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Politics : THE VAST RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (5185)	1/2/2004 12:43:03 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6358

December 31, 2003 You've Got the Wrong Jesus, Howard Matt Grills Howard Dean has joined that elite pool of politicians who use Jesus as a prop on the presidential campaign trail. Unfortunately for Dean, only the stupid will fall for his hearts-and-fish-symbol-on-my-car routine. He did everything but stage an altar call this week, when he announced he’d be trumpeting his faith in Christ during his swing through the Southern states. I use the word “faith” loosely. I’m not saying Dean is lying about being a Christian. What I am saying is that if a memorial to devout Christians were constructed tomorrow, you’d find his name alongside such stalwarts of the faith as John Lennon and Ted Turner. Is anyone else weary of this “Jesus was a revolutionary” line Dean and his ilk feed voters? Brace yourselves, people: Jesus wasn’t at all like Gandhi, Confucius or even Martin Luther King Jr. He didn’t have a “dream,” and he didn’t walk around talking about love and peace – at least not liberals’ idea of love and peace. Either Dean has sat in on a few too many of the “Rev.” Jesse Jackson’s sermons, or he’s modeled his life after that asinine Coca-Cola commercial where people sing about the world being a place of perfect harmony. Truth? Jesus didn’t have a lofty goal of uniting the people of the world together, hoping to plant the seeds of self-actualization that would guide humanity toward creating a utopia. During his life and the 2,000 years that followed, Jesus has divided people. He intended to. Don’t believe me? Check your New Testament cue cards, Dean. Jesus split one of the world’s great religions right down the middle by claiming to be God. He said he had the authority to forgive sins, and Scripture records that hundreds witnessed a resurrected Jesus after his painfully excruciating death on a cross. He chose that death, and he told his followers to spread the message of salvation in his name to every nation. Jesus said he would be on the throne at Judgment Day. He also said he was “the way, the truth and the life” and that no human being comes to God except by him. Jesus told the disciples to go to the surrounding towns with his message. If a town didn’t accept it, the disciples were to brush the dust of that town off their feet and move on. Those who were not for him were against him, Jesus said. In short, that leaves every man and woman with a decision: Jesus was either crazy or he was God in the flesh, just as he said. Well, can’t we just set aside both views and call him a great teacher? Wrong-o. Jesus’ teachings aren’t a salad buffet. You don’t just pick what you want. You can’t hold onto “do unto others as you have them do unto you” and ignore the fact that Jesus said he sits at the right hand of God and that he’ll return someday. Believe it all or don’t believe at all. Howard Dean’s comments place him squarely in the “Jesus of convenience” camp. His wife and children are Jewish. Cool. But I have to wonder: if Howie’s faith in Jesus Christ is so important to him, why didn’t he marry someone with the same faith? Why didn’t he insist on raising his children in that faith? Say it with me, on three: because what faith Howard Dean has in Jesus isn’t central to his life. Dean talks about Jesus as if he were one of the Democrats’ lawyers at the 2000 election fiasco in Florida. “Christ was someone who sought out people who were disenfranchised, people who were left behind,” he gushes. Let’s clear this up: people sought Jesus more often than he sought them. And he didn’t just run with the poor. What about Matthew the tax collector? He wasn’t doing so bad before he decided to follow Jesus. And Joseph of Arimathea, the rich man who loved Jesus so much he had his body placed in his own tomb? Not that Dean would know that. “My father used to tell us how much strength he got from religion, but we didn’t have Bible readings,” he told the Boston Globe. “There are traditions where people do that. We didn’t.” Um, Howard, reading Scripture isn’t considered “tradition” for most Christians. It’s the best and only way to learn about God, about Jesus and about living a holy life. Even more important to Christians than baptism and communion are the Holy Scriptures. It’s the only written record we have of Jesus and his teachings. The first thing a new Christian is handed is a Bible. It is muy importante. Dean expounds on his theological expertise when he says that Jesus “fought against self-righteousness of people who had everything.” You mean, like people who grew up on Park Avenue and never had to wonder where their next meal is coming from? People like that, Howard? Jesus fought mankind’s self-righteousness. Rich, poor – it didn’t matter. Jesus taught that unless you obey God’s Old Testament laws to the letter, you don’t have a fighting chance at getting into heaven. He taught that it all comes down to one question: do you rely on faith alone in God to save you, or are you counting on your own efforts? As I read and reread Dean’s remarks, I am forced to restrain myself from repeatedly smacking my forehead in amazement. “I don’t get offended when George Bush or Joe Lieberman talk about their religion,” Dean muses. “I have a feeling it has something to do with them as a human being.” Has Dean listened to himself? A post on the FreeRepublic.com Web site said it best: “That’s like someone saying, ‘I should be a doctor. I understand that medicine has something to do with being healthy.’ His understanding of religion sounds like Jethro Bodine’s understanding of brain surgery.” I have no doubt Howard Dean believes in Jesus. But whose Jesus? Matt Grills is a writer and conservative activist living in Indianapolis. Contact him at darthgrills@hotmail.com. URL:http://www.opinioneditorials.com/freedomwriters/grills_20031231.html