Organizing for America | Michele D W' Blog: That Pesky Preacher Problem

That Pesky Preacher Problem - revisited

By Michele - Oct 10th, 2008 at 12:02 am EDT

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Tags: McCain, palin, Preacher, Rev. Wright, terrorists, Wright

Well, you know it's going to happen. Next week McCain Palin (M/P) and their surrogates are going to rehash Rev. You Know Who.

I am not surprised.

And we in Obamaland need to be ready to counter and counter hard. For M/P have their own Pesky Preacher Problems.

Remember Rev. Hagee? He was the guy McCain courted for an endorsement, who said that Hurricane Katrina was sent by God to punish all the sinning homosexuals and the parades in New Orleans. So to make a moral point, God, his, yours and mine, sent a fury of destruction down on a sinning society – nevermind all the innocent lives and homes, dogs and cats, that were destroyed.

It reminds me of what Rev. Falwell said after 9/11. He blamed that on American permissive society- again the homosexuals. Falwell wasn’t surprised God was so fed up! He later recanted and apologized of course, under pressure and outrage from the public, but deep down he believed what he was saying. This is the God of the religious right. Their God is angry, wrathful and punishing. Americans are heading down a wrong moral path and every once in a while, God swoops down to teach us a lesson. It makes Rev. You Know Who sound not so radical after all. According to Hagee and Falwell, the Lord damns mankind quite often because we are so unlearning.

But wait! We have God’s son to consider, don’t we? Hmmmm, didn’t Jesus hang out with sinners? Didn’t Jesus forgive and love sinners especially? My New Testament seems to indicate Jesus didn’t judge anybody lest we be judged.

So let’s look at that. Sen. Obama’s critics will counter, “ Yeah, but Obama stayed in his church with THAT preacher for 20 years!” “He should have known better!” “There is no excuse, that speaks volumes about his character.” Okay, as a Catholic, let me ask you…

How many Catholics stayed in their churches, prayed at their pews and dropped dollars in the collection basket after the terrible priest pedophile scandals- by men of the cloth who committed violent sexual crimes against children. Terrible stuff and awful shame! Some left, but most stayed in their faith. Doesn’t that make those who stayed, accessories? Aren’t they guilty by association? Maybe they stayed and remained Catholic because they weighed the good their church did against the singular bad. I think that is more fair.They knew their parishioners who sat with them on their left and right pew. They were people they prayed with, good people who did GOOD things in the name of their church. And that is why Sen. Obama stayed in his.

There was another preacher, Ted Haggard, who ran the largest church ever. He was the biggest hypocrite ever too. He cheated on his wife with male prostitutes and bought seedy drugs and had a hidden life. He was always on TV, the go-to-expert- about God, who claimed to know what God wanted from us. He couldn’t practice what he preached. So did his congregation get up and stomp out? No. They, like Hagee and Falwell’s congregations, remained in their church, and tithed and did good deeds despite the outrageous statements and behavior of their representative. Did they pull their children out of Bob Jones and Liberty University? Of course not!

And that is their business and their right. We should be allowed to worship who and how we want. We can believe that God, and not meteorology, is responsible for Rita, Katrina, Ike and the like, were sent to show His displeasure. That somehow, American society was to blame for 9/11? I find it an obscene logic, but we are allowed to believe what we want and stay in the church however nutty a preacher’s interpretation of Holy Scripture is.

If we don’t question the numerous examples of perplexing loyalty in these examples, what right does anybody have to question Sen. Obama’s. He chose to concentrate on the good his church did. And it did a lot of good.

Sarah Palin too, chooses her own path of faith. She prays to God to get herself elected to public office. She claims to know God’s will and side about war and battles and stuff like that. Voodoo priests who believe in witchcraft can lay hands upon her and Jews who “aren’t “ for Jesus can be condemned. She may not believe that specifically, but she “pals around” with people who do believe that – rather stringently I might add. Does that make her guilty by association? Of course not.

And she claims to understand God’s will in this war. She has the inside track, don’t you know – just like George Bush does. Maybe they are right. I certainly hope God is on our side…but you know, He created us all, now didn’t he? I mean, he created more than just Americans. And as I look back and read the history of civilization and see all the wars, torture and death fought in God’s name?...well, sorry, I prefer to believe in a different kind of theology, and so did his son, Jesus.

Jesus understood we are imperfect human beings. He tried to set an example that somehow, we have a real hard time following. That means forgiveness for errors of judgment, that no church or congregation member or preacher is perfect, but that we keep on trying. We all sin, and some of us, most of us, do so repeatedly.

So if we need God in our lives, it should be to help us to be better people – not use Him as a measure to judge and condemn others by. Those that shout it out the loudest, feel the most outrage, and wear their faith on their sleeves often do so because He does not exist in their hearts. And that “my friends” is where HE needs to be – in our hearts – especially in those who are shouting and judging and condemning the loudest.

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