If you listen to Republican politicians, it seems that God has been spending an inordinate amount of time talking to politicians, controlling the outcomes of sports events, throwing his support behind political parties and partisan agendas, and determining the results of elections. From
telling Mike Huckabee to run for President again to providing advice to Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman, to providing victory for his favorite sports franchises, to ensuring that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker had
enough prayers for his re-election it seems God has little time left over for the rest of us and our concerns.
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Using God and religion to gain personal advantage is as old as, well, the Old Testament. Maybe even earlier than that. Hammering people with cherry-picked Bible passages to degrade and diminish them while simultaneously making the cherry-picker feel superior and righteous has become commonplace. Unless you're a Bible scholar, it's hard to argue against "the word of God" and the serious fire and brimstone that comes from making God angry.
They've used the Bible to shame people as if the poverty they suffer is their own fault (or Gods punishment). Sickness, too, they see as a sign that God doesn't favor you, the sinner. After all, they tell us, God promises the righteous riches and health as his sign of His personal stamp of approval. One of the things that most angered Jewish religious leaders about Jesus was the way he turned this Bible "fact" on its ear by declaring the poor, sick, suffering, and downtrodden as righteous and those Bible thumping Pharisees as and those who made money off worshipers as the real villains.
Republicans have become the masters of crafting God not only as a tool to support their terrible policies and make themselves look righteously approved, but as a weapon against their opponents. Their opponents, they tell us, have become God's enemies, too. Religious leaders, seeing opportunities for themselves (and their collection plates) have become eager to join in and now use their pulpits to extoll the religious virtues of these God-Blessed candidates and deny participation in religious rites to those "others" who don't come with the seal of divine approval.
They've diminished God into a petty tyrant who now uses his omnipotent powers to serve their own personal, political, or selfish desires. They've weaponized the Almighty that they claim to love, fear and worship.
Jesus, too, has been morphed from the Prince of Peace who fed the hungry, healed the sick, liked tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, and those dreaded "foreigners" (Samaritans) into something more politically palatable to them. Their new dinosaur riding, gun loving, Republican Jesus has become a political activist who hates abortion, family planning, non-heterosexuals, education, science, Democrats, and women who aren't totally subservient to their husbands and understanding their only roles as obedient wives, housekeepers, child care providers, and brood mares.
They've been so successful that even Democrats don't give a speech these days without invoking Gods blessings at the end and that has caused Republicans to up the ante. Just listen to speeches by Republican politicians today and you'll hear about God throughout their speeches. Some of them rival sermons. It seems He's now become not only an endorser, but the political advisor to His chosen candidates and election results "decider".
To me, as a Christian, it's nauseating. I can only imagine how atheists feel when they hear the Chock Full of God speeches that pandering, self-serving politicians deliver to us. As for the rest of their public intonations, little substance, but plenty of divide and conquer tactics, dog whistles, patriotic jingoism, nationalistic chest-thumping, and empty, soul-less proclamations of "freeeeeeeedum" existing only here in the good ol US of A.
Now you don't have to even listen to their speeches anymore. You're welcome.
Perhaps all I can do is to remind all of them of the 4th Commandment:
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
That means not using him as a tool or weapon for your personal use or to elevate your status. He's none of those. He's God.
Also the words of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War:
Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.
I also remember a boxer who was asked if he prayed for a win before a match. He replied that he didn't because if both contenders asked for the same thing, God would be put in the position of having to disappoint one of them. Perfect!
God doesn't take sides, pick candidates, fix elections, or help sports teams win games. I'd rather have him focus on the important stuff anyway because, as God knows, the serious problems have been piling up.
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