Madam President

What's At Stake In The 2008 Election

Focus On Deception

This is perhaps best demonstrated by the release of Letter from 2012 in Obama's America, a film produced by the conservative Christian group Focus On The Family. The film depicts terrorist strikes on four American cities. Russia rolling into Eastern Europe. Israel hit by a nuclear bomb. Gay marriage in every state. The end of the Boy Scouts. All are plausible scenarios, Focus asserts, if Democrat Barack Obama is elected president. The point the Focus film misses is that the same doomsday scenario can be easily gamed out in a John McCain win, as McCain's questionable health (his shifty and unethical limited release of his health records earning him our deep skepticism) make the strong case that a vote for John McCain is, in a very real sense, a vote for Sarah Palin for President. Focus's hateful and disingenuous scare tactics, besides being an affront to the cross, defend the indefensible: John McCain's selfish and foolish choice of a running mate. To suggest, in any sense, that Sarah Palin will better defend America than Barack Obama is simply openly hypocritical and baldly racist. And it proves James Dobson will back anybody who claims to be Christian and pro-life, no matter how obviously poor the candidate's judgment (and, in McCain's case, health) is.

Like most conservatives, Dobson seems to suffer from a crippling myopia and Time Travel Disease, wherein it must simply drive him insane to wake up every morning and realize it is no longer 1957 and Shines can vote and sit in the front of the bus. Even sadder is the institutionalized acceptance that "Christian" = "Conservative," which is hardly true. But it is the default assumption when I share my faith with others; that I am somehow in league with or, at least, in agreement with the hate that groups like Focus wrap in a veil of "Christianity" when their political practice has absolutely no biblical foundation and finds no model in the personal example of Jesus Christ. Which makes this kind of hateful propaganda anti-Christian and antichrist, gamesmanship of the great false prophets Jesus warned about who would come in His name and cause many to fall. It is reasonable to compare the conduct of those calling themselves Christian to biblical models and the divine example of Christ. By not doing that, we become just as guilty as these so-called "Christians" who invest so much time and money trying to transform the kingdom of the world at gunpoint—something we were never commissioned to do. There is no biblical foundation, none, for the church, as an institution, to be involved in politics. There is no instance, at all, of Jesus Christ organizing His followers to defeat a ballot initiative or to vote a certain way or petition Governor Pilate. Moreover, there is no biblical foundation at all for using hate and fear to scare your flock into voting a certain way. This is reprehensible behavior from a group that becomes more extremist and cult-like as the years go by. The divergence between the personal example of Jesus Christ and the practice of Focus On The Family is now extremely telling, forcing me to wonder what spirit is influencing James Dobson and his overly-devoted followers. It makes me worry that Dobson has allowed his follower's loyalty to him to overshadow their responsibility to Christ, these folks seeming to know more about political black operations than they do about what it means to be a Christian.

They're fasting on the steps of the Florida Capitol, MSNBC reports, preparing get-out-the-vote command centers and forming prayer circles. The faithful are busy as Nov. 4 nears. Indifferent to the personal example of Jesus Christ and in apparent ignorance of His teaching and the tenets of their own faith, Christian conservatives have made the electing of McCain/Palin a religious crusade. While politicians are making their final pitch to voters, religious Americans from across the political spectrum are appealing to a higher power on the candidates' behalf. "We have just days to pray that someone who upholds the sanctity of life and marriage between one man and one woman will win," said Pam Olsen, co-pastor with her husband of the International House of Prayer in Tallahassee, Fla. Olsen, who personally supports Republican John McCain, is organizing a marathon of prayer, fasting and Bible reading at the Capitol starting Saturday until the state's polls close. "The outcome is up to God," she said. (MSNBC).

Abortion. It's all they care about. Well, abortion and gay marriage. It's the one drum beat Christian conservatives continue to follow: it's all about abortion. For these folks, there simply is no other issue. MSNBC goes on to report that, for the first time, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops have published prayers for immediately before and after the election. They focus on dignity for all, an end to poverty and for "ears that will hear the cries of children unborn." (MSNBC). Well, folks, you've had someone in office who upholds the sanctity of life and marriage, and what has it gotten you? A wrecked economy and a nation at war. A nation whose global reputation is now well beneath contempt, and the worst crisis to face America since The Great Depression. This man has ruined this country. This man has ruined this country. And you folks elected him because he was anti-abortion. Conservatives still want to continue in the same direction, disregarding the hundreds of thousands of deaths—untold numbers of Iraqi noncombatants, women, children—killed by this man's policies. This abortion obsession focuses our attention on these deaths while ignoring those deaths caused by the very man you elected to prevent these deaths. Struggling, campaigning, praying for more of the same is simply hypocritical and baldly racist, to value these lives more than we value those lives.

