Another Refutation Of The Heretical ‘Statism Is Christianity’ Notion

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by Smitty (via Digg)

PoliticsUSA cranks up the wretching soundtrack with “Christian Conservatives Turn Political Judas On Christ’s Teachings”, followed by an image of a button featuring “Jesus for Congress” by someone named Rmuse.

No.

Whoever you are, put everything down and go read any of the four Gospels, and rate the political content of Jesus’ ministry on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being highest. I’ll give you a 1, for the fact that Jesus did meet Pontius Pilate at the end, but even then, dare you read His words, He’s disavowing temporal political ambition.
And then re-read the Gospels. It’s good for you. Tell me how they, or anything in the rest of the New Testament, constitutes Political Science. What are the main objects under discussion? The Church, and the individual. “Christian Nation” is an oxymoron. With the exception of the odd Samaritan or Roman, Jesus dealt predominately with Jews, at a level below the nation of Israel. Oh, yeah, he weeps over Jerusalem: woo hoo, a city!
At no point does Jesus ever seem to view

governance. . . the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption.

Al Gore was picking up that un-Constitutional line connecting church and state from the other end, but the Progressive falsehood is bi-directional.
Now, in the name of tolerance, if the Progressives want to call themselves Christians, and attempt some wildly false re-branding of the Gospel to support their State-is-God aims, I can promise you two things:

  • A vigorous dose of ridicule from this blog, and any others who cling joyously to the Word.
  • A tragic and eternally determinant scene along the lines of

    Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
    And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
    —Mat 7:22,23

And what form does this iniquity take?

There is no end to the horrors the deceptive conservative Christians in America have committed. In churches all across America, the clergy preaches that Jesus said love your neighbor, clothe and feed the poor, practice peace, and give your belongings to the destitute. After the sermon though, the clergy tells the congregation which policies to support and who to vote for at election time. It is astonishing that parishioners can quote scripture and verse propounding the virtues of Christ’s teachings about love, peace, and charity, and then proceed to deprive their neighbors of basic human rights.

Use of the word ‘parishoners’ may be a tell that Rmuse is targeting Roman Catholics with this horrible conflation of the Gospel and ‘basic human rights’. Mankind’s existential estrangement from the essential goodness of creation in God’s image* is a theological problem. The interaction of the individual with the State is a political problem. The United States Constitution strives to keep the two problems as de-conflicted as possible. And for good reason: if you want a theocracy, Rmuse, repair to Iran, where such awaits.
Really, Rmuse seems to be using the Alinsky tactic of trying to hold the other side (Christians) to what he understands their standard to be.  In so doing, a sad caricature of the Gospel emerges.  Let us all pray that Rmuse comes to understand both the life-changing love of Christ, and the utter impotence of the State to assume that role.

Update: Little Miss Attila ‘lanche!

*To paraphrase Tillich. Ironically, Tillich was a Religious Socialist, so using his formulation of man’s condition here may not be in keeping with the rest of his thought. But I like the formulation, and prefer Christ to Tillich anyway.

Question To Trump: Would You Say The President’s Possible Misdirections Are As Egregious As Your Hairstyle?

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by Smitty

I dropped the ball on where this came from, but now The Donald is using the M word. Mister Trump, when you’re at an important meeting, and some chicken is distracting from the important issues on the agenda, do you look at the chicken and say “You’re Fried!” or what?
Questions about birth and faith do not advance the ball on the budget or the international questions of note. Your shenanigans are about as important as asking whether a beard, headshave and glasses would have you resembling Andrew Sullivan. Because you’re about as presidential.

When Dead, Your Emissions Go Down

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by Smitty

Bluegrass Pundit has Claire McCaskill sounding about 100% airhead, seemingly promoting the idea that tanking the economy provides a silver lining in the form of diminished CO2 emissions.

As though sensing the Ghost of Blogblast Future in the room, she attempts to qualify her remark as ‘being sarcastic’, before re-iterating the point. So she only scores about 90% airhead.
This clip is offered out of context. It would be helpful to have heard the question, which may have asked what the effect of her selling off her no-tax private plane would have.
It looks like Ed Martin is a potential replacement for Her Clarity.

In other Missouri news, it looks like Russ Carnahan is getting Weiner Schnitzeled. Boo hoo.

The 2010 Restraining Order Sets Up The 2012 Cage Match

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by Smitty

No good deed goes unpunished. All the time and effort expended on the 2010 elections starts to pay off next week, as Yuval Levin reports at The Corner:

Apparently the House Budget Committee will take up the 2012 budget next week, and if the early leaks and reports are to be believed, the budget Republicans will propose will not only involve dramatic cuts in discretionary spending and reforms of the budget process to cap future spending but also exceptionally ambitious structural reforms of our entitlement system—the kind of reforms that can actually help us avert a debt crisis that otherwise seems nearly inevitable while allowing the economy to grow. House Republicans seem willing to lead where the president chose to punt.

