Oh, good! President Obama is not even running for anything and Rudy Giuliani who used to have a shred of respectability lost it this week when he said he didn’t think the President loved his country. But he was not impugning the President’s patriotism!! And right on the heels of that, Scott Walker implied that President Obama wasn’t a Christian!!! Other than the fact that the U.S. Constitution under Article XI states, “…but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” So what’s up with all of this range-land waste with whether someone is a Christian or not?
And just what is Walker’s definition of Christian? Is he referring to the deceased pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church that protested at the funerals of soldiers for some obscure reason dealing with homosexuality? Is he referring to the brand of Christianity that Jeff Sharlet described in his book, C Street, Jesus plus nothing? That is, all one needs is a personal relationship with Jesus so that when one prays for guidance, Jesus will let you know what to do. With this one, as Sharlet pointed out, it was amazing how many times Jesus agreed with the person doing the praying. Some churches proclaim that all one need do is accept Jesus as your personal savior, and read the Bible. Others say that if one accepts Jesus, God will reward you, so that if you are poor, you don’t love Jesus enough. But the problem with that is which translation is being read. As one infamous Texas preacher said, “If the King James Version of the Bible was good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for me.” Or is it one of the more theologically vague, but social justice very savvy Protestant churches. How about the politically conservative rigid and monolithic church that Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI tried to lead, and Cardinal Burke, et al, tried to force on American Catholics? How about the Catholic Church Pope Francis is leading, with an emphasis on the love of God first and equally necessary, mercy, love and compassion for everyone else? There are so many ways to say one is Christian that it boggles the mind if one is not an adherent to any of them. It is hard enough if one is an “insider”.
This is what really is obnoxious about the current bunch of radical religious right people in our Congress now, who are putting pressure, financial or otherwise, on their buddies in Congress. All of this nonsense about how it is the Christian thing to do to cut taxes on the wealthy so corporations will have more money to invest in their companies, and the result will be a “trickling down” of that wealth to the poorer people. That in their view is compassion. No one has said just what century this is supposed to occur in, since trickle down started in the 20th century, and now it is the 21st.
The contention is asinine that it is the Christian thing to do to cut the safety net for people all the way from seniors with Social Security and Medicare down to children with no health insurance, no food stamps, and no education, etc., in order to force people to get out to work which will then enable them to realize their potential. Rand Paul made the comment that people on Social Security Disability are “gaming the system”. Some probably are, but the majority simply require it to survive, or for their families to survive.
One of the Bible stories that is told often is that of the Good Samaritan. For those who may not be acquainted with it, it is the story of a man who belonged to a tribe not accepted by the Jewish nation as a whole. And it is the story of another man who was travelling, was met by robbers, beaten, robbed and left for dead. A couple of upstanding citizens came by, but not wanting to be involved, crossed to the other side of the road, and went on their way. But the Samaritan stopped, put the battered man on his donkey, took him to an Inn, paid the innkeeper to take care of the man, promised to stop on his way back to pay more if the Innkeeper required it, then the Samaritan went on his way. This story is told as the reason why churches need to teach compassion. Which is a good thing, but it is only half the story. The Samaritan did not care for the man himself. He went on his way, after paying the Innkeeper to do that.
My point in citing this story is that it is directly applicable to our current political situation. The upstanding citizens now could be those who just want to go by the people who are hurting and hungry. The Samaritan now is the rest of us, who want to help out and do what we can. Now instead of paying the Innkeeper and going on our way, we pay our taxes to the government to supplement what our churches and other non-profits simply cannot keep up with. The Samaritan did not care for that battered man himself. He paid someone else to do it for him. The Innkeeper then; taxes now.
Scott Walker is probably one of the most hard-hearted governors in this country. There are quite a few, but he takes the cake. For him to impugn our President for not being a Christian, I wonder which of the above definitions he would claim as his own. Or is he an upstanding citizen who simply crosses the road before he might have to be involved.
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