Posted on 07/18/2006 6:06:15 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Imagine going to the dentist with an aching tooth, and going through the pain of having it diagnosed and pulled -- only to discover the dentist pulled the wrong tooth. Not only have you suffered for nothing, you've still got to operate on the real problem.
Democrats seem about to put themselves through this agony. Pundits and politicians tell Democrats that they have a "values" problem -- that people of faith vote against them in large numbers because the Democratic party is seen as secular, or as anti-Christian, or as straying from mainstream values.
Poppycock. Democrats didn't lose Florida in 2000 and the 2000 election because of the lack of a high faith profile. Al Gore won the popular vote nationally and the popular vote of the majority who cast ballots in Florida on Election Day. He lost Florida because the fix was in, because the Voting Rights Act was not enforced -- and because Republicans turned the recount into an alley fight while Gore played by rules. Then a transparently partisan majority in the Supreme Court violated its own principles and shamed itself by ordering an end to a fair count, worried Bush might lose. This wasn't about faith; it was about will.
Similarly, Democrats didn't lose Ohio in 2004 and the 2004 election because of the lack of a high faith profile. They lost because the fix was in, and because once again, Republicans had a partisan zealot -- Ken Blackwell -- as secretary of state. Once again he abused the powers of his office in choosing voting machines and election schemes. Once again, a majority of people set out to vote for Bush's opponent.
Having identified the wrong tooth, Democrats are now hearing the wrong prescription. They're urged to embrace the symbols of faith, to go to church, to speak from the Gospel, to advertise their faith.
But faith is not a political posture. True faith isn't exhibited by symbolic acts, but by substance. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. It isn't a symbol of things to scheme for. Values are not expressed by the paraphernalia of faith. Values are expressed by action. An abolitionist fighting to end slavery expresses faith. A slave owner attending a church that excludes slaves from attendance reflects bad faith.
The Bible says that you know a tree by the fruit it bears, not by the bark it wears. We know the values of a politician not by the public prayers he or she attends, but by the priorities supported in his or her budget vote. A vote for a budget that cuts basic needs from poor children while cutting more tax breaks for the affluent expresses the values -- and the bad faith -- of those who vote for it. A nation's budget is a moral document.
This mission statement from the Gospel -- Luke 4:18 -- is at the heart of our faith-with-substance imperative: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor: he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."
The Bible is clear about this. Faith is substance, not posturing. I was hungry and you fed me. Naked and you clothed me. Imprisoned and you comforted me. The Bible calls us to act, not simply to pray in public. A person is mugged on the Jericho Road. A man of religion, displaying all the signs of piety, sees the victim and crosses to the other side of the road. A man from the victim's own ethnic origins spies him and crosses to the other side of the road. A stranger in the land, with a different religion, a different way of worshipping God, with no green card, stops, puts the victim on his donkey and provides him with the resources to get care.
The parable of the Good Samaritan comes to us through the ages because it calls us to express our faith in action. We are judged by how we treat the least of these, not how pious we are in the first pew.
Democrats should focus not on the public display of their faith, but on the will to fight for what they believe in. If they don't learn to stand up and fight for what they believe in -- for the Voting Rights Act, for equal opportunity, for full employment and a living wage, for lifting the poor up and not locking them out, for making certain that every vote is counted -- then they just might be left without a prayer.
mailto:jjackson@rainbowpush.org
Po Old Jess. Mush mouthed fool.
Jesse? Oh, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
Hey Jesse, how did the Republicans fix those Democrat Counties?
This from Mr. Fix-it, the jerk who badgered a judge to keep the polling places in St. Louis open extra hours ?
"We know the values of a politician not by the public prayers he or she attends, but by the priorities supported in his or her budget vote."
Translation: I value politicians by the amount of their budget that ends up in my pocket!
Dems turning to experts and polls again it appears. Too bad they aren't grasping what they're being told...they don't just have a "perception" problem, they actually have a lack of morality problem. They ARE largely secular, largely anti-Christian and they do NOT reflect mainstream values. All one has to do is visit democrat websites and try posting something positive about Jesus Christ and one will quickly be disabused of any delusions that democrats are not largely anti-Christian. And if they weren't out of the mainstream then they would not be struggling to push forward agendas through the courts after their efforts to pass votes past the citizens.
When I hear that, I think of Democrat-controlled inner cities.
That's what the Democratic Party "bears.".
poppycock? JJ said poppycock?? I flat don't believe that.
"BS" I could believe. "crap" i could believe. I don't believe he said "poppycock"
THAT is poppycock.
Oh Bravo Sierra! We vote against them because they are nothing short of communists! Their platform is to turn the USA into a communist utopia.
Well, thank God he didn't say the "s" word or we would have to hear about it for two days.
Jesus was clearly talking about the welfare state in this text.
Delusional.......
If you keep having to tell yourself to have substance and values, then you don't have them.
Keep blabbing all the way to 2008, Jesse. And when Hispanic Americans achieve clear #1 minority and victimhood status, don't let the door hit your butt on your way out.
Give that man another Budweiser franchise.
Poppycock is...I dunno... such a Black word.
Ah yes..."the fix was in". Jesse knows all about "the fix" so of course he sees it everywhere.
" A man of religion, displaying all the signs of piety, sees the victim and crosses to the other side of the road."
Man in the mirror Jesse?
I hope the Democrat party takes it to heart.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Bull****. Gore lost because Moonbat Nader siphoned 97,000 votes away from Prince Albert.
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