Faith and the Black vote
It was a revealing moment. John Kerry explained the importance of his faith. Revealing, because it seemed to show how unimportant his faith is to him. This is a man who has not been on his knees since the erstwhile Mrs. Heinz said yes.
Soon after I had the odd experience of witnessing a conversation between Pat Buchanan and Larry O’Donnell, a newsman who fancies that we have heretofore been unaware of his liberal bias, in which they discussed the unsettling relationship that George W. Bush seems to have with God. Taken together with Ron Suskind’s article in Sunday’s NY Times (underscored last night by his appearance on Hardball, I am led to this conclusion: Liberals do not fear God; they fear men who fear God.
The genesis of this rather bizarre fear is ignorance, like that of many fears. These are people who simply know little about God or Faith. In the case of Messrs. Buchanan and O’Donnell, it is an ignorance they come by naturally enough, since they are both Irish Catholics. When they grew up, they were discouraged from forming any religious relationship other than one with the parish priest. Catholics have never been as interested in the Bible as they are in the Catechism, but at least they have come a long way from the 17th Century, when they had some Dutch skinned alive for reading the Word of God.
In Mr. Suskind’s case, the fear seems to stem from what can only be compared to a puerile ignorance of the subject. Imagine the naïveté encompassed in his understanding of prayer. Any person of faith, certainly any Christian who is in the habit of getting on his knees in prayer, understands the concept of seeking the will of God. If you believe in a Higher Being, doesn’t it make sense to try to understand what He wants? Mr. Suskind pictures this as demented, as though the petitioner must be a wild-eyed idiot who hears things.
I don’t fear a president who fears God; I fear one who does not. So do a lot more African-Americans than the Democrats are comfortable with, which is why many black churches are abandoning Kerry.
Soon after I had the odd experience of witnessing a conversation between Pat Buchanan and Larry O’Donnell, a newsman who fancies that we have heretofore been unaware of his liberal bias, in which they discussed the unsettling relationship that George W. Bush seems to have with God. Taken together with Ron Suskind’s article in Sunday’s NY Times (underscored last night by his appearance on Hardball, I am led to this conclusion: Liberals do not fear God; they fear men who fear God.
The genesis of this rather bizarre fear is ignorance, like that of many fears. These are people who simply know little about God or Faith. In the case of Messrs. Buchanan and O’Donnell, it is an ignorance they come by naturally enough, since they are both Irish Catholics. When they grew up, they were discouraged from forming any religious relationship other than one with the parish priest. Catholics have never been as interested in the Bible as they are in the Catechism, but at least they have come a long way from the 17th Century, when they had some Dutch skinned alive for reading the Word of God.
In Mr. Suskind’s case, the fear seems to stem from what can only be compared to a puerile ignorance of the subject. Imagine the naïveté encompassed in his understanding of prayer. Any person of faith, certainly any Christian who is in the habit of getting on his knees in prayer, understands the concept of seeking the will of God. If you believe in a Higher Being, doesn’t it make sense to try to understand what He wants? Mr. Suskind pictures this as demented, as though the petitioner must be a wild-eyed idiot who hears things.
I don’t fear a president who fears God; I fear one who does not. So do a lot more African-Americans than the Democrats are comfortable with, which is why many black churches are abandoning Kerry.
posted by Rance Fasoldt at 10:41 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home