So you thought the Democratic National Convention was Christian, with its kickoff interfaith gathering, its caucuses for people of faith, and its closing benediction by an evangelical church megachurch pastor, was drenched in faith?
You ain't seen nothing yet.
God-o-Meter tuned into the Republican National Convention tonight for a random hour--on C-SPAN, where the absence of talking heads permits one to actually watch the convention in real time--and found a big ol' slice of evangelical America. It was more or less a Sunday service.
It started around 8PM Eastern, with a speech by Ashley Gunn, a young woman from Brandon, Mississippi whose church mission work to Africa inspired her to found an organization called Students Aiding Indigent Families (SAIF). Her message: the church, not the government, is the primary vehicle for helping people.
After Ashley, San Diego-based evangelist Miles McPherson took the stage to lead well-received speech/prayer. His message: Go with God/WWJD.
Next up was Michelle Bachmann, the Republican Minnesota Congresswoman who made waves for visiting a megachurch while campaigning in 2006 and announcing that "God called me to run for the United States Congress" while calling herself a "fool for Christ." Her message: same as Ashley Gunn's.
Then the musical entertainment arrived: Christian Singer Rachel Lampa, who sang a couple devotional numbers. Her message: follow Jesus.
Then the service ended, and the night proceeded. Like God-o-Meter said, just a random hour.
The Democratic National Convention may have gone to extraordinary lengths to showcase its new faith-friendly ways last week. And John McCain has often seemed tone-deaf on matters religious. But make no mistake: evangelical Christians are still a huge and growing force in the GOP. The Republican Party might not be issuing press release after press release about it, as are the Democrats, but just turn to C-Span and see for yourself.
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cough cough - ** choke* cough
There seems to be an awful lot of smoke here. I don't think it is all from tobacco, either. I think they have set off the foggers! Why can't I see anything except a few lights? O good, they set up some fans so I can see just a little on stage. I guess that is good enough
couch chouch * choke choke * gasp
Anything to keep the people looking the other way as we pick their pockets and empty their bank accounts.
Lessee...some guy with two (count 'em, TWO)doctorates can't distinguish between the TWO descriptions: "an individual of the human species" and "baby."
Those are not quite synonyms and the discussion is not aided by deliberate confusion of them.
While I'm sure many Democrats, the alleged "People For Fhe American Way," and various other "keep God out of politics" groups were displeased and nearly apoplectic over all the honor given God in the Republican National Convention, I'm sure God Himself was pleased, didn't mind the attention, and didn't mind being brought to people's attention.
Funny how liberals never objects, or pulls out a "God-o-Meter" when their own candidates do it. Nor do they object when their candidates campaign in churches. Nor do those churches get their non-profit status revoked by their presidents (though Bill Clinton did try to revoke the non-profit status of Christian organizations that publically spoke out AGAINST him and his policies).
The DNC can make itself the home for anti-god-nics, wikans, pagans, atheists, socialists, marxists, anarchists, conspiracy lunatics, and the sexually immoral. That's their choice.
We, on the right, will galdly just stick with God.
Malcolm,
Just to be clear: God-o-Meter pulls out its rating for Democrats and Republicans alike and is not partial to either party.
Regarding your views on the DNC, are you completely unconvinced by their years-long campaign to shed their secular image/ways, which include hiring a robust religious outreach staff, inviting evangelical leaders like Richard Land to meet with Howard Dean, and appoint a Pentecostal minister to be CEO of last week's convention? Do you think that's all just window dressing?
God-o-Meter's point with this post was not to criticize the Republican convention for being a Christian event. It was rather to say: The Democrats went to great lengths to incorporate faith into their convention this year, but that's nothing compared to a random hour at the RNC.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with having an evangelical political party, as long as it's honest enough to identify itself as such-Voters need to be aware that the agenda of a particular sect is being promoted & that these people desire & intend to impose their own religious beliefs on the rest of us-They really do want to reconfigure the United States into a Christian Taliban, where their beliefs become the law of the land-They would have the government force a victim of rape to bear her rapist's child, rather than allow her to have the morning after pill--They would make a 13 year old girl who was sexually abused by her father carry & give birth to her own brother-They would ban access to IUDs & birth control pills, because they consider them abortifacients-It would no longer be safe in America to be a homosexual-There would be compulsory prayers in our public schools, where evolution would be "balanced" by the teaching of creationism in the science class-Books, films, t.v., songs & the internet would be strictly censored to eliminate anything deemed incompatible with Christian thought & family values-More & more crimes would receive the death penalty-And wars would be started to bring on the longed for "end times" & the second coming-If the evangelical party would tell the truth about what future they want to create in our nation, at least we would have a chance to decide if it's what we want too-
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