Focus On The Cross, Not The X-Rated Bunny
Exegesis
April 8, 1998 Steve Myers
It's Holy Week, time to focus on what is really important. First we must try to clear our minds.
It's said that ten percent of America is outraged by Judge Susan Webber Wright's dismissal of the Paula Jones lawsuit. It was too much to hope that Mrs. Jones could have had her day in court. Her case may have been flimsy, but that was the job of the jury to decide after the evidence had been presented, rather than for the judge to preempt. In Arkansas, it isn't apparently outrageous for the Governor to put his hand up the dress of an employee, unzip his pants, request oral sex and threaten her if she tells anyone. Are we to infer from the ruling that this kind of thing happens all the time?
Nobody, including the judge, denies that the President is a sexual predator. By dismissing the case, she accepts that the incident took place. "Boorish and offensive" though it may be, she deems it not serious enough to deserve a court hearing, let alone an apology or compensation for the victim. Mrs. Wright, a centrist Republican, is a former student of Bill Clinton who ought to have recused herself from this case. She failed to consider that Mr. Clinton is no ordinary man, "no Joe Six-Pack" as he readily admits. He was the Governor of the State. And that is why Alan Keyes, speaking in Washington last Friday, was right to call her decision "biased, incompetent and depraved". For the Paula Jones case is not about sex; it is about the abuse of power. Mr. Clinton says in this week's Time, "Having the case dismissed and putting this behind us is plainly in the best interests of the country." Plainly, it is not. What message is he sending to the women of this country?
A further ten percent of America is rejoicing that Mr. Clinton seems to be getting away with yet another outrage. Rejoicing? Yes, there are still people out there, both the sick and the deluded, who are easily captivated by the plastic smile of the crocodile. They are in for a profound shock. And the other 80%? Apparently, they don't care that the nation's leader has been exposed as a serial rapist, predator and adulterer as well as a bank robber, fraudster and much more. As one Chicago college student wrote to us this week: "Mr. Clinton can have sex with sheep for all I care, as long as he does his job properly." Such a compartmentalized, distorted and depraved view of the presidency is Mr. Clinton's unsavory legacy to his country. And that, beloved readers, is the current state of America. So now what do we do?
One benefit of recent events is that we have an accurate reading of how profoundly sick this great nation has become: it is wracked by hypocrisy, duplicity and fear; its legal system is corrupt and complex, and its Head of State is the most corrupt, dangerous man ever to rule a Western nation in modern times. Of course, most Americans are still largely in the dark about Mr. Clinton. He is popular, portrayed by his Stalinist media as a lovable rogue. He certainly isn't popular for his policies or achievements; he has precious few of either. But Mr. Clinton's popularity is simply an extension of the man himself: both are a superficial irrelevance. He is indeed dangerous - after all, over a hundred witnesses who could testify against him are dead - but the popular predator is, above all else, frivolous and peripheral.
Bill Clinton is as relevant to solving America's real problems as the Easter Bunny is to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of our Lord, which we observe this week. Actually, Mr. Clinton resembles the Easter Bunny with a machine-gun, a paradox which belongs in a black comedy or a book of horror tales. Unlike another famous bunny, it is unlikely that this one will keep going and going. This presidency has been shallow and irrelevant from the outset. If Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr succeeds in shaming him into resignation or proving that he lied under oath, we all may yet learn a lesson from this chaotic character.
So what's next? Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr is preparing what the London Sunday Telegraph called "the legal equivalent of a nuclear strike at the presidency": charging Monica Lewinsky with perjury and naming Bill Clinton as an unindicted co-conspirator. That term has been rarely heard since President Nixon was named as one during the Watergate affair. It means that the person was involved in the crime, but has not been charged. If Miss Lewinsky were found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice, it would mean that Mr. Clinton were guilty too. His fate is absolutely linked to hers, even if he is not indicted. As the London Sunday Times commented: "In that case, Clinton will not have to wait much longer before knowing how history will receive him - as the guardian of economic prosperity or a sex-crazed, X-rated stain on the dignity of the office." For now, though, let us try to put these matters to one side. For an event much more important is about to be commemorated.
It was to a nation burdened with a corrupt, top-heavy bureaucracy that Jesus came as the Messiah of the Jewish people and of the world. He devoted His ministry to illustrating that miracles could triumph over evil if faith in God were present. And into Jerusalem He rode on a donkey, on the day we know as Palm Sunday. As He did, exuberant crowds in the Mount of Olives villages waved palm branches and cried "Hosanna - Save us!" and "Baruch Haba B'Shem Adonai - Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord." Yet Jesus knew what lay ahead. And just as we weep over the state of America, He walked a few yards down the slope of the Mount of Olives, taking in the stunning view of the Temple, and wept over the City of Jerusalem. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate." (Matthew 23: 37-38)
We now sense a similar desolation. The America in which we believe, which we love and which we long for once again, has been systematically raped of its values, morals and ethics over the past few years, most thoroughly by the present Rapist-in-Chief himself. And for what purpose? What good has it done? Is it not time for America to admit it is on the wrong road and to make a cultural, political and spiritual u-turn?
The politically-correct view is that all religions are equal. The events of the days prior to the Crucifixion clearly show otherwise. Jesus strode into the Temple Courts, angrily denouncing the corrupt religious leaders, calling them hypocrites, blind guides, blind fools full of hypocrisy and wickedness (Matthew 23). Were it Washington instead of Jerusalem, one can imagine Him sweeping across The Mall, similarly denouncing the ruling authorities in a way the media and Christian folk ought to have done long ago, proclaiming: "They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them." (Matthew 23:4) That sounds remarkably like the government to me.
In reality, the only way we shall restore the America we love is to begin the process by changing ourselves: that process of change begins with accepting who we are, miserable sinners, forgiven only by the single greatest Event of History, the one that took place that Friday. And after the betrayal, there it was, a simple piece of wood nailed to an Olive Tree, two robbers either side of Him, as Jesus made the sacrifice that would end all sacrifices and bring the Jewish religion to its logical completion. Was that the end of the story? As Tony Campolo says: "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming."
Exegesis
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