The politicization of The Gospel is an offense to the cross.
God's man will exhibit God's attributes. Between John McCain and Barack Obama, which one is a better example of Christ-like conduct? Who Jesus would vote for, I cannot say. I encourage you to vote for the candidate who best personifies those qualities of Christ. Vote for the candidate who lies less, who is less mean, who is less ruthless. Who is kinder. Who speaks to our hopes and not our fears. My bumper sticker might read, “Vote For The Grown-Up.”

“Pray for McCain, Palin, and all good

conservative candidates," the email said. Which deeply troubled me. First and foremost because we're only praying for the conservatives, then characterizing them as "good," as though only conservatives are "good" and liberals, one would conclude, are therefore "bad." It is the either-or, yes-no, on-off divisive light switch thinking that keeps whites and blacks, Democrats and Republicans, southerners and northerners at each other's throats. The email went on to petition God to work in the favor of conservatives and expose lies. Well, at the moment, it is the conservatives who are lying. Who are running the most disgraceful, offensive and patently racist campaign of hate and fear I have ever seen.

It absolutely frightens me that so many of my Christian brothers and sisters insist on backing conservatives in spite of evidence, before their own eyes, that these people do not embody the qualities of Christ. Yet, so many of my brothers and sisters make the political campaign a religious crusade, inferring by such "good" and "bad" descriptions, that Senator Barack Obama, a professed born-again Christian, is somehow evil and that John McCain, whose religious testimony is less well-documented, is, somehow, God's Man. Added to the debate this election season is thinly-veiled racism, most disgustingly demonstrated a day past our press time as conservative groups American Values and Focus on The Family sponsored a "Values Voters Summit" at which they sold a mock breakfast product called "Obama Waffles," which featured an overtly racist stereotypical cartoon of Barack Obama wearing a Muslim Kippah (which is not materially different from a Jewish yarmulke) along with the slogan Point Box Toward Mecca For Tastier Waffles. It goes without saying neither the item nor the hate-filled, racist thoughts behind it were in any way inspired by God, but I'm sure conservative Christians at this "family-friendly" event thought it was funny. And these are the people my dear friend has allied herself with. PraiseNet.Org appeals to Focus On The Family and founder Jim Dobson to repudiate this hateful and divisive tactic.

Would Jesus run such a nasty, hateful campaign?

Truth Or Dare: Discovering truth amid all the noise.

Taking Them At Their Word

Between John McCain and Barack Obama, which one (at least at the moment) is a better example of Christ-like conduct? It just seems to me that conservative Christians are simply robots, backing whomever is on the conservative ballot. But, so far as I'm concerned, the conservative campaign has been utterly disgraceful and shameful and, yes, we absolutely should pray for these people. But throwing our support to ungodly people simply because they claim to be Christian and pro-life just makes us fools. Our claim to the cross is not based on what we say but what we do. Any reasonably objective examination of what's been going on lately in conservative politics must conclude these people are not Christians. They demonstrate no Christ-like attributes whatsoever.

They lie. And continue lying, even after their statements have been proven to be lies, even after members of their own party decries their statements as lies. Obama will raise your taxes. A lie. I stopped the bridge to nowhere. A lie. Governor Palin was for the bridge until Congress pulled its support, and then she kept the money. Sarah Palin is not even sworn in as vice president yet and she's already invoking executive privilege, refusing to cooperate with an abuse-of-power investigation back in her home state of Alaska. And these are the people we, as Christians, are pressured to support simply because they claim to be Christian and pro-life. What makes Sarah Palin's claim to Christianity materially different from Barack Obama's claim to Christianity? Why do white, conservative Christians take her word for it while continuing to insist Obama is a Muslim?

It is worth noting George W. Bush was pro-life, as was his father before him, Ronald Reagan before him, Richard Nixon before him (Gerald Ford, who was not elected, was also pro-life). Conservative Republicans all ride to the White House on the backs of simplistic fundamentalists believing their promises to overturn Roe v. Wade and install Supreme Court justices who'll end legal abortion. And every time, every single time, it's a lie. And they know it. Without defending Roe v. Wade, it is reasonable to point out the Christian right is taken for a ride by these people every election cycle, campaigning on abortion, gay marriage, stem-cell research. And the Christian right falls for it every time. And you know what happens? Nothing. Nothing at all. But you've voted an unscrupulous liar who's used you, played you like a banjo, into office. God's man. What makes him God's man? Why, he's pro-life, of course.

God's man will exhibit God's attributes. Galatians Chapter Five has a list of those attributes, along with a set of values labeled "The Works Of The Flesh." It is both fair and reasonable to hold those lists up against the candidates in deciding which of the two personify which of those qualities. Who is really God's man and who is just playing you for a fool. Again.

Meanwhile, while we're checking off lists, it's worth pointing out how utterly unlike Christ it is to pray for THIS guy and not THAT guy. Beloved: if we're going to pray, pray for them all. Pray for the guy you agree with AND the one you don't. Pray for George W. Bush, sincerely and earnestly. Pray for our leaders, love 'em or hate 'em, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. Selective prayer, only for people we agree with, seems inconsistent with the divine example of Jesus Christ Himself, who begged the Father to forgive the very sinners taking his life. Selective prayer only polarizes us, locks us in where we are. America is a better place than that. As Christians, we are better people than that.

I'm so glad that somebody prayed for me, and not just for the guy they agreed with.