John McCain and Sarah Palin both seem to know exactly who can go to Hell.
McCain, while running against George Bush in the 2000 Republican primaries, was incensed that the Bush team had run smear campaigns against him (how funny is that?). He was particularly angered by their attempts to bring his adopted Bengali daughter into the mix, by spreading rumors that “John McCain has a black baby”. In an interview, McCain stated, “I believe there is a special place in hell for people like those.”
And just the other day, Sarah Palin misquoted Madeline Albright during a campaign appearance, proclaiming, “There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t support other women.” Albright actually said “women who don’t help other women”, but whatever.
Point is, these two sure do seem to be right with the Lord. They’re pretty confident that they have the moral authority to discuss how other people deserve to burn in Hell. And if the recent tactics against Barack Obama are any indication, they think there’s a spot in Hell for him, too. The fact that he worked on a couple of community projects with William Ayers, who was once a radical extremist – even though by the time Obama met him, he was a respected and law-abiding member of the community and of the educational establishment – is evidence enough for McCain and Palin that Obama is “too risky” to be president.
While listening to the sound bites from McCain and Palin’s campaign stops yesterdaay, and hearing the links between Barack Obama and William Ayers repeated again and again, I realized that the whole thing sounded sorta familiar. I did some quick Googling, and I found what I was looking for.
Here is a description of the life of another important and well-known figure, written by a highly-respected scholar; see if you can spot the similarities between this and the Obama/Ayers discussion:
This person…”was the most active resister perhaps known to history…a troublemaker, par exellance”. He “was not just provocative; his actions were illegal…His entire life led up to the culminating confrontation with the powers of his day…His words were revolutionary…All his actions vary in focus and intensity; all are illegal and draw the ire of the ruling and religious authorities.”
In addition, “[He] dined with a social outcast…fraternizing with the enemy…[He] publicly embraced all those excluded by societal laws…”
So who was this “troublemaker” who, like Ayers, defied the law in order to challenge the powers that be, and who, like Obama, associated with the outlaws of his society? Well, it just so happens that it was Jesus. You know, the Son of God, the King of Kings…that guy. Seems He had a real tendency toward civil disobedience, according to writer and lecturer Father John Dear. The author is a Jesuit preist who, earlier this year, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Dear, in his 1994 book, The Sacrament of Civil Disobedience, writes:
“The Gospels make plain that Jesus regularly mingled with ‘sinners and tax collectors’…By sitting at table with a tax collector, sinners and other public outcasts, Jesus must have shocked everyone.”
Discussing Jesus healing the lepers, Dear says, “This act was civilly disobedient because it went beyond the designated boundaries of society, from those nebulous areas where some people are considered ‘insiders’, to those clear-cut, off-limits places where others are declared ‘outsiders’…Jesus deliberately touched the leper who came begging to him, and in doing so, Jesus broke the sociological and religious barriers of society…Jesus was now a marginalized outsider: he had violated all the taboos.” Hmm, insiders and outsiders…where else have I heard this lately?
So, am I saying that Obama = Savior? Christ, no! But I am saying that one of the basic tenets of Christianity is “Love the sinner, hate the sin”. Which begs the question: why is Obama being castigated by McCain and Palin for associating with a former radical activist? Are men not allowed to work side by side on charity boards because one of them was once a criminal? And if they do work together, do you truly believe that the experience makes the other man a criminal too, by extension?
I thought the GOP were all up on their Bible studies, but I guess they forgot that Jesus had time for everyone, including prostitutes and theives. In fact, Jesus saw fit to accept, as one of His 12 apostles, a man known as “Simon the Zealot“, who was a fierce Jewish nationalist and, as a young man, subscribed to the beliefs of the Zealots. According to Wikkipedia, “the Zealots objected to Roman rule and sought violently to eradicate it.” But isn’t that philosophy kinda like…domestic terrorism, or something? And yet Simon the Zealot was OK by Jesus, was selected to hang with His posse, and was eventually canonized as a Saint in the Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran Churches. I can only assume that, when “Christians” like McCain and Palin ask “What Would Jesus Do?”, they don’t mean it literally, because if they did, then Barack Obama wouldn’t be catching the crap he is right now.
Perhaps the McCain folks hadn’t heard the news yet, but there’s this whole “Ten Commandments” thing, and one of the items on that list is, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” Any discussion of how Obama “palled around” with William Ayers, despite a lack of any evidence to support a relationship of that nature, would probably run afoul of that “false witness” idea. I am willing to bet that there’s a very, very special place in Hell reserved for those who break a commandment in the pursuit of political gain.
It is a sad time for all of us as Americans, because, at a moment when we desperately need a leader to guide us to better times, we are being asked to accept a team of self-serving politicians who would rather point fingers at others than get their own house in order. After years of divisive politics under a polarizing administration, one candidate wants to stick with the status quo and maintain an “us-vs.-them” mentality. I can’t help wondering who could have advised McCain and Palin that hypocritical self-righteousness is a good way to win the hearts of Americans. Now, who could have come up with such a diabolically bad strategy? Hmmm…I don’t know…could it be…
Wide Awake In America 