Swing For Patrick, You Sinners!

This fine Guest Opinion appeared in yesterday's Bucks County Courier Times from a lady named Eleanor Guerriero of Levittown, PA (I should point out, though, that I don't think it's possible for Karl Rove to feel shame about anything).

The other day, I answered the door and was met by a well-dressed, middle-aged woman who asked me if I knew I was a sinner. She then recited some Bible passages about the end of the world and asked if I knew where I was going after death. To tell the truth, I didn't know. She knew where she was going. With a saintly smile on her face, she told me about the wonderful place she was sure to go.

It seems you get a ticket to go there if you join her church. I wanted a ticket, but the thoughts of walking through Levittown in wind and rain and sleet, knocking on doors and asking people if they were sinners seemed like too much work for me. All those doors shut in your face and the likely verbal abuse is not for the timid, which I am. And then, who knows if the smiling evangelist really had a ticket to heaven!

It used to be so much easier in the old days. The Jews went to temple, the Catholics to Sunday Mass, and the Protestants to services. When did they get out of the pews to walk through the streets armed with the New Testament to save us from ourselves?

America has always been a religious nation, fortunately, a nation of many religions. The early Americans did some heavy duty sermons, usually about the fires of hell. It seems Americans came out of the churches, into the streets and began evangelizing more and more in the last 20 years.

They're everywhere, at the door, in the park, on the radio, TV, even in the White House. Abraham Lincoln, that most wonderful of presidents, probably wouldn't be elected today because he didn't attend a particular church. Being brilliant and caring about the nation to the point of anguish would not help him win the presidency unless he redeemed himself with prayer breakfasts or explained complex issues with simplistic, inflexible, values-laden statements. It is good Lincoln was born before stem cell research, gay rights, flag burning or Roe v. Wade. He probably would have lost to the religious right.

There were always colorful preachers in America who quoted the Bible, set up tents, spoke in tongues and performed cures. American Literature is full of wonderful stories of those evangelists. Some of them are still out there in small town America. The new American preachers are a more political, judgmental bunch. Their campaign methods would put Karl Rove to shame.

They can focus on an issue that scares the heck out of the people and gets their blood boiling. One that is always good for one more lick is gay marriage. I went to a wedding last year and the minister kept saying that it was a marriage between a man and woman. After about the fifth time, the man next to me said, "All right already. We get the message. It's not two women."

Lately I noticed some letter to the Courier Times have been quite judgmental about Congressional candidate Patrick Murphy. Several have questioned his Catholicism. Here we go again! My man is more prayerful, more values laden, more holy than your man! Instead of focusing on issues like the war in Iraq, the huge deficit or the medical care crisis, we are bashing gays, checking on candidates' religious compliance and bringing back the old, tired issue of flag burning.

Now really, how many flags are burned in America? Didn't we go through this when we voted for president? We got a man in the White House who was approved by the Christian right and now we are deeper in debt, in a war that's gone bad, and a country that is more divided than ever.

I'd like to see us focus on Patrick Murphy's views on the war, on Social Security, on veterans' affairs, on funding for social programs and on the national healthcare crisis. Patrick is a sincere man who will listen to more than one side of an issue before making a decision. Can we please focus on the candidates' stands on issues that will affect us and our children for years to come? Can we take care of all Americans - Jews, Christians, Muslims, black, white, men, women and gays?

We Americans are diverse. We live under a Constitution with checks and balances. Patrick Murphy is a man who will represent us all.

To help Patrick, click here.