None of which is an attack on pro-life which, as I stated, is my position as well. but to suggest Senator Barack Obama is somehow against life, that he does not uphold the sanctity of life, is simply shameful. You, sir, you madam, are making a political argument out of personal conviction, which is entirely wrongheaded. Regardless of Senator Obama's personal convictions, his position posits a rule of law—settled law, according to even conservative constitutional scholars. Which means changing this law to impose anyone's personal conviction on the American people would require precisely what you are apparently praying for—a miracle. But you pray amiss, because you are praying for God to do something He has patently said He would not do: manage the kingdom of the world. Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." [John 18:36, NAS]. This massive surge of Christian faith is terribly misguided, as is the insinuation that Obama (or I, for that matter) am somehow less faithful to Christ because I do not support this shamefully wrongheaded distortion of the teaching of Jesus Christ.

Regardless of what your stand on abortion is, we have learned from bitter experience, that having a pro-life president accomplishes absolutely nothing. Not Reagan, not Bush 41, and certainly not our current president, whose reelection campaign exploited the naïveté of Christian conservatives while delivering on not one of his campaign promises concerning their issues. Beloved, it's not enough to have a president who is pro-life. we need a president who is pro-intellect. Pro-information. Pro-wisdom and pro-patience. It may alarm many conservatives to even consider the possibility there is more at stake in this election than abortion, or that abortion is not reason enough to elect a selfishly ambitious senior citizen who will almost surely leave America in the hands of someone barely qualified to deliver pizza. Maybe you see God in your decision to support that ticket, but I find no scriptural support for being a moron.

The Saint: Pentecostal altruist Sarah Palin, who spews racial epitaphs and knowingly lies about Obama's birth certificate, his "palling around with terrorists," and his Christian faith. By any objective standard, Mr. Obama's observed public conduct appears to be that of a mature Christian, who chooses not to strike back against people like Mrs. Palin, whose observed public conduct suggests she does not know Christ.

Conservative = Christ-like

For many of these people, the matter is just this simple: conservative = Christ-like, liberal = antichrist. And they rush forward, headlong and with great fervor, placing blind faith above even reasonable inquiry, turning a blind eye and deaf ear to the empirical evidence that the McCain campaign has actively, willingly and capriciously sinned, seeking to sow discord among Americans (which God hates, Proverbs 6), bearing false witness, and, per the GOP playbook, cruelly abusing the faith of people whose convictions are stronger than their grasp of their own doctrine. It saddens me, in fact, that, from all apparent evidence, the conservative faithful seem much more invested in religion than they are in faith; that they know much more about banning things, expelling people, judging others and imposing their values on others under threat than they do about trusting the simple message of the Gospel—which repeatedly denounces all of those things. Jesus spoke out, many, many times, against religion, against hypocrisy. Certainly vote your convictions and support your candidate, but stop trying to make Republicans into saints. Neither Republicans nor Democrats have clean hands. They are politicians, which, by definition, means they are invested in the science of managing public opinion—of lying to us.

I find it further interesting that white conservatives have made their support of McCain-Palin a religious crusade whereas black pastors, within my earshot at least, have wrestled with their conviction, struggling to at least appear neutral while staring into the glare of history. For some, their neutrality is certainly about protecting their non-profit status, and for some it's simple ignorance. But, my guess, the overwhelming majority of black pastors are simply socialized to not mix politics and religion and to not make religious causes out of political contests. Barack Obama's historic nomination comes about as close to being the African American equivalency of white Christian conservatism's sturm und drang as we've ever known, and yet there is fairly little in the way of organized violence—the violence of one people imposing their belief on another. I've seen no mass rallies of blacks attacking John McCain or claiming you'll go to hell for voting for him. No masses weeping on the State Capitol steps, praying for God to work some miracle to put our guy in the White House.

Such behavior is diametrically opposed to scriptural doctrine. My blather here is not about telling folk who to vote for, or claiming one guy is somehow more godly than the other guy. My efforts here, and why politics remain an intrinsic component of this ministry, is to teach what the bible says and to contrast what the bible says against what Church Folk do. You like McCain? Be my guest. But don't expect me to shut up when he does something disingenuous, especially when he does evil in the name of good. Or, more readily, when his born-again, tongues-speaking running mate does so.

Governor Palin's extremist religious encounters are the real reason McCain won't use Pastor Jeremiah Wright against Obama. There's no video of Obama agreeing with Wright's extremism, but there's actual footage of Palin agreeing with and being anointed by extremist witch-hunting fanatic charismatics—something which won't play well to the Christian right. I'm convinced such reasonable and rational inquiry is what Focus On the Family started out to be, but it has somehow drifted over into mind control, propaganda and race-baiting, the ministry now much more of a political action group or a cult. No longer speaking Christ's words or even Paul's words but Dobson's increasingly anachronistic, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-abortion, pro-war, pro-death penalty, sexist, racist, grampa's-gone-fishin,' faux-Reagan homilies, and favoring conservative politicians no matter how much they lie to and exploit us.

