Tuesday, March 06, 2007

John Alleuia Edwards

In this silly part of the 2008 presidential marathon, former North Carolina senator John Edwards preaches to the masses that he believes that Jesus Christ would not be too happy with America these days.
According to Mr. Edwards, among other things, we are a selfish nation. Not that the former good senator is selfish. I mean, doesn't everyone build a 20,000 square foot mansion and then rip fellow citizens for being selfish? I'm sure he built some extra rooms to take in the homeless and destitute.
We also learn that Mr. Edwards is embarrassed at using the C-word in describing a religious America. That's Christian. OOOHHHH! How terrible it is to say that the United States is a majority Christian nation. One only has to look at the percentages.
Mr. Edwards was preaching to David Kuo during an interview on beliefnet.com. You remember David? He was of late in the Bush Administration's Faith Based initiative department. He left because he felt like he was "used" and mocked by people within the administration. He later wrote a condemning book on his time there and recommended that Christians take a "fast" from politics.
So here we are, supposedly two committed Christians talking about current events and "What Would Jesus Think?"
Really, that in and of itself is the wrong question. It should be "What Would Jesus Do?" And of course the prescription that Mr. Edwards has is simple. Get the troops out of Iraq and socialize medicine so that all Americans can have substandard health care.
The real problem is twofold. Democrat politicians who claim to be Christians can not answer these questions from a biblical point of view off the cuff because they really do not know. They speak essentially in terms of a certain moral equivalancy. Something that conservatives do not. Thus, you get muddled answers to questions like Mr. Edwards.
I would never speak for or pretend to speak for the almighty. All I can do is what the Holy Bible says, and the beatitudes (Matt. 5 3-14) are a good place to start. Oh, and no where does it say that the government should do any or all of those things.
Democrats do not understand that they can not continue to address the concerns of Christians by trying to make the arguments in terms of economics or just marginalization. Many Christians, myself included, feel there is a moral decline and while I do not think that government can play a role in reversing it per se, it can have leaders who address it and lead a kind of life that makes people think about moral issues. It is not just economics and margianlization any more than moral decline. All are relevant.
But, as long as there are people like John Alleuia Edwards, Christians will look elsewhere for the kind of leadership that can meld all of the above. Thank God it is not that of John Edwards!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good post.