Allen says, as reported by the Washington Post, "If Obama wins, I'm gonna want someone to get in there and reverse it ASAP."
If you do not have chills of fear running down your spine right now, check yourself for the following:
- Intelligence
- Humanity
- Spirituality
- Common sense
If you cannot find one or more of these, then go enroll as a student at Liberty University, or, if you have finished your schooling, see if you can get hired to teach. Apparently, the only requirements for either status is blind devotion to fundamentalist principles that include invoking the ultimate earthly punishment for those who do not share the same skewed vision of what Jesus would do.
Jesus, I dare say--at least the one I was taught about--would rebuke that girl. He would forgive her, of course, because clearly, she is a Philistine. She may not know what she does, but arguably, her teachers do. Her parents do. Every person who has poisoned this young woman's mind and spirit until she spews the worst sort of venom in the name of God (and make no mistake, those students believe they are acting in the name of God) is culpable.
John McCain is culpable. In 2000, McCain called the late Rev. Jerry Falwell one of the nation's "agents of intolerance." By May 14, 2006, McCain was delivering the commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University. Apparently, a visit to McCain's D.C. office eight months earlier, followed by a dinner invitation and a little sweet talk was all Falwell needed to get McCain on board the train to the Rabid Right.
Now, Falwell's son, the Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr., who runs the school, has determined to see if his students (or you could use the term lab rats) can vote en masse (like so many little regimented pinko rats, one might almost think) to get McCain elected.
As detestable as it is in an institution that claims the title university to attempt to program student thought in that way, it is even more detestable that the programming has caused a young woman to spew such hatred, such ill-considered and ignorant wishes, in public. She must be very frightened. Remember, fear is the favored tactic of all despots, from Idi Amin to the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Jr. While Amin caused his constituents (loosely defined) to fear for life and limb, Falwell's constituents are tutored to fear for their souls. And if the election of Barack Obama, a thoughtful, sane, judicious and generous politician, is viewed as a danger to their souls, then their souls are in danger very certainly. But the danger is not from Obama; the danger is from the worms of hatred, prejudice, fear, cowardice and arrogance infecting their poor, abused hearts and souls, placed there by the very people entrusted by society with educating them in their humanity and their spirituality.
When confronted with bigotry, hatred, and foul thoughts from the unthinking tongues of a spiritually abused population, I simply ask:
What would Jesus do?
What would Jesus do? Rebuke her, I believe. And I do rebuke her. But not as Jesus would rebuke her: I'm not that pure. I'm angry that so young a person could carry such venom and cast it abroad.
From all I've been taught, I believe that Jesus would also forgive her. I fully admit, I'm not there yet. Pray for me that I might be able to forgive her--and her ill-intentioned elders--before too long for the sake of my immortal soul.
If you wish to read the Washington Post article containing the above quote, please see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103004757.html?hpid=topnews
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