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 Hypocrisy? No problem with right-wingers. Take for instance, Bill Bennett, author of The Book of Virtues (get yours for $0.39 here) and The Death of Outrage. He reportedly has lost millions of dollars gambling. I haven’t read his book on “virtues†but the first three chapters are “self-discipline†“compassion†and “responsibility.†I’m wondering which of these chapters can be taken seriously when the author of them lost millions of dollars gambling. Doesn’t look like Bill’s exercising self-discipline. Wouldn’t it also be both responsible and compassionate for the man who has this much discretionary income to put it to use helping those less fortunate?
I could point out other instances where the holier-than-thou religious right condemns sinners while engaging in some pretty awful activities themselves. However, my aim is not to engage in the same sort of rhetoric that folks like Bennett, Ralph Reed, and others engage in.
My point is that my biggest fear is that Americans have become so ignorant and uncritical that we really might experience the judgment of God for our atrocities! For instance, the Republicans have done nothing about immigration reform. Do you know why? They have held off on it so that they can use it as a campaign “issue.†They believe that it’s such a hot-button issue that they need to wait and use it later, not act on it now! It’s bad enough that conservative Christians are not concerned about the welfare of undocumented immigrants. It’s worse that they can’t see that they are being played by politicians again!
ABC is about to air a miniseries on 9/10 and 9/11 entitled “The Path to 9/11″ that blames Bill Clinton for the tragedy of 9/11. Clinton is vilified for not killing Bin Laden, but Bush gets away with saying, “I don’t really think about him [Bin Laden] very much. I’m not that concerned.†I don’t get it!
BTW my son told me this morning that McDonald’s was taking a little heat for giving away little Hummers in its Happy Meals. What a country! In God we trust! Make your own McDonald’s sign!
My serious prayer for all of us is that we may allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the truth.
The above post was my first post to the Mainstream Baptists Blog on Wednesday. I received these comments:
So you judge Bill Bennett, put yourself on a pedestal by calling the rest of us ignorant. Then defend Clinton’s role in the lead up to 9/11 and criticize McDonalds for giving away toy trucks. Its like listening to a radio stuck on scan.
Bill Bennett is an extremely rich man. Him losing millions over the last how many years is the same as me losing five hundred dollars last month at Vegas. Yet I still believe in virtues.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say God could care less about carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and toy trucks from McDonalds Since it is the Lord who will bring the earth to an end I doubt it is possible for us to beat Him to it, even with our toy trucks.
Path to 9/11 is a movie based on the 9/11 commission findings. I think Democrats are afraid of it because in book form they never had any fear of democrat reading it.
from Rusty Shakelford (a fan of Ann Coulter)—Draw your own conclusions!
One question I have is what has led you to make the following statement:
“It’s bad enough that conservative Christians are not concerned about the welfare of undocumented immigrants.”
I am not aware of any conserted effort by conservative Christians to take any stand on illegal immigration. Heck, neither political party can come to a consensus within their own ranks on what should be done about this issue. One SBC pastor wrote an article not long ago on his blog discussing his own dilemna in ministering to those in his congregation who are illegals. This issue is probably one of the grayest areas of politics to come down the pipe in a long time. I don’t think silence by the Christian community equals a lack of concern, but more likely a lack of clear discernment. If anything I think Christians are slow to take a stand because they certainly don’t want to be persuaded by power politics, but rather informed by the Bible and reason. This is not an issue that one can jump to conclusions quickly on, for the implications of any new or binding legislation will no doubt be of great consequence.
-from D.R. (a friend of mine)—Draw your own conclusions!
“It’s bad enough that conservative Christians are not concerned about the welfare of undocumented immigrants.”
That seems to me to be an unsubstantiated claim. My guess would be that these same conservative Christians are the first in line to help these people with their basic needs.
-from Keith
I’m answering the comments here because I don’t want to look like I’m trying to dominate the Mainstream Blog. So here goes…..
Rusty–a radio stuck on scan. Pretty good. I am a little ADD I guess. Sorry to address three issues in one post. I thought the first two tied together and threw the last one in for kicks.
Dude. Millions of dollars is still a whole lot of cash. I don’t care who you are. Blowing that kind of money just doesn’t seem virtuous to me. If I sound like I need to get the plank out of my own eye I admit that. However, I don’t go around making huge amounts of money “preaching” about virtue and then blow millions of those hard-earned bucks. Seems a bit hypocritical to me. Just like FOX NEWS’s Bill O’Reilly trying to save Christmas and making sleazy calls to female employees and screaming at people to “SHUT UP!”
To all my readers that didn’t believe that there are Christians out there saying “to hell with the earth, Jesus is coming back,” SEE I TOLD YOU THEY WERE THERE!
The Exploitation of 9/11. OOOPS! The Path to 9/11 is not totally accurate! Here’s what Disney said:
“The two-part miniseries, scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday and Monday, is drawn from interviews and documents including the report of the September 11 commission. ABC has described it as a “dramatization” as opposed to a documentary.
“For dramatic and narrative purposes, the movie contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, and time compression,” ABC said in its statement. “We hope viewers will watch the entire broadcast of the finished film before forming an opinion about it.”
Translation: We made crap up just to make Clinton look bad.
D.R.,
I didn’t say there was a concerted effort. I’m just saying that the conservative christians I talk to get ticked when the conversation turns to Immigration. (Did you see that Spurlock show? It was very interesting) I get tired of hearing “send them home” “they’re getting better medical care than me” “I shouldn’t have to pay to educate their kids” etc.
Yeah D.R. and Keith—there are a lot of christians demonstrating the love of Christ to immigrants. But I get tired of hearing and seeing hatred when the discussion starts with many conservative Christians I encounter.
As usual, D.R. has raised an interesting point about the complexity of the issue. The reason I bring these things up is to stimulate discussion and thought. I agree that the politicized sound-bites from any side are shallow and not helpful for those seeking to hear the voice of God in this issue. Again, my prayer is that Christians will do that rather than forming their opinion based on folks like O’Reilly, Bennett, and of course Rush.
Thanks for adding to the discussion guys!
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I need help from all my Liberal friends. This is perhaps one of the important cultural and political battles of our day (