Blacks & The GOP

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Only 36 of the 2,380 delegates seated on the [Republican] convention floor are black, the lowest number since the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies began tracking diversity at political conventions 40 years ago. Each night, the overwhelmingly white audience watches a series of white politicians step to the lectern — a visual reminder that no black Republican has served as a governor, U.S. senator or U.S. House member in the past six years. [Washington Post]

"You have plenty of images of committed white people for McCain; you need pictures of committed black people," Krim Ballentine said as he surveyed the Xcel Energy Center. As one of just 36 black delegates, Ballentine stands out. The retired chief deputy U.S. marshal printed up business cards for the occasion calling himself a "Constitution Philosopher" and "The Last Negro." The latter title, the back of his card explains, is in honor of the "First Negro," Othello. "Disrespect is the main ingredient in every act of violence, with racism being the most discernable negative attribute of disrespect," the card reads. Ballentine is a committed McCain supporter, but he won't be voting for him in November. "I'm from the Virgin Islands," he explains; he can't vote in presidential elections. The black man standing nearby won't be voting for McCain, either. "That's my son," Ballentine said. "He's with Republicans for Obama." [National Journal].

Sarah Palin

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In an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) suggested that Palin doesn't have the foreign-policy experience to be president. "'She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said in an interview. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything." Hagel continued: "I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,'" he said. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people." And this one: "I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States," Hagel said. —From Mark Murray, NBC News

Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.

Palin limited her duties further by hiring a deputy administrator to handle much of the town's day-to-day management. Her top achievement as mayor was the construction of an ice rink, a project that landed in the courts and cost the city more than expected.

Arriving in office, Palin herself played down the demands of the job in response to residents who worried that her move to oust veteran officials would leave the town in the lurch. "It's not rocket science," Palin said, according to the town newspaper, the Frontiersman. "It's $6 million and 53 employees." —New York Times, Sept. 13, 2008

Since joining the Republican ticket, Palin has faced questions about whether she is qualified to be vice president or, if necessary, president. In response, the first-term Alaska governor and Sen. John McCain point to the executive qualifications she acquired as Wasilla mayor, a six-year stint from 1996 to 2002 that represents the bulk of her political experience.

Palin says her time as mayor taught her how to be a leader and grounded her in the real needs of voters, and her tenure revealed some of the qualities she would later display as governor: a striving ambition, a willingness to cut loose those perceived as disloyal and a populist brand of social and pro-growth conservatism.

But a visit to this former mining supply post 40 miles north of Anchorage shows the extent to which Palin's mayoralty was also defined by what it did not include. The universe of the mayor of Wasilla is sharply circumscribed even by the standards of small towns, which limited Palin's exposure to issues such as health care, social services, the environment and education.

Firefighting and schools, two of the main elements of local governance, are handled by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the regional government for a huge swath of central Alaska. The state has jurisdiction over social services and environmental regulations such as stormwater management for building projects.

The mayor oversees a police department created three years before Palin took office; the public works department; the parks and recreation department; a planning office; a library; and a small history museum. Council meetings are in the low-ceilinged basement of the town hall, a former school, and often the only residents who show up to testify are two gadflies. When Palin was mayor, the population was just 5,500. —Washington Post, Sept. 14, 2008

There is no shame in winning an exclusive interview with a reclusive subject, of course, and David Westin is hardly responsible for the McCain campaign’s cynical handling of its Eliza Doolittle problem, but if he had managed his network’s “get” more responsibly he might have expelled its odor of compromise. The occasion of the Alaska governor’s début before the national media called for a lightly edited, extended one-on-one, aired on a single night, so that American voters might assess the candidate’s answers and demeanor in full. Instead, apparently to maximize ratings and branding opportunities, ABC doled out Palin sound bites on six network broadcasts over two days, as well as in supplemental ABC Radio and Web releases. In the end, Westin exploited the Governor’s moose-hunting, baby-juggling appeal as if she were a magnetic contestant on one of the network’s prime-time reality shows—“Extreme Makeover: White House Edition.”

Palin’s answers to Gibson’s questions made it clear that all the briefings and all the cramming that she could absorb in two weeks were not enough to endow her with what her résumé so plainly indicated that she lacked: sufficient exposure to national-security issues to serve as President, should she be required to do so. —The New Yorker, Sept. 15, 2008.

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