush is so obviously Christian because, well , becuase he says so. All he has to say is “Jesus chenged my heart”, and he doesn;t have to explain or articulate ANYTHING. A reporter asked him what he meant by it, and Bush couldn’t answer. His advisors told him that’s all he needed to say, and he’d get rousing support from the constituents, and so he has.
While the national media will be focusing on political questions about Kerry’s personality, stamina, and presidential viability, concerned Christians should focus attention on Kerry’s actual governing philosophy and positions on moral issues.