Fundamental Christians
= Political Pawns
November 24, 2009
WWJD?
- the well known acronym for What Would Jesus Do? It has been used
for so many things and by so many that by now it has become a hackneyed
idiom. I nearly hesitate to use it here but I can’t think of anything
else that would suffice as a reasonable alternative.
But
I am jumping ahead a bit so let’s look to today’s theme. The above
title is “Fundamental Christians = Political Pawns” I have decided
that if you show me any Christian that would tell you that he/she is a
conservative and a Republican I will give you odds that they cannot discern
the truth in political rhetoric.
Without
a basis in facts and absent any cogent conversation the Ideologues from
the right will appear to own their political truth. My observations
show me that blindly a great number of Fundamental Christians follow a
party line without so much as flinching or wavering. Whatever a party
leader should say, they immediately assume it to be true and an expression
of God’s will.
You
may recall a blog from November 12, 2009 – “Leading the Herd” well this
past Sunday evening I had similar opportunity to spend time with a number
of people from my Church and without fail we reached a point when one of
the persons attending was giving a recap of his current health issues the
topic of health care reform presented itself.
I
was absolutely amazed with the dialogue; it was as if I had stepped into
a room with the Congressional Republican leadership of John Boehner, Eric
Cantor and Mitch McConnell. I heard more Republican sound bites in
those few moments than I could imagine possible. Any attempt I made
with providing a counterpoint was not met with anything that resembled
logic, but rather with another sound bite. I will admit they learned
them well but in two seconds it very much resembled a parrot when they
mimic human speech.
I
heard all the Tea Baggers themes such as “keep the government out of healthcare”;
“I don’t want to pay for someone’s abortion”; “they are going to kill off
all the old people”; “they are going to provide health care for illegal
immigrants”; “my taxes are going to go through the roof”; “the national
debt can’t take another hit”; and so on and so on ad nausea. All
protestations I proffered founded in all the logic I could muster were
met with vocal volume and less than convincing content. Time and
again I heard the equivalent of “that’s the way I see it, don’t confuse
me with the facts.”
This
experience begs the question, with regard to our theme above and Health
Care Reform – What Would Jesus Do?
I
obviously do not speak for my God and Savior, but I can only imagine that
He would step up on behalf of anyone that was being exploited by anyone
or anything. I have to believe that our Lord’s compassion and love
would likely cause Him to support the notion that even the least of us
deserves access to decent health care.
As
I look at His reaction to the money changers in the temple my reasonable
speculation would be that He would take action against the overcharging
and service denials of the insurance companies. Granted Christ was
throwing the crooks out because they were desecrating the Temple however,
they were essentially exploiting the economic and religious needs of the
people as well.
I
have no doubt that Jesus would insist that the politicians on either side
of the aisle would speak the truth and nothing but the truth. Further
I believe that He would expose those same villains that accepted political
campaign contributions that are the practical equivalent of a bribe.
In
my years on the planet I have discovered that those who would cling to
the narrowest of religious or political principles are the most likely
to be hypocrites. When the rules are the tightest the greater chance
exists that the rules will be broken. If that were not true then
a political scandal revolving around marital infidelity, such as is the
case with Senator John Ensign and his buddies from “C” Street, would not
draw much in the way of public interest.
In
my opinion doctrines that serve to marginalize do more to define the demagogues
than determine the dogma that the unwitting or gullible might ingest; and
what is disastrous is that those who fall prey to the disingenuous discourse
of the dogmatic seem to be obliged to accept every word without challenging
the candor of the content.
Placing
our faith in God and accepting His precepts as found in the Bible is appropriate
because God is all about truth because He is all good. However, because
of their beliefs Christians tend to be quite conservative in their views.
Sorry to say but they make the jump to assuming that all other conservatives
are trustworthy and would never distort the truth or lie!
We
must realize that a fabrication stated in a vacuum of ideas where no counterpoint
can exist ultimately becomes a fundamental truth. Lies unchallenged
are assumed to be true. We have one source that is altogether
lovely, altogether truthful, altogether faithful, and we can trust Him
and His word. In other words God is all about good; but as far as
our politicians are concerned, not so much!
So
then WW J D? He would encourage His children
to contrast and compare the political views from a variety of sources rather
than solely accepting as truth what is available on the voice of the Republican
Party.….Fox News!
