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This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Wednesday, November 17, 2004 "We're [not] responsible to say everything we know." Ayelish McGarvey's column on Bush's religiosity has been widely quoted, but I hadn't read the whole thing until today. One section of it sprang out at me. Just who will boldly hold the president accountable to Scripture? Sycophantic religious conservatives are heavily invested in politics; they dare not rock the boat. Religious liberals are cast aside as partisan. And as Amy Sullivan noted recently in The New Republic, Bush does not regularly attend church -- he doesn’t even have a pastor or fellow congregants to keep him on the straight and narrow. For Bible-believing Christians, nothing in the entire world is more important than "walking" with Jesus; that is, engaging in a personal relationship with their savior and living according to his word. With this in mind, I recently asked [Ted] Haggard [president of the National Association of Evangelicals], himself the pastor of a large church in Colorado, why the president, as a man of supposedly strong faith, did not publicly apologize for continually misleading Americans in the run-up to the Iraq War. Instead, Bush clung zealously to misinformation and half-truths. I asked Haggard why, as a man of Christian principle, Bush did not fully disavow Karl Rove’s despicable smear tactics and apologize for the ugly lies the Bush campaign spread over the years about Ann Richards, John McCain, and John Kerry, among others. After all, isn’t getting right with God -- whatever the political price --the most important thing for the sort of Christian Bush has proclaimed himself to be? Haggard laughed as though my questions were the most naive he’d ever heard. "I think if you asked the president these questions once he’s out of office," Haggard said, "he’d say, 'You’re right. We shouldn’t have done it.' But right now if he said something like that, well, the world would spin out of control! "That’s why when Jimmy Carter ran, he [turned out to be] such a terrible president. Because when he [governed], he really tried to maintain [his integrity] and those types of values -- and that is virtually impossible." The pastor returned to my charges of Bush’s deceitfulness. “Listen,” he said testily, "I think [we Christian believers] are responsible not to lie [sic], but I don’t think we’re responsible to say everything we know." Let's see. Does that include not revealing the corporate affiliations of people in decision-making positions? Not telling Congress how much the Medicare reforms were going to cost until after the bill passed? Not being willing to admit to a single mistake? Ted Haggard's condemnation of Jimmy Carter is a perfect illustration of this administration's open contempt for Christian values. Carter was a terrible president because he tried to maintain his integrity and values. I guess we know Bush won't make that mistake. posted by Liz @ 8:25 PM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. 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Ayelish McGarvey's column on Bush's religiosity has been widely quoted, but I hadn't read the whole thing until today. One section of it sprang out at me. Just who will boldly hold the president accountable to Scripture? Sycophantic religious conservatives are heavily invested in politics; they dare not rock the boat. Religious liberals are cast aside as partisan. And as Amy Sullivan noted recently in The New Republic, Bush does not regularly attend church -- he doesn’t even have a pastor or fellow congregants to keep him on the straight and narrow. For Bible-believing Christians, nothing in the entire world is more important than "walking" with Jesus; that is, engaging in a personal relationship with their savior and living according to his word. With this in mind, I recently asked [Ted] Haggard [president of the National Association of Evangelicals], himself the pastor of a large church in Colorado, why the president, as a man of supposedly strong faith, did not publicly apologize for continually misleading Americans in the run-up to the Iraq War. Instead, Bush clung zealously to misinformation and half-truths. I asked Haggard why, as a man of Christian principle, Bush did not fully disavow Karl Rove’s despicable smear tactics and apologize for the ugly lies the Bush campaign spread over the years about Ann Richards, John McCain, and John Kerry, among others. After all, isn’t getting right with God -- whatever the political price --the most important thing for the sort of Christian Bush has proclaimed himself to be? Haggard laughed as though my questions were the most naive he’d ever heard. "I think if you asked the president these questions once he’s out of office," Haggard said, "he’d say, 'You’re right. We shouldn’t have done it.' But right now if he said something like that, well, the world would spin out of control! "That’s why when Jimmy Carter ran, he [turned out to be] such a terrible president. Because when he [governed], he really tried to maintain [his integrity] and those types of values -- and that is virtually impossible." The pastor returned to my charges of Bush’s deceitfulness. “Listen,” he said testily, "I think [we Christian believers] are responsible not to lie [sic], but I don’t think we’re responsible to say everything we know." Let's see. Does that include not revealing the corporate affiliations of people in decision-making positions? Not telling Congress how much the Medicare reforms were going to cost until after the bill passed? Not being willing to admit to a single mistake? Ted Haggard's condemnation of Jimmy Carter is a perfect illustration of this administration's open contempt for Christian values. Carter was a terrible president because he tried to maintain his integrity and values. I guess we know Bush won't make that mistake.
Just who will boldly hold the president accountable to Scripture? Sycophantic religious conservatives are heavily invested in politics; they dare not rock the boat. Religious liberals are cast aside as partisan. And as Amy Sullivan noted recently in The New Republic, Bush does not regularly attend church -- he doesn’t even have a pastor or fellow congregants to keep him on the straight and narrow. For Bible-believing Christians, nothing in the entire world is more important than "walking" with Jesus; that is, engaging in a personal relationship with their savior and living according to his word. With this in mind, I recently asked [Ted] Haggard [president of the National Association of Evangelicals], himself the pastor of a large church in Colorado, why the president, as a man of supposedly strong faith, did not publicly apologize for continually misleading Americans in the run-up to the Iraq War. Instead, Bush clung zealously to misinformation and half-truths. I asked Haggard why, as a man of Christian principle, Bush did not fully disavow Karl Rove’s despicable smear tactics and apologize for the ugly lies the Bush campaign spread over the years about Ann Richards, John McCain, and John Kerry, among others. After all, isn’t getting right with God -- whatever the political price --the most important thing for the sort of Christian Bush has proclaimed himself to be? Haggard laughed as though my questions were the most naive he’d ever heard. "I think if you asked the president these questions once he’s out of office," Haggard said, "he’d say, 'You’re right. We shouldn’t have done it.' But right now if he said something like that, well, the world would spin out of control! "That’s why when Jimmy Carter ran, he [turned out to be] such a terrible president. Because when he [governed], he really tried to maintain [his integrity] and those types of values -- and that is virtually impossible." The pastor returned to my charges of Bush’s deceitfulness. “Listen,” he said testily, "I think [we Christian believers] are responsible not to lie [sic], but I don’t think we’re responsible to say everything we know."
The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section
RSS Feed
PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
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