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I fairly cheered when I came across this essay at the Gadflyer. Amy Sullivan nailed it when she wrote that "Bush, a man who has claimed loudly and often to have faith ... has refused to identify any deeds that live out that faith."
The Radical Right has had the press cowed for more than two decades now on the subject of religion. Many people of faith identify with the Left, but you'd never know it from the coverage afforded the so-called "Christian Right."
What's righteous about rewarding the rich at the expense of the poor? What's holy about sending men and women to die under blatantly false pretenses? What's moral about the heavy-handed tactics the White House has used to stifle dissent, even among those who have honorably served them?
What, in short, is Christian about the behavior exhibited by George Bush and his administration?
As Sullivan's piece explains, there was a bit of a hubbub recently when the White House complained that it was inappropriate for John Kerry to inject religion into the campaign for the presidency.
Kerry's offensive act? He quoted a single verse from the Bible -- specifically James 2:14, which reads, "What does it profit, my brother, if a man says he has faith but does not have works?"
One would be hardpressed, in my opinion, to cite a more apt verse when discussing this administration. What's more, Kerry wasn't even speaking of the Bushies when he quoted the scripture. As Sullivan explains it, the citation "was just part of a recitation of the ways in which Democrats will be tested this year and was ostensibly a reminder that Democrats need to stick to their guns, pay attention to doing good and living out their values."
I do try to recall that we are admonished to judge not, lest we be judged, but it's not easy to resist labeling this dissembling, self-righteous pack of thugs.
The idea that they'd get upset because Kerry quoted a brief bit of scripture is, as Sullivan terms it, "rich," indeed. I guess the cited verse hit just a little too close to home for the Bushies, the hypocrites.
Posted by brett at 04:17 PM | TrackBack