As senator turned actor Fred Thompson considers a presidential run, his Christian credentials are being questioned by Dr. James Dobson, a major voice among Christian conservative voters.
"We were pleased to learn from his spokesperson that Sen. Thompson professes to be a believer," said Nima Reza, a Dobson spokeswoman. "Thompson hasn’t clearly communicated his religious faith, and many evangelical Christians might find this a barrier to supporting him."
I never understood how George W. managed to become President of the United States. The rather dubious 2000 election outcome aside, I had no clue why a country made up of basically intelligent people would pick this guy not once but twice. Sure maybe George is basically a nice guy, but his incompetence is so glaring it practically blinds you if you look directly into it. Then I read the article quoted above.
It is because he is a Christian. His past accomplishments, intelligence, or content of character don’t matter. As long as he cops to believing in Jesus, and most importantly, gets an endorsement from Pope James the First of Focus on the Family he is in. What a sad state of affairs this is. You probably won’t be surprised by this if you have read this blog for awhile, but I blame the church.
Churches don’t encourage their congregation to be free thinkers. What churches expect is that you will agree to what is written in their statement of belief or some other similar document, their particular interpretation of the Bible, and in some cases, their political affiliations. And it is a trickle down thing.
It starts with the James Dobson’s of the world. They have their ideas and understanding of the Bible and they expect everyone to agree with it or else they are basically not a Christian. Pastors buy into it and in turn expect the same thing from their congregations. The congregation members expect the other congregation members to think the same things they do. On and on it goes. Before you know it, George Bush is "divinely" chosen to lead the country.
I’m scared. It scares the crap out of me that you could have the most qualified person in the world, a person (notice I didn’t say man) of great intellect, conscience, and character who would lose out on the presidency because they are not a Christian. Who is to say that a Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Buddhist, or even atheist wouldn’t do an amazing job of running the country? If the most important qualification that a person needs to be the president is to be a Christian and go to church once a week, well it suddenly isn’t hard to see why the world is in the mess it is in right now.
I hope that with time more Christians will discover the emptiness of that lifestyle. In the meantime, I guess we have to just hope that the next person Dobson picks is a person of conscience and integrity. Someone who will look at the State of the world and seek to use their power to bring the world into a better place.
A guy can dream can’t he?
