Rick Santorum Can't Possibly Be As Ignorant As He Sounds

I have work I need to do; but I keep thinking about how ignorant Rick Santorum sounds when he makes any statement about theology or the Bible.

Surely he's just telling lies, because he cannot believe that his "biblical" theology is any different than the president's "biblical" theology. Both of them are based in their views of the Bible; and both of them are somewhat based in a "pick and choose" theological framework.

Santorum likely does not believe in the Biblical prescription for stoning adulterers or he'd have to stone his current wife if stories are true about her previous relationship(s) and this in light of the Bible's story about God telling Hosea to marry a prostitute (whore). Which one does Santorum actually believe is biblical?

I doubt if Santorum has realized that, when we talk about the Biblical foundation for so-called biblical creationism that there are TWO stories of the creation in those first few chapters of the Bible, that at least some of those stories in the first 11 chapters of Genesis are found in other societies with sometimes vastly different details, that Jesus (since Santorum is a so-called Christian himself) never said one word about homosexuality, gay relationships, or much of Santorum's ignorant platform but instead spoke strongly against divorce. (There are too many divorced people for Santorum to pick on them, I suppose; and, besides that, he is technically, from the First Testament's description of marriage, married to a divorced woman.)

There are literally hundreds of other biblical "commandments" that Santorum ignores because this isn't a pre-Jesus world, or a pre-science world either. Like literally everyone he takes the words in the Bible and THEOLOGIZES about them. I believe his theology is stupid theology; but I don't even believe he believes what he says when theologizing. In the midst of his claim to be a Christian while attempting to live outside the New Testament Gospels for the most part, we have just two lines in the Bible that should be among those he should quote:

"Love one another as I have loved you." "This is my commandment, that you love one another." (Just in case you don't know, these, according to the scriptures, were things Jesus said.)

Now you can THEOLOGIZE about what those two sentences mean; but it isn't biblical theology any more than Santorum's concept that birth control is sin nor than that the instant sperm and egg unite we have a complete human being, nor that the Bible even defines marriage as it occurs today.

I am sick of hate filled people like Santorum, who probably has a lot of self loathing going on that he is trying to overcome, speaking for the Christian Church.

For now, though, I had to get this out. My brothers and sisters whose skin color is and was dark had the Bible used against them for literally centuries from the very same perspective of biblical theology Santorum uses. Women were seen as chattel for centuries based on the very same biblical theology Santorum uses. I cannot let my gay, bisexual, or transgendered brothers and sisters continue to be treated as not quite citizens without speaking out. I cannot let his inconsistencies of theology go unchallenged.

For him to claim that Obama is not a Christian while acting hateful toward his own President
(1 Peter 2:13-15) "Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men."

Jesus deferred to authorities when asked about a coin. Santorum acts as though he believes his ignorant theology is better than Jesus', apparently.

There are Facebook friends of mine who are much more able to write eloquently about the general topic I have written about above: (D. Miller or A. Gibson or N. Kemper, are you reading this?) I'll post their responses should they respond.

For now, though, I cannot let Santorum or anyone else act as though his style of theology isn't what helped to keep my dark-skinned brothers and sisters enslaved and considered to be less than human for hundreds of years in this country. I cannot pretend that Santorum's style of theology helped to keep my sisters of every race held as chattel for thousands of years, that his "biblical" theology is any more than, well, theology.

And, finally, this: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

Santorum can claim what he wants to claim; but the truth is that he wants to establish a particular type of religious doctrine on the people of the United States. The rules may be different in Islam; but it is no different from those who claim that Muslims would force us to live under Sharia Law.

If Santorum were to become president of the United States I would have little choice but to try to find a way to move to a different country where the people live in the 21st century, not the 13th century.

Unity and Values

The family I grew up in, with a Republican mother and a Democrat for a father was interesting. They never argued politics, at least not in front of us; but they always joked about canceling out one another's vote. There was also a notable love for one another, not in the mushy way, but in something that nothing could crush.

Now, of me and my four siblings, I am likely the only Democrat, though I have one sister who doesn't really say one way or the other. My favorite brother-in-law regularly sends me anti-Democrat and ant-Obama email; but I always send him a response from http://www.snopes.com (The Urban Legends Page) or elsewhere about the truth behind them. He may not be learning anything from my responses; but, at least, he gets a positive response to his negative email.

I must admit that some of the absolute trash going around about Obama may hurt him in the fall; and there is no doubt that racism will have its effect on white voters, especially white, low information, voters. I know there is plenty to say about Hillary; and a lot of it is lies as well. That is the way the political process is played out in this century so far. Anytime I get an email that is a false statement about either of our candidates I "reply all" and send them to Snopes, an article in a major newspaper, or elsewhere for information about the truth behind the lie. (Yes, Obama was wearing native attire; but so was George Bush.)

