Assailing religious figures
can prove risky for politicians
I wonder if it's true that a presidential
candidate has to trash some religious figures to get elected in
this nation. For instance, candidate John McCain took
a couple of swipes at fundamentalist bad boys the Rev. Jerry Falwell
and the Rev. Pat Robertson. Yet a few weeks later, he was saying goodbye
to his presidential dream. So perhaps it's just the opposite,
that a presidential candidate should only speak well of religious
figures if he wants to occupy the Oval Office. Take a look at the two candidates now competing
for the White House. Both George W. Bush and Al Gore have been
raised and trained to be president, and now they are being supported
by the big money that few of us can even comprehend. They are the royalty of politics - the sons
of famous daddies - the princes who would be king. And don't think for a minute that they would
ever criticize a religious figure. To be sure, George W. Bush,
an Episcopalian by birth, did some politicking at Bob Jones University,
where some say anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic sentiment has been
mentioned. And Al Gore laid aside his Southern Baptist leanings
and raised some funds at a Buddhist enclave a few years ago. So we know that both presidential candidates
will use religion to gain an advantage over their opponents. But
we also know they will probably not voice any criticism of a religious
figure. Can you imagine Bush saying anything negative
about Pope John Paul II or the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist
leader? And do you think that Gore, with his environmental bandwagon,
would ever shake an accusing finger at Billy Graham or even at
Billy's son, Franklin, who has admitted he once chopped down a
tree with a machine gun, wasting more than 700 bullets in the
process. No, from this moment on, all the way through
to the inauguration of a new president, no religious figures will
be mulched. No matter how much fun it might be, no holy figures
are going to get a pie in the face. John McCain got fed up with religious figures
in Virginia because he sensed they were following the party line
- that is, they were knuckling under to the Republican bosses
and supporting Bush. And in his frustration McCain went after
Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. "Neither party should be defined by
pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents
of intolerance," McCain said. "Whether they be Louis
Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left or Pat Robertson and Jerry
Falwell on the right." Boom! McCain was labeled a basher of evangelicals
by the columnists who are controlled by the Republican Party and
who know nothing about the current religious culture. What those columnists don't realize is,
Falwell and Robertson are not evangelicals - they are fundamentalists.
Actually Robertson is a pentecostal who believes his prayers can
redirect the paths of hurricanes and tornadoes, but he is also
a fundamentalist. Falwell is nothing but a fundamentalist, pure
and simple. Both men cause divisions and for many years
have made no attempt to unify Republican voters. But the fundamentalist
Christians they influence are the most dependable voting group
in the Republican Party. So most Republican candidates will tolerate
Falwell and Robertson because some big shots believe they can
deliver votes. But they are not evangelicals. An evangelical
is a person who believes the most important faith issue is how
Christians can preach and teach the Gospel to the multitudes.
But Robertson and Falwell believe the most important issue is
how to push and shove their version of the truth into every head
and heart in the country. And the way to do that is to control
television, radio, political channels, church governance and every
radical, true believing preacher in the country. In order to be in Falwell's and Robertson's
camp, a person has to throw out any possible theological ambiguity.
Evangelicals could not dump all their ambiguity because you will
often hear them say, "I'm not sure about this, but I think
Jesus ... " This is not because evangelicals are ignorant
but because they understand the faith is so complicated that one
human being could never master all the nuances of meaning. But
guys like Falwell and Robertson are absolutely sure that they
know everything about the truth and that one part of it is who
ought to be president. That's why we should always be nervous
around these fellows because nothing on the face of this Earth
is that simple.
Clark D. Morphew
Posted For March 25, 2000