Chasing the Wind

At A Small Victory in an article called Jesusland Flavored Kool-Aid, Michelle can’t help but notice that the left (the far left fringe *and* the middle left) think this country is turning into a theocracy:

If you read them correctly – and I’m not just talking about the fringe elements here, but your everyday journalists, talking heads, bloggers and Democrat on the street – the Christians are coming and they are going to burn crosses on your door and kidnap your heathen babies.

Oh, sure, I’ve said that I don’t want to see this administration move towards the religious right. The difference between the Kool-Aid drinkers and myself is that they truly believe this is going to happen while I don’t.

Despite a rather vocal minority looking to instill their values on the masses and despite the jihad against Arlen Specter, there is no mass movement afoot to baptize everyone in the name of Jesus Christ.

Well, actually, there *is* a mass movement afoot to baptize everyone in the name of Jesus Christ. It’s been going on for centuries. 😛

That said, though, Michelle’s on the money about the fearmongering coming from the left. I’m about as far right wing religious whacko as they come, and I certainly don’t feel the urge to go burn crosses on the heathen’s doorsteps.

I haven’t heard any of the postelection commentators talk about ignorance and its effect on the outcome. It’s all values, all the time. Traumatized Democrats are wringing their hands and trying to figure out how to appeal to voters who have arrogantly claimed the moral high ground and can’t stop babbling about their self-proclaimed superiority. Potential candidates are boning up on new prayers and purchasing time-shares in front-row-center pews.

There’s a fear that’s right on the money. The last thing I think Christians want is for hypocrites to join churches for the sole purpose of getting votes. And yet in the last couple of months of the election, that’s exactly what it looked like John Kerry was doing. For 8 months prior to that, the news was full of articles about Bush imposing conservative Christian values on the nation, the importance of separation between church and state… and then when John Kerry started in on his “I was an alter boy growing up” speeches and scheduling stump speeches in black churches, all of a sudden the criticisms about the separation between church and state went away. It was as though “Ssshhh, everybody. One of our own is pretending to be religious. Let’s wait until he’s done.” And now that the election is over, it’s time to bash Bush’s religion again.

I don’t care what anyone on the right is saying right now because I am addressing specific issues here: How the Democrats, the left, the liberals, whatever they want to call themselves, have suddenly decided it’s ok to pass around the jugs filled with smug hatred, to lick their lips as they drool the slobbering bigotry all over themselves, to become everything they always claimed they weren’t.

What’s most amazing to me is that Michelle, the author, is absolutely not part of the religious right. She’s “no pro-lifer, I’m an atheist and pro gay marriage.” Yet she’s admonishing the left for their so-called “tolerant” behavior.

I see more tolerance coming from the right lately, not the left. Are you gay, living with somebody, pagan or wiccan, atheist? That’s ok. The religious right loves you. And given the chance we’d love to share our faith, if you don’t want to hear it, that’s ok. I’ve had friends in my life that were lesbian, atheist, agnostic, muslim, hindu. I don’t hate any of them. That would sort of defeat the purpose of my whole faith. 😛

I think it’s extremely important for the religious right to live up to thier beliefs at this moment. Our two biggest commandments are 1) Love the Lord with all your heart;; 2) Love thy neighbor as thyself. “Thy neighbor” isn’t just people we like, it’s everybody. It’s easy to love people we identify with and who share our beliefs. It’s loving everybody else that is our challenge.

Keep living by example. Share the Word with those ready to receive it. No fear. No hate. 🙂