God and Hillary Clinton

First, let me say that I think candidates for office, whether city council or the presidency of the United States, should be allowed to speak at any forum, even if it is the pulpit of a church. Americans learn democracy in the committees and congregational votes of their churches and synagogues. Black Americans have a long tradition of this--and according to the polls, it hasn't hurt their faith one bit. Second, some Christians are terrible hypocrites about this. Here in Columbus we had a group gang of 31 smug, self-righteous, mainline preachers trying to take the tax exempt status from World Harvest (which draws much bigger crowds than they do) during the 2006 election cycle. Third, I haven't read this book--and probably won't since I'm not a Hillary fan. Still, it's an important topic. Faith does shape one's politics.

I listened to an author interview; he has written other "God and. . ." books. (Here is another interview, but not the one I heard and it addresses different issues.) He said that George W. Bush spoke at a church 3 times in his first 3 years in office, all at memorial services. Hillary Clinton spoke 6 times in churches on one election day (her senate run in New York). Yet she is the one who says she won't "wear her religion on her sleeve" (audience applause) because that would be Pharisaical. She gave many "Why I am a Methodist" speeches when the folks in Arkansas were a bit doubtful about the young couple living in the governor's mansion in the 80s.

If this book is as carefully researched as the author claims, and is accurate just on this "sleeve" issue, Senator Clinton will continue to set up a straw man to divide Christian loyalties to meet her own political goals.

My opinion. Christ taught nothing new about moral and ethical behavior. Our faith is not about what to do, but about who we believe in. So Matthew 25, where Christians are commanded to help the poor, sick and imprisoned is a basic religious tenet for both Christians and Jews. The Gospel of Matthew is a very Jewish book drawing heavily on the Old Testament.

Main line Protestants have no problem using this text to decide that it is the government which needs to do it with everyone's tax dollar, not just the taxes of Christians and Jews. However, the same group is quite vocal about not teaching Creation, the theological bedrock of both faiths in that it deals with God's sovereignty and how death entered the world. They ridicule conservative Christians and side with atheists, agnostics and humanists. They are vocal about blessing gay marriage, even to splitting their denomination, using every passage about marital love in the Bible. They are silent about the killing of the helpless unborn, except to mouth platitudes about "choice," and "saving the poor or deformed from a life of pain."

Today I saw a letter to the editor in WSJ which voiced concern that the Christian right was taking the reins of the Republican party (a very common complaint). Again, I ask all Christians, liberal and conservative to please show me where Christians are having any influence at all in education, economics, politics, entertainment or academe. I wish it were true, but I don't see it. Twice in 60 years we've had a Republican Congress with a Republican President. Show me a single government program or boondoggle that was turned back, slowed down or reversed by conservative Christians.