Religion and Democrats

Democrats seem to be struggling with religion these days. On one hand, intervention with cases such as Terri Shiavo's, is seen by some leftist as "theocratic." One the other hand Democrats, such as Howard Dean, think they need to reconnect with religious voters, and thus, have started incorporating religion into their rhetoric. The outcome is something awful, forced, and seemingly disingenuous.

But probably most troublesome is that Dems seem insistent in claiming God is on there side. This is ridiculous and insulting -- and I hope it continues. Any sensible voter will soon be offended by the Democrats' pomp and presumptuousness. Consider this quote, reported by Rich Lowry:

Democrats oddly tend to go too far, overadjusting, when they do God talk. In his desperation to invoke religion toward the end of the 2004 campaign, John Kerry compared George Bush to a "false prophet" from the Bible, a harsh charge given that false prophets could be stoned or crucified. Howard Dean said in February, "When you think of the New Testament, [Republicans] get about two of the values, and we get about 27." Dean's bottom line: Democrats are better Christians than Republicans. While it's possible to imagine some televangelist on the conservative side making the opposite claim, no responsible figure in the GOP would ever say such a thing.

and another by author of the book God's Politics.

Wallis reminds us that Jesus wasn't "pro-rich," and extrapolates from that that Christians must support higher taxes. Now, the New Testament obviously enjoins us to care for the poor. But what mix of policies is best suited to do that is a practical question. Conservatives happen to think everyone is best served by a low-tax, high-growth economy and by social policies -- e.g., welfare reform -- that encourage the inner-city poor to work and marry.

Notice a pattern? God is on the Democrats side. But the analysis is very problematic, as Lowry points out. Yes, Jesus said we should care about/take care of the poor. No, He didn't say that we had to do it by raising taxes or with big entitlement giveaways. Thus, Democrats mistakenly think that they are the only ones who care about the ends. In reality both Democrats and Republicans care about the poor -- we just disagree on how to go about helping them (the means, that is).

And that brings me to a more personal note. A few weeks ago someone left some comments, one of which was along these lines, on my blog. One was an accurate observation -- sort of -- though not on the topic were talking about. I feel though, if I'm going to address the weaker of the comments in a second, in fairness I should mention the stronger.

I made an observation on a post that homosexuality, if genetic, would be self-eliminating, under the assumption that homosexuals practiced only homosexuality, and thus never passed on their genes. I then attacked that very assumption that homosexuals only practice homosexuality, showing the argument to be a weak one. My critic noted that if the gene were recessive that the homosexuality would be much more resistant to extinction (at least that's what she implied). Fair enough, I guess I hadn't though of that. However I never offered the statement "homosexuality is not genetic" up as some great axiom. I merely suggested that homosexuality -- as far as survival -- is very disadvantageous, and offered this up as a worthy line of thought. My punishment was to be told that I should : "read up on the subject instead of spouting ignorance."

Let me return the favor. Her other post criticizes a small section of an article I quoted advocating that the Ten Commandment not be taken down -- as the Supreme Court may order to be done in connection with a few of their cases. Her post reads thusly: "You're forgetting the parts that talk about loving the Lord, the only God, with all your heart. That rule has no place in government hallways."

First of all I didn't forget anything -- I quoted a paragraph from an article that had analysis of the Ten Commandments. I was not intended to be exhaustive. Second, the Ten Commandments doesn't say you should " Love the Lord, the only God, with all your heart." What she's probably referring to is what Jesus answered to the lawyer's question on how to inherit eternal life: "And he answering said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind..."(Luke 10:27) But this is nowhere near Exodus 20, where the Ten commandments are found, which don't really say anything like that. The closest statement in Exodus is "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me." (Exodus 20:3) The funny thing is, this is exactly the part in the Commandment that Larry Kudlow is referring to when he's says, "Is it so bad...To think about a power greater than oneself, about God or some higher deity?" So nor I, nor Mr. Kudlow ignored anything.

I suppose she could still make a reasonable argument that this "no other Gods before me" statement is in violation of the establishment clause (Maybe this is what is meant when she writes, "That rule [referring to the quote she thought was one of the Ten Commandments] has no place in government hallways." I'm not sure what so important about the hallways. Does that mean it's ok in the government rooms? This must be some euphemism I've never heard used before. Whatever it is it doesn't work here). That's not the point though. The point here is that this girl -- who claims that I should "read a book" so that I know what I'm talking about -- in only two posts, has managed to show she doesn't know what she's talking about.

But the irony, hypocrisy and ignorance don't end there. Her own blog, Jesus was not a Republican, tries to claim that Jesus is some sort of left wing Liberal type.

Well of course Jesus was not a Republican, the Republican party she talks about didn't exist 2000 years ago. But that doesn't mean he didn't support the republican/conservative side on many issues. It's pretty clear Jesus was against homosexuality. I don't think Jesus was/would be for abortion (although I suppose this point is debatable). Jesus certainly was against divorce (I guess that Democrats probably wouldn't say they're for divorce, although no fault divorce of the 70's -- which Dems made possible -- clearly make divorce more prevalent). He certainly wasn't for sexual promiscuity, the liberal cause during the sexual revolution.

You think the founding fathers were conservative 200 plus years ago? -- try going back 2000 years. Even the most liberal of liberals from yesteryear would be conservative by today's standards.

But I'm not going to say that Jesus would be a Republican, because, frankly, I don't know. I don't know if Jesus would be for federalism or not. I'm not sure what Jesus's take would be on national defense, or the size of government. I'm not going to put words in his mouth for heavens sake! Jesus was the savior of the world to us Christians! How can anyone reduce him to some political tool. Especial people like Howard Dean -- who didn't know the Book of Job was not in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament -- or people like my critic who claim Jesus was not a Republican -- but can't recognize his own words as they cross her lips (or at least, when she quotes his words, she's off by a few thousand pages). To them I say: stop being arrogant, stop politicizing something that should never be politicized, and "read up on the subject instead of spouting ignorance."