Soapbox

My Jesus is better than your Jesus

I sent this letter to columnist Jonah goldberg this week, after an op-ed piece in which he basicly stated that Bush’s religion is real and Kerry’s is fake, so Bush should be president. What a worm.

Mr. Goldberg-

Your Column today (10/18) contained glaring logical errors. You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but it would be nice if you presented some basis , other than raw prejudice, for your opinions.

Your basic premise seems to be that George Bush’s faith is “real” and Kerry’s is “fake”. You apparently come to this conclusion based on the fact that Bush says “God bless America” all the time and John Kerry refuses to condemn all abortion and gay marriage. With this flimsy rational, I cannot help but think that your real motivation for belittling Kerry’s faith is that Kerry does not share your political agenda.

Your elevating of your position on abortion and gay marriage above concern for the poor and sick in this world is interesting, considering Jesus himself never felt the need to speak on either of these issues. If you want to judge our politicians based solely on how they follow the Old Testament, shouldn’t you also address their support for slavery, stoning adulterers and making burnt offerings?
I do not presume to know if the president’s professed faith is real or false, but I do know that talk is cheap. Even the devil, as they say, can quote scripture. Therefore I am more impressed by actions than by words. Bush is quite concerned for the unborn alright- at least the ones headed to abortion clinics. His concern for the unborn is sadly lacking when it pertains to his pollution standards, which are allowing unborn children to be poisoned by ever-increasing levels of mercury and arsenic in the air and water. He demonstrates little concern for the unborn dieing in Iraq when their mothers contract hepatitis because we still have yet to repair their sewage and water treatment facilities more thn a year after we destroyed them. So if we judge by his actions rather than his words, I would say Bush’s commitment to “life” comes out neutral, rather than “pro”.

Jesus also said that if we would love him, we must feed his lambs. You complain that John Kerry picks and choses when to follow the Bible and when not to, yet the president has done that very thing! Under George Bush, poverty has increased in the United States to the point where our poverty rate is only just below that of Russia! In my home state of Ohio, demand at food pantries is at record levels, with more and more working families unable to feed their children. More people have to chose between buying food and going to to the doctor, and if George Bush follows his advisor Grover Norquist and “starves the beast” we may one day return to the era of our elderly eating cat food to survive. So it is clear that president and the Republican congress are chosing NOT to follow Jesus’ command to feed his lambs!

Jesus also said that to love our neighbors as ourselves is the second greatest commandment. I believe that this is what Senator Kerry is trying to do in his refusal to punish gay and lesbain people for the way they are born. George Bush claims that he merely wants to protect a sacred institution (though the sacred is not the jurisdiction of the presidency) but he is, in fact, making an entire group of people into second -class citizens. This is not about protecting marriage- it is about legislating the “Jesus loves me but he hates you” mentality that is so contrary to all the teachings of Christ.
Finally, Matthew 6 says that we should not parade our faith in order to impress other but should make it a private thing between ourselves and God. George Bush not only invokes the Divine at every opportunity but has even gone so far as to say that God “told” him to go to war in Iraq, thereby paving the way to shift the blame to the Almighty if the war continues to go sour!

My point is that it is impossible to judge what is in a person’s heart. We all know of people who profess no faith at all, yet live good and moral lives, and others who attend church regularly yet lie, cheat and abuse others. It is completely inappropriate for you to assume that John Kerry, a man who attends church regularly and honors his family, is not a good christian just because he does not subscribe to your particular political views! Going by those standards your dear president is, to many Christians, the worst kind of sinner!