I found success in bringing family members to Obama, though, on one close relative. Our only son (who tells me not to argue politics with him or his wife) called me and wanted to talk about the election. He is registered Republican; but, after a very long conversation, he has decided to support Obama in the general election. (It isn't difficult to undermine McCain's supposed strengths, since they are so few.) He finally agreed with me that Obama is the best chance we've had in a long time (at least in my lifetime, I believe) to create major change in how politics "works" (or doesn't work) in the USA.

For most of my family voting Republican is seen as a "values" issue; but they don't really look at the actual values of the Republican or Democratic candidates themselves.

Hillary Clinton, for example, knows that her husband cheated on her; but they have remained married through a lot of crap and, I believe, still care for one another even with Bill's "problems." That, to me, shows they have some very good values when it comes to marital commitment overall. Obama is married to his first wife as well. McCain, OTOH, had an affair with Cindy before they ended up married. For the Bible bangers I would think this would be enough to discredit him; but he's a Republican and "Republicans are the party of values." I should also add that I know a lot about Hillary's Washington Church and Obama's Chicago Church; but I don't remember hearing anything about McCain's Church if he has one. If they're so interested in having "Christian" candidates, I would thiink they'd look at that as well. For me, though, their good deeds, their beliefs about the possibilities of the human race, their ability to make fair judgments, etc., are much more important than whether or not they claim to be Christians.

Yeah! Right! Values like hate, hypocrisy, homophobia, eliminating the rights of Americans to make choices related to reproduction, etc., always waving the flag as though they own it while dismantling the constitution. They have values that say it is a good thing for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. They apparently believe that God wants Republicans to kill a lot of innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. (It is more likely to occur, though, if there is oil under the land.) Values that believe virtually everything in the USA should be privatized so there is competition, which of course, is supposed to cause prices to get lower. (I guess you've noticed how well that's worked in the health care arena.)

They have values that relate anyone who doesn't agree with them as "evil," and not just wrong. (I got to admit that after the first four years, though, evil and Bush virtually became synonyms for me.)

Right after 9/11, when everyone started wearing flag pins, I copied the UN flag from the Internet site; and I managed to make it into a lapel pin. Most people (I mean almost no one) didn't know what it was; but I was making my statement about the fact that 9/11 wasn't just an American tragedy, but a world tragedy. To dismiss those from all the other countries working in the World Trade Center towers as though they didn't matter is a sign of the tendency of the USA to dismiss others from other parts of the world as unimportant. Some folk asked; and, after telling them, just looked at me like I was from outer space.

Right after 9/11 the world, virtually every country, was on our side. There were pro-USA rallies all around the world; but, after Iraq and other empty gestures on the part of the USA most of that world is angry with us instead of siding with us. Those of you without friends in England, Canada, Australia, Gambia, or Austria or other parts of the world may not hear about the anger; but I do. I live in a mini "UN" in my apartment community.

During the attempted and successful campaign of lies that would get us into the Iraq War, I regularly emailed my friends about what a mistake it would be for us to invade Iraq. I predicted everything that would happen; and I was only wrong because it was even worse than I imagined. I had studied that part of the world in seminary; and I knew the hostilities between the subgroups would be a problem for our troops and for building any new government in Iraq. Meanwhile we kept hearing that we were "winning." "Mission accomplished!" The lies kept coming; and eventually even the "less than mainstream" media weren't even giving us a good idea of what was really happening there. Many, perhaps most, of those friends became angry with me for being "unamerican," not being patriotic, etc. The whole "Freedom Fries" concept amused me and angered me at the same time. Just because they were smarter than we were about Iraq doesn't mean we should be hostile to our long term allies, does it?

Somehow, though, I don't see War as a positive value. Yes, there may be some wars that ought to be fought---like stopping Hitler, for example; but most of the wars we have fought in the last 100+ years were unnecessary. They weren't to protect us or even to protect our allies, but to prove our power or to prove we were right about our ideas and to keep the military industrial complex making lots of money.

Then there is the cost of the war and the way it is being fought with civilian contractors who make a lot more than the soldiers and live in more comfortable situations and who also SEEM to not have any rules. How did that happen? Oh, yes. We want to privatize everything: Medicare, Social Security, the army, the navy, building roads, building bridges, etc. "Let the people who use them pay for them." If the trend continues I'm afraid I'll live in a home where I cannot afford to pay the fire department for protection and lose my home; and I KNOW I'll never be able to afford my own police protection. In America right now millions of people cannot afford life saving ROUTINE health care because of our insurance system that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.

This is what we'll get with John McCain. He may not be quite as bad as Bush; but he could also be even worse.

So I am going to the poll next week to vote for Barack Obama. In November I expect I'll be voting for Obama; but, if not, I'll be voting for Hillary Clinton because Democrats are the party of real values: equality, looking out for the little guy, support for unions, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and, best of all perhaps, FREEDOM. George and his flunkies may continue to try to take it away from us; but with a Democratic President and Democratic congress the world and America will all be singing, "Let freedom ring."

Mike

This has also been posted to uniteddems.com and bluegrassroots.org