Islam, Christianity and the GOP: Religion Baiting for Political Gains – Part Two

Part One

If we believe these things, why is the Christian Coalition and the Christian Right surgically attached to the hip of a White House administration that bears no fruit, breaks the laws, suppresses dissident viewpoints, and believes torture is Christian, if not American? (I’ve addressed these issues in “All We See are Nails” and will not go into them again here as that is not the focus of this article.) When the state level groups in the Christian Coalition send the consummate “fat lady” to the national headquarters to sing good-bye and good riddens , you know politics has gone too far.

There is a huge amount of hypocrisy when we Republicans will go after former President Clinton for his White House fundraising teas with lobbyists, and we will turn a blind eye to Jack Abramoff in the White House buying the President’s influence.

It is sad when even Rep. Mark Foley’s pedophilia scandal makes international news, and yet the Christian think tanks and “pro family groups” like Dr. James Dobson’s “Focus on the Family” refused to comment or condemn the behavior of a predatorial Republican for a number of days. By the time his ministry did comment, it was the wrong thing to say and a bit too late .

It’s all about keeping power and has nothing to do with Christianity or family values. It’s time we start admitting the truth and stop lying to ourselves in order to hold onto power. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely – and that’s what is taking place in Washington . Christians MUST see this mess for what it really is, and for the damage it has done to our religion, our political system, and our international reputation.

There’s Rep. Curt Weldon (R) who’s in trouble for cozying up to questionable business overseas businessmen whose house was raided by the FBI. How dirty does your family have to be when you get your daughter’s house raided in the process, too ? There’s been allegations Rep. Heather Wilson (R) shut up a report regarding her husband inappropriately touching an underage male , and she’s on the Page Board overseeing not only the Foley investigation, but allegations against Rep. Jim Kolbe (R) for taking a group of underage males on a camping trip. Who would want to forget Rep. Don Sherwood (R), a strong family man caught cheating with a woman thirty plus years his junior ? It gets maddeningly frustrating when President Bush stumps for him during the “National Character Counts Week ”.

The think tanks are beyond shame when it comes to their role in the mess, and they’re not hard to track down or determine their biases. The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is extremely pro Zionist and Christian Zionist in their membership. It is the darling of the neo-conservative Washington power culture. The American Israel Public Action Committee comes in second because by definition, it’s not open to the Christian Zionist neo-conservatives, although it’s a very strong, well-connected organization currently embroiled in a criminal trial due to spying charges. T he Washington Institute for Near East Policy reads like another Zion-Christian Zionist group, with one such prominent member being Richard Perle, who cannot be trusted with fiduciary duties , it seems. If you would like a short read on the players and their think tank games, you should read this article as a starting point .

The real problem doesn’t lie with any Islamic extremist, nor should we buy into that lie that has been fed to us by the “Powers That Be” in the nation’s capitol. In some states, the Republican Party is running a silent ad that shows extremists, and it ends with a nuclear mushroom cloud ; it is nothing short of President Johnson’s famous “ daisy ad ”. When you have to use terror to emotionally manipulate and force people to vote for you, how close are we to a total political meltdown? It’s hard to ague we’re in good shape.

I’m a right wing evangelical Christian and I thought about sitting out this election period. I honestly did. I barely pulled the lever for the Republican Party in 2004 while holding my nose only because I’m originally from Massachusetts and I know Sen. Kerry too well.

I’ve always heard people say, “if you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain”, and that’s true. This time around, I am going to use my voting power to oust every Republican incumbent. In races that have Independents and Libertarians, I’m going to pull the lever for them, and as a last resort, vote Democratic. If there’s no challenger in a specific race, I still will not vote for that person.

Why would I do this? If you have children that misbehave, you spank them and take away something they like (TV, video games, telephone, ground them in their rooms). If punishment is good enough for our children, then it’s good enough for our political system. It’s time the collective hand of the evangelical right gave the GOP a butt warming that turns on the lights in their cerebral cortex that we’ve had enough of their stunts, scandals, and it’s time to look under the rug and deal with the messes they’ve tried so desperately to hide. To hide and deny are not Christian principles of behavior.

We as Christians must stand up and deliver a ballot box turn over to the Party that has made us not only the laughingstock of the world, but has damaged the credibility of all Christians. Who in the world would want to be a Christian after what Washington has done and the poor examples Washington “Christians” have consistently set? If I hadn’t been Born Again before President Bush and the neo-cons had soured my viewpoint, I would’ve never come to the Lord in the face of such hypocrisy.

The problem is not Islam and we have to start acknowledging this concept. The problem is carnal, power hungry “Christians” who have not “put off the old man” (Ephesians 4:22-23). These people love their sin for its pleasurable season and when caught, they lie and hide it (Colossians 3:9) instead of honorably confessing it and repenting from it. The only thing the Republican politicians who have been caught in scandals are sorry about is…being caught. We also have to learn to spot false converts who “embrace” the faith but consistently bring forth bad fruit (Matthew 7:16-18) so we are not fooled into electing corrupt men and women to represent us. Heck, President Bush belongs to the infamous Skull and Bones secret society; he has never turned against it formally and has never sought forgiveness. He remains a member to this day; you do the math and figure out which “power” rules Washington .

The truth is coming out with an inside Christian admitting how the Evangelicals are ridiculed and scorned , and it is time to swallow the bitter pill; the GOP used Christians to get elected and pay back the special interest groups and enrich themselves at the expense of the national budget and the blood of thousands of innocents whose only crime was being born in the wrong part of the world.

The fact is, we have to stop and take the time to listen and research the candidates out instead of trusting big radio or TV “Christian” personalities to tell us how to vote when they are equally partisan. We must demand these “shepherds” automatically disclose their own personal political biases as well as any personal or corporate donations to political groups up front prior to every political discussion they engage in. We require transparency from others, why shouldn’t the “Christian” voices be required to undergo the same disclosure they insist from others? Fair is fair, otherwise, we are behaving in a hypocritical fashion.

Other quazen.com articles by this writer can be found here and relijournal.com articles here . If you enjoyed this article, consider digging it with others!