Contributors

Thursday, April 21, 2005

The Reverend Bill Frist

Last Sunday. I got up in the morning, put on my suit and went to the early church service at Faith Presbyterian Church. While I was there, I noticed several quiet and peaceful people worshipping the Lord and enjoying a fine spring day. Funny, though, I did NOT notice throngs of “liberal, communist pedophiles” trying to prevent me or anyone else going to church. I also did not see any activist judges telling me that I could not go to church or worship Jesus. This Sunday I plan on going back to church for another enjoyable service.

This Sunday Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as "against people of faith" for blocking President Bush's nominees. According to news reports, the telecast, put on by the Family Research Council will have many speakers charging that there is a Judicial War on Faith being waged.

"As the liberal, anti-Christian dogma of the left has been repudiated in almost every recent election, the courts have become the last great bastion for liberalism," Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and organizer of the telecast, wrote in a message on the group's Web site. "For years activist courts, aided by liberal interest groups like the A.C.L.U., have been quietly working under the veil of the judiciary, like thieves in the night, to rob us of our Christian heritage and our religious freedoms."

I am trying to get my head around this statement as I think it is very reflective of the absolute garbage that is coming out of our government these days. Its called fear based management, folks and it just isn’t close to reality. Here are some talking points…

First of all, our founding fathers fled Europe to ESCAPE religious prosecution. The very thing that Frist is proposing is the exact opposite of what our government should be based upon. And while we are on the subject of our Founding Fathers, let’s remember that their descendants live in the Northeast and are the very “elite, liberal scum” that are supposedly ruining our country. They are the ones that voted for Kerry while the South are once again mucking things up for everyone with their bizarre psychosis.

Second, no one is being blocked from worshipping whatever God they choose based on some decisions made by judges. People are still going to church, worshipping, and having fun WITHIN THEIR CHURCH. Why is there such a need to go beyond that and into public life? Is the Church not enough for these people anymore?

Third, why is the right still angry and yelling about everything? They won. They are running this country. So, now they want to change the law so they can run the one area of the country that is supposed to be outside of governmental control? It just proves my point that the right will never, ever be happy and constantly have to invent new enemies and devils to perpetuate their control over people.

What really strikes me the most about this is how many of my conservative family members and friends have told me that because I am Democrat I cannot be a Christian. I find this perplexing and would like some help on this one. Equally perplexing is that when I pray and talk to God, generally he/she doesn’t talk back to me and tell me what is right or wrong. He/She might give me a sign to help me with my particular problem but never once have I heard the Almighty say, “Go forth and stop judges from ruining this great land of ours.”

I can’t help but think that when this Sundays telecast wraps that the people watching and participating in all the fear and anger will have completely missed the true message of Jesus. This reminds me of a quote from a book I recently read by Maraget Starbird called The Woman with the Alabaster Jar. “The Jesus described in the Gospels is an anti-establishment hero, and incarnation of the spirit of wisdom, gentle and compassionate toward the poor and a champion of justice. It is this Jesus who is the role model for the life of any true Christian.”

Hmm. Sounds pretty good to me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you and I should try a little role-playing. (Not that kind, you sick freak....)

You should try walking a mile in the shoes of a southern bible-banger so you can share some appreciation for their point of view. I know how much you cherish every individual's rights to live life as they see fit, so your characterization of their point of view as a "bizarre psychosis" is somewhat troubling to me. Sounds a little close-minded. Bear in mind that, for many people, all of you churchies share a sort of perverse delusion, so you're not exactly standing on moral high ground as far as we're concerned.

In exchange, I'll walk a mile in the shoes of Joe ACLU, who I see as an individual that blindly pursues the enforcement of "freedom" even to the degree that it clearly is to the detriment of the very society guaranteeing that freedom. Maybe after this exercise I'll have at least a basic understanding of why such an individual would cut off his nose to spite his own face. There must be a good reason for such ardent devotion to the cause, and I'm ashamed to admit that, at this point in my life, I don't understand what that reason might be. The ACLU's crusade (ooops, did that word slip out) against all things oppressive is largely a mystery to me. And they say you fear that which you don't understand, right?

Anonymous said...

I don’t think Frist is proposing religious persecution…he isn’t telling anybody what God to worship, which church to go to, etc.

One of GWB’s recent judicial nominations, William Pryor, is a conservative who, as his record shows, has declined to follow his personal views where they are in conflict with the requirements of the law. Yet Democrats have blocked his nomination, in part, on the theory that because his views on abortion are founded on "deeply held religious beliefs"(their words), he cannot be trusted to follow the law when it comes to this issue. This argument amounts to opposing Pryor because he is a person of faith and moral conviction and it sounds an awful lot like discrimination based on religion because his record shows otherwise.

William H. Pryor Jr. is undeniably conservative. However, the test is not whether a judge has conservative or liberal views but whether he will yield to the demands of the law despite such views. Pryor has proved that he can do that. While Alabama attorney general, he vigorously prosecuted former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore for refusing to remove the Ten Commandments from the courthouse — despite his personal agreement with Moore's legal view on the issue. Facts like that tend to get in the way of partisanship.

Senator Schumer, the Democrats' point man on the nominees, says that Pryor's deeply held religious views will prevent him from doing what he has promised to do, namely follow the law when it conflicts with his views. This argument effectively sets up a religious bar -- Catholics (for example) who strongly believe what their church teaches need not apply. Thus, opposing what Schumer and his fellow Democrats are attempting to accomplish does not constitute Frist persecuting anyone or Frist tilting the judiciary in favor of a religious agenda. Rather, it amounts to playing defense -- trying to prevent a system that excludes passionate people on one side of the spectrum but not the other.

So because someone lived in the Northeast that makes them a liberal? I would have thought that the label of Liberal would stem from ones views on the issues, not what part of the country they landed on or happen to reside in.

Noticed that Connecticut recently made civil unions legal. Noticed also that there hasn’t been very much outrage…..why? Because their legislature voted it in, the way it should be. Noticed also that another one of the judges being fillibustered is a black woman, guess she must have stepped off the intellectual plantation.

Some people do feel the need to talk about their religion outside of church. The constitution says freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. On the most basic level, the contempt of the intellectually elite for ordinary people—for their faiths, their speech patterns, their clothes, the state they live in (Example – statements such as “while the South are once again mucking things up for everyone with their bizarre psychosis.”) has driven scores of Americans out of the Democratic Party and into either the Republican Party or a no man’s land between the two. The willingness of many Republicans to simply show respect for the habits and interests of these mixed and moderate Americans has paid growing political dividends. The Republicans are the ones that seem to understand that communicating respect is more important than offering programs or incentives.

Note also that democrats have been speaking in Black churches every election cycle for some time now. Maybe liberals DO know the true truths of the universe and are naturally ordained by God. Because of their inherent vast moral superiority, they know exactly which churches are Ok to speak in and which ones are not. No one else has the knowledge and mental superiority to do such a task but it is all in a day's work for whichever candidate the dems put up for the presidency.