Deference must be shown
by Tom Sullivan
Somebody didn’t get the memo. For an exceptional people who celebrate their revolution to overthrow rule by kings and titled nobility, we have an amazing number who still believe they are entitled to deference. According to some in Washington, “entitlements” are bad. They make a people weak. And if there is anything (besides LGBT people) that makes their skin crawl and makes them reach for another grain alcohol and branch water, it’s weakness.
See, deference must be shown to “the job creators” — praised be their name — even when their invisible hands create no jobs. Deference must be shown to Wall Street titans, for without their wisdom, there would be no six- and seven-figure bonuses for selling fraudulent securities, and no taxpayer-funded bailouts. Behold them in their glory. Behold the power the royals wield over our late, great democracy. Psst. Kneel, willya?
Proper deference must be shown, too, towards the alpha dogs’ faith, a faith that justifies. Tolerated other faiths must know their place. Sadly, the Kenyan Pretender did not get the memo either. At the national prayer breakfast Thursday, President Obama said:
“Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history,” he told the group, speaking of the tension between the compassionate and murderous acts religion can inspire. “And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”
Blaspheme! Speaking in the prophetic voice was never much welcome in Old Testament times. Nor is it now. Pretty tame stuff for a prophet, too. But you can imagine the response:
Some Republicans were outraged. “The president’s comments this morning at the prayer breakfast are the most offensive I’ve ever heard a president make in my lifetime,” said former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore (R). “He has offended every believing Christian in the United States. This goes further to the point that Mr. Obama does not believe in America or the values we all share.”
Heretic! he cried. Anybody got a match?
Pretty thin-skinned for a people willing to dish it out with a shovel when it’s somebody else’s faith.
“There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency, that can pervert and distort our faith,” the prophetic voice continued.
Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, called Obama’s comments about Christianity “an unfortunate attempt at a wrongheaded moral comparison.”
What we need more, he said, is a “moral framework from the administration and a clear strategy for defeating ISIS,” the acronym for the Islamic State.
Because military strategy is what we go to prayer breakfasts for, after all.
Our moral framework collapsed when Americans cheered and defended the last administration for committing torture. Now you want the Muslim Pretender to rebuild it for you? It’s what prayer, fasting, and sackcloth and ashes are for, pal. That’s in a book you might be familiar with. They’re just not as much fun as a good, Christian ass whuppin’.
Sheesh. These guys can’t make up their minds whether they want their Christian country to act like Christ or to just “act” like it’s a Christian country. We wear Christianity the way a teenager wears an American Eagle hoodie and thinks it’s stylish.