Rant

I need to respond to the article Jeff Sharlet wrote for Rolling Stone. This is a super-scary article and I encourage you to read it if you haven’t yet. Go ahead, I'll still be here when you get back.

My gut reaction was: This is not the way our government is supposed to work! Congresspeople do serve their constituents, like it or not. They are not elected to serve God (as if God needed representation in our government!). They are in fact elected by people who vote for them with the understanding they’ll be represented. Saying a Congressman should consider himself as having only one constituent is irresponsible, un-American, and not why we pay their salaries.

But what if they boldly proclaim, "I am a Christian first and then an American/politician"? Well, after I pick myself up off the floor from laughing, I will tell them that if they are a Christian first, they can’t be in politics. Period.

Why? Because when you are elected as a politician you take an oath to serve your country or state or county – to serve the people who elected you. And Christians serve no one but God. So either Christian politicians are lying under oath (not big in God’s book) or they are idiots for thinking they can serve two masters. Idiots who’ve never read the Bible, where Jesus clearly says no dice on that one. No, I take it back – they are not idiots. The people who vote for them are.

And then there’s this idea of putting the country under Christianity – simply crazy. How good are theocracy track records? Let’s just look at the Islamic-run governments, for instance, or the way Europe was when the church and state were in bed together (they don't call it the Dark Ages for nuthin'). America was founded on precious principles of freedom of religion. And it is a pluralistic society people, whether you like it or not. If you want to live in a theocracy move to the Middle East. Please. See how that works out for ya.

In fact, did you see in all the election coverage of Hamas’ victory – did you see why they were elected? It wasn’t because all Palestinians are bloodthirsty and want terrorists running their government. It was because Hamas was the group that ran schools, hospitals, food banks…Hamas was the faith-based charity organization that kept the country fed, clothed, educated, and well while their government did...not those things.

Now I deplore their militant activities. I would never defend a suicide bomber, just like I wouldn't defend an assassination or a missile strike. But I can see where they are coming from - it's a horrible situation. And like it or not, certain arms of Hamas were essentially acting as a faith-based charity.

These American politicians who want to privatize everything – not just social security and healthcare but education, energy, transportation…these politicians are taking us down the same road. Because they are telling us not only to trust them to privatize all these areas of the government, but also to let them kill people for our safety!

Who does that sound like? They are “hunting down the terrorists”…they are waging wars in two countries…they are shooting missiles into apartment buildings willy-nilly. They are Killing in the name of the Safety of their Citizens.

Who else does that? Hamas. Who else privately runs the government services? Hamas.

Sam Brownback and his New Federalists come off a little less rosy when you export them halfway around the world and take away their enormous wealth and First World power. Serves us right if Hamas sets up a violent Islamic state. We would do no less if we could get away with it - we'd just call God by a different name.

We may have helped to make their bed, but their people have to lie in it. Let us pray for peace in Palestine. God's got to handle this one. It's just too big for us.

And you know what? These days, saying that you want Christianity to be the only recognized religion or that you are governing by that faith is the equivalent of racism. To say you won’t govern (or perform in a multifaith celebration!) next to a person of another faith is the same as saying you won’t do so with someone of another color. It’s so incredibly arrogant and offensive!

Yet we teach our students to reject interfaith opportunities as dangerous. We want to keep our wealth out of “Islamic hands.” We want only Christians in office with Christian values (or at least one version of them) running the country, shaping the Constitution (not an inspired document, by the way). We fear what could happen to us, our faith, and our God if a liberal judge gets on the court or a woman preaches or a gay couple marries or God forbid Hollywood makes another entertaining sex comedy.

Is our faith really so weak? Are we so threatened by Baal that we think our God isn’t going to show up and consume the sacrifice, altar, and all the water with holy fire??

We do not believe in God’s power, so we are trying to help God out. That’s always worked out so well in the past…the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust…

(okay, deep breath…)

I guess you can have at me now. But think about what I'm saying and see if it doesn't make a little bit of ironic sense.