Is the Right Wrong?

NOTE:  The views and opinions expressed in the following are strictly that of the author.


The so-called Religious Right.  Those that belong to it are pretty much a quick study.
They drive the minivans.  They shop at warehouse clubs.  Mom stays at home and tends to at least four kids.  Most of them are Protestant and look down on those of more Orthodox faiths. They're the ones in church with their pretentious hands raised high during hymns.  They also speak out against separation of church and state, abortion, same-sex marriage, and condemn those less fortunate as being at fault for their own troubles.
In God We Trust...it's on our money!  Thou shalt not kill!  The book of Leviticus says it's a sin to lay down with another of the same sex!  Sloth is one of the Seven Deadly Sins! 
What's wrong with that, you say?
According to Dr. Anthony Campolo, EVERYTHING.
I had the pleasure of meeting this man recently at a fundraising dinner for a charity that also happens to own a nursing home and several other retirement communities.
"Jesus is neither a Democrat nor a Republican," Dr. Campolo told me in an interview before the dinner. "You have created God in your own political image.  Is what I'm standing for politically in harmony with the Jesus I read about in the Scriptures?"
Creating God in your own political image.
I thought a lot about that.
And if you self-identify as a Christian, so should you.
Come to think of it, that would be idolatry, wouldn't it?
And we know the lessons that the Baal-worshippers learned the hard way.
Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.  Noah was a fall-down drunk.  There are others, I'm only recounting those at the top of my small brain at this moment.
The point is, God loves sinners.  Why?
Because they're proof that even with free will, anyone can be saved from their demons.  A broken person can be made whole.  It may take a miracle to happen, but it can be done.
America is a country that the world equates with freedom.  However, it's also equated with other things...greed.
Many conservatives, Bible in hand, always spew the state of Social Security and how much it costs our country.  Yet no mention is made of cutting defense spending or other pork-barrel projects that cost this country dearly.
My Jesus didn't vote.  Nor did He fight to cut social programs.  To the contrary, He fed 5,000 people with two fish and five loaves. 
My Jesus didn't cut Medicare.  He healed the blind and lame.  And He didn't ask who your insurance carrier was afterwards or ask for a deductible or co-pay.
He owned no sprawling suburban home, with summer residences elsewhere, personal luxury car, bulging bank accounts or assistants for his every need.  He owned nothing but the clothes on His back and the sandals on His feet.
He also said "Judge not, lest you be judged".



NEXT WEEK:  Mother's Day