Will Sampson with a set of questions wondering how who I call the “Bush Christians” will begin to react to the now daily uncoverings of the pervasive scandals and manipulations of the Bush administration and its tentacles (the “tentacles” part I have added to the assesment, as well as the question about “holding out”—-these are two things that occurred to me as I read Will’s post) willzhead: Pastoring People Post-Bush

The cat is out of the bag. The secret has been let loose. President Bush is not an honest man.
….
This current administration may go down as one of the most corrupt in history. Bill Clinton received sexual favors from an intern. Shame on him. But, to my knowledge, no one in his purview was responsible for using Christian radio to help further the business of Indian casinos and, in the process, pocket $45 million in lobbying fees.

I’m afraid that a good number of these Christians have hitched a disturbingly high amount of their theological well-being to this house of cards, and will die hard. Especially with Fox News in the mix, which is the only newscast most of them will even watch. They watch others and automatically dismiss any reports that cast the administration in a suspicious light to be part of the “liberal media conspiracy”. It is all the more scary because we’ve seen in history debacles of how tenaciously church folks will cling to “righteousness” of a political cause against all evidence (Nazi Germany). (Once again, it’s not comparing the magnitude of the evil, but the propensity for the “court prophets” (the “religious representatives” who provide the theological rationale for national interests as forwarded by the group in power. I must say however, that I can do something of a listing of the consequences of this administration which do catalog quite a distressing list of atrocities, but those shoujld be kept out of a context of “comparison” to Hitler and assessed on their own merits).

The point here is, is that “ideologies” die hard. But in the end, there is always that all-too elusive hope for a deeper harmony amongst God’s people. We can’t help but be saddened and disturbed when the call of the gospel is exchanged for “lesser”, incomplete, even opposing loyalties; what Cavanaugh calls the “false soteriology” of the state.