Crusader War College

Howard Dean: "Christian" Hypocrite

This may have elicited a chuckle in secular circles, but it illustrates a problem that continues to plague Christianity (emphasis added):

He has said almost nothing about his personal faith or how the role of religion or faith affects his perspectives of national issues. But that's about to change.

Dean, a member of the congregationist church whose wife and children are Jewish, now says he will talk more about Jesus Christ when he campaigns, but only in the south.

"Christ was someone who sought out people who were disenfranchised, people who were left behind," Dean told the Boston Globe in Christmas Day editions. "He fought against self-righteousness of people who had everything ... He was a person who set an extraordinary example that has lasted 2,000 years, which is pretty inspiring when you think about it."

Jesus Christ also fought people who put on religion for a show, and called them Hypocrites. Couldn't find that in the Bible, Deano? Try looking in the NEW TESTAMENT, instead of the Book of Deuteronomy.

As for self-righteous people who have everything, try looking at the makeup of Senate Democrats for the last two decades. Rich? Check. Self-righteous? Check. Physician, heal thyself.

Jesus Christ also talked to rich and poor: Nicodemus was so filthy rich, he could afford to feed the whole city of Jerusalem for two years. Some rich men he told to give up their riches, because the riches had them, while to others, he didn't. His parables talk of servants who bought and sold, approving of those who doubled their money or better. They also talk of servants that did nothing with what they were given, were cast out, with their seed money given to the best performers.

But enough of the REAL Jesus. THIS behavior by Dean is THE reason the Church went downhill after 400 AD: The church had power, authority, money, and influence over a lot of people. Power, Authority, Money, and influence naturally attract scumbag politicians like Dean who either fake religiosity or game it to take control. In the Middle Ages, the only way to really get your hands on the levers of power if you weren't born a Noble was to become a Priest and climb the ladder: For all the scorn heaped upon the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages, it WAS based on merit. If you were a good enough Hypocrite, you could even become the Pope! You could do almost anything you wanted, and not get in trouble if you said it was for God and Church! (THIS was one attitude we didn't need from Islam.)

The Reformation initiated the process of separating Church and State. Didn't complete it, but it started it. The Reformers came to the realization that secular power attracted scum. Extraordinarily talented scum when it came to faking being a Christian, but still scum none the less. Separation of Church and State was not only good for the State and the People being ruled, but was good for the Church also: Presumably, the church pastors and leadership were there because they wanted to serve, not to control the levers of power and serve themselves. Look at the mainline churches: They are currently totally out of the loop because, during the Vietnam War, draft dodgers exploited the exemption for clergy, and the clergy within those churches, opposing the war, went right along with the deception and made clergy out of people who got in to save their skins, not serving God. Many of those liberal draft dodgers got out the moment they were sure they wouldn't be drafted, like a cousin-in-law of mine. THOSE were the competent ones. The remainder stayed in, knowing a good easy gig when they saw one, and soon found themselves in positions of authority as the old guys retired. And they're using that soapbox very well. They can very easily justify in their minds appointing a man whose "wife" is not female, despite the plain teaching of the scriptures, because they were never serious about following or teaching those scriptures in the first place.

Give me a good ole boy like Dubya any day, who wears his religion on his sleeve honestly, no matter where he is and who's watching. What's that, you pissy liberal? He's an ex drunk? He's an EX drunk, you faithless SOBs! He's had God touch his life, KNOWS that there's a God to a level of knowing that you'll never comprehend apart from God's grace, and is grateful enough to show that gratitude. He's closer to God than 90% of the clergy who vote democrat and who demonstrated against the war. And THAT is a conservative estimate!

Howard Dean talking about Christianity, but only in the South? When people complain about Hypocrites in the Church, I think of Dean, Bill Clinton, and Jesse Jackson, and say quite loudly "AMEN!"

Posted by ptah at January 7, 2004 09:51 AM