As you love your liberty, you’ll not hesitate to step up and support (and keep on task) your GOP favorites in the effort for reform.
It’s still going to worsen before it improves, to make a very low-risk prediction. Remember: the Left hopes to reduce you to their level of despair.

Update: hopefully this will scratch Ace’s itch.

Fight Over GOP 2012 Primary Calendar

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The 2012 Republican National Convention is scheduled for Tampa, but Florida is trying to monkey around and move up its primary, prompting at least two state chairmen to threaten to strip Florida of the convention. Ben Smith at Politico:

South Carolina Republican Party Chair Karen Floyd today brought into the open the simmering tensions between the traditional early states and the others — particularly Florida — jockeying to break into the primary calendar.
Floyd’s demand: If Florida won’t step aside, the RNC should move its convention out of the state.

Michael O’Brien in The Hill:

The chairman of Iowa’s Republican Party on Thursday backed an effort to possibly move the 2012 Republican National Convention out of Florida if that state sticks to its January primary date.
Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn said he would join the chairwoman of South Carolina’s Republican Party, Karen Floyd, in an effort to reopen the process to select the site of the 2012 convention, which is slated to be held in Tampa.
“If Florida refuses to move its primary date into compliance with RNC rules, that consequence should be the re-opening of the process to select the site of the 2012 RNC Convention,” Strawn said in a statement.

Let’s hope this threat will be supported by other state GOP chairs, and that Florida stops futzing around. You’ll remember that Florida and Michigan tried to jump the line in 2008, which ended up causing a big fight among Democrat over delegates.

The three first big events of the campaign calendar — the Iowa caucuses, followed by the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries — ought to be protected in their traditional priority.

Why should this tradition be carved in stone? The basic reason is predictability: Knowing in advance which states go first — because they go first every time — permits candidates who want to “test the waters” to set up early operations in those states. And because all of these three states are relatively small, this means that the early voting to sift the field and sort the frontrunners doesn’t award a decisive number of delegates: Even after Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have chosen, the overhwelming bulk of delegates are still up for grabs.

Recent attempts to “front-load” the primary calendar, with other states moving their primaries earlier and earlier, is bad for the process, because it permits less time for candidates to campaign everywhere. As could be seen in the 2008 Democratic primaries, where Obama and Hillary Clinton battled all the way into May, the result of a longer primary campaign is ultimately better-tested candidates.

Meanwhile, there is good news from California:

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation announced Wednesday that it will postpone what was supposed to be the kickoff debate for the GOP presidential nomination contest, moving it from May 2 to Sept. 14. The reason? There aren’t enough candidates ready to debate yet.
There will still be a GOP debate in May. South Carolina, the site of the first 2012 primary in the South, will host a Republican debate on May 5. But with the delay of the Reagan Library debate, the decades-long trend where each successive presidential campaign starts earlier than the last one may finally be ending. Virtually all the potential 2012 GOP candidates are still waiting before launching their campaigns.
“Although there will be a long and impressive list of Republican candidates who eventually take the field, too few have made the commitment thus far for a debate to be worthwhile in early May,” John Heubusch, executive director for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, said in a statement Wednesday.

This is good news, because it gives me more time to raise money for the Shoe Leather Fund.

Please go read my post about that — it’s “monthly bonus” time, and I’m trying to impress my wife.

Depends On The Meaning Of ‘Civil Rights’

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by Smitty

The BlogProf has senior Raaaaacism Industrial Complex mouthpiece Sharpton bloviating about State’s Rights being antithetical to Civil Rights:
So, the 57 states themselves are somehow evil. However, a single super-state driving the country off a financial cliff? For The Win!
Al Sharpton, if it were possible for you have any greater magnitude in the crapflooder sweepstakes, your name would be Jesse Jackson.

Obama Sends CIA Into Libya Ground Operations; Andrew Sullivan Stunned

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New York Times:

The Central Intelligence Agency has inserted clandestine operatives into Libya to gather intelligence for military airstrikes and contact rebels battling Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces, according to American officials.

And don’t you know it’s just breaking Sully’s poor little heart?

I’m still absorbing this news and don’t want to vent immediately, because there is still part of me that simply cannot believe that president Obama has already ordered covert action in Libya on one side in a civil war . . . It’s so surreal, so discordant with what the president has told the American people, so fantastically contrary to everything he campaigned on. . . . I simply cannot believe it.

Heh. More salt for that fresh wound? Because we’re going to keep rubbing it in, you gullible rube.

Go ahead. Have another bite of that “turd sandwich“!

The REAL Budget Battle (UPDATED)

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Yeah, I know everybody’s riveted by negotiations between Republicans and Democrats over the federal budget, but what is far more urgent — at least to me, personally — is the battle over my own budget, which involves negotiations with Mrs. Other McCain.

If you think this is leading up to me asking you to hit the tip jar — hey, you know me too well. But there’s much more to the story, if you want to read it. Continue reading The REAL Budget Battle (UPDATED) →