The headline "What's the matter with Kansas" was too obvious. I know many of you saw this story, but I am compelled to rise nonetheless, Madame Speaker. Turns out some right-wing preacher has decided the occasion of the election of the 44th President of the United States marks a turn of the country away from God.
I am not going to bother asking where this guy has been (or what kind of gooey pseudo-Christian nonsense has been coming from his pulpit) for the last eight years as we marched headlong into government sanctioned bearing of false witness against our neighbors, coveting of our neighbors' house (or at least one we couldnt afford) and even violations of "thou shalt not kill," depending on how you view the line between just and unjust war. But enough Old Testament.
We are in the age of Grace, in which each of us has an individual witness for the Gospel based on how we represent ourselves to others. And while none of us has achieved any kind of perfection, this jackelope is waaay off the mark.
Due to space constraints I'm giving you the cliff's notes (we call them "W Textbooks" but that's kind of an inside joke) version of my grievances with the sign depicted above.
1. You must respect the office. Barack Hussein Obama was elected the President of this, the greatest nation on Earth, by 63 million of your fellow citizens in a fair process that resulted in a blowout. Neither of W's "victories" was anything like it. If you can't appreciate the legitimacy of a duly elected President, well, what was the 60s saying? "Love it or leave it?" Too charitable for this Wichita Whineman. You have to at least respect the Office, and get on board when we are fighting two wars overseas and facing the greatest economic challenge since Kansas got electricity.
2. You dont get to call President-Elect Obama a Muslim. In this country we take people's representations about their faith at face value. You dont see me attacking Rush Limbaugh or Newt Gingrich as agnostic egomaniacs just because they've been divorced 6 times between them do you? You could run a traditional Iowa girl's basketball team with just the spouses of these two guys, but I'm sure the Lord is okay with them!
So, when Obama says he attends a mainline Christian church in Chicago, reads the Bible and is motivated by Christian principles in his work, what kind of hardboiled, twisted notion of Christian discernment would make anyone think they had the right to re-brand him a Muslim? The only people I know who would do something like that are rudderless political opportunists who will lie to reach their own political ends. I'm just saying.
3. You might have to live with a Muslim President someday, numbskull. Did you not learn anything from this election? Hey genius: This is America, where anything is possible, any dream attainable and any child, literally any one born this day, can grow up to be President. Or is there something that bothers you about that, Wichita?
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