By Mary Lyon, From The Left -- World News Trust
Oct. 16, 2006 -- The cynic in me has long suspected that conservative, indeed regressive, reactionary politicians have viewed people with strong religious convictions as just so many sheep. Sheep to be used and exploited for whatever might be taken from them. Sheep to be shorn at regular intervals, and to be herded off to market, either to sell wholesale, or to funnel into slaughterhouses to be bludgeoned, carved up, and consumed outright. I never saw the politicians involved as having much interest in any of the core beliefs that moved the legions of the faithful. It always seemed to me that you should get into politics to help people, to better the system, to serve the common good -- rather than to target large groups, carnivorously and ruthlessly, to be manipulated for the self-interest of greedy individuals.
The Bush Administration has brought out the cynic in me. And the beast in me. Not that I have a “666” tattoo on my skin (you may, however, find one on Dick Cheney’s chest above where a normal person’s heart would be, beneath one of Karl Rove’s double chins, or behind that signature shock of long blond hair pulled around to the front to conceal one side of Ann Coulter’s scrawny neck). I’ve never once felt any temptation to take anything from the Bush people at face value without suspecting some ulterior motive. They’ve always been alert for crowds of easy marks that can be fleeced for political advantage. Not very Christian, at least as far as I’ve always understood it.
I’m 53 years old now, which means I’ve been a Catholic for 53 years. I did more than my share of time in Catholic school, from preschool through my high school graduation day. My youth was thoroughly marinated in Christian thought, study, and on good days, deeds. And if you’ve steeped in it for that long, the flavorings tend to stay with you -– perhaps even for a lifetime if your superiors have done their jobs.
Part of what stuck with me, besides the cyclical observances of Christ-centered special events, was an overriding belief system –- belief in stuff that still seems rather pure and legitimate, genuinely good. You were supposed to be a humble believer. God was supposed to use you –- it wasn’t the other way around. You didn’t swagger and strut down the center aisle at church to make sure everybody’d see the pile of money you were about to dump into the collection plate. Heaven forbid anyone be encouraged to worship you or anoint you as God’s Chosen. You weren’t supposed to be in it for power or show. Heck, the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6, even said you’re supposed to go pray in the closet (good Lord, what would the “religious” “right” make of THAT?). While I don’t presume to know the mind of God, it strikes me that Jesus would have cringed over the wealth, power, and media razzmatazz of the Falwell or Swaggert ministries, the “700 Club,” and the “Focus on the Pharisees” machinery. St. Paul once dissed such Barnums & Baileys while writing to the Corinthians about the evils of noisy gongs and clanging cymbals.
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