Heaven Help Us

Even though it is still way too early for this stuff, I know, it looks as if the presidential primaries are starting to get serious (better hurry up and join in, Newt, so we can abuse you all over again).

I say this because they’re starting to talk about God more and more (that is, if this CNN story is any indication).

And am I the only one who is taking note of the irony that all of the leading Repug candidates at this point have issues in this area? John McCain divorced and remarried, Rudy Giuliani has had some rather celebrated family blowups, and some fundie zealots consider Mitt Romney’s Mormonism to be a cult (he has tried to steer clear of any discussion on it, which would actually look smart for a change if he wasn’t trying to be the standard bearer for the party of intolerance).

Also, the CNN article notes that second-tier Repug candidate Sam Brownback acknowledged in a debate that he didn’t believe in evolution. I thought that was interesting given what he had to say about the subject in a New York Times editorial yesterday (here)…

The question of evolution goes to the heart of this issue. If belief in evolution means simply assenting to microevolution, small changes over time within a species, I am happy to say, as I have in the past, that I believe it to be true. If, on the other hand, it means assenting to an exclusively materialistic, deterministic vision of the world that holds no place for a guiding intelligence, then I reject it.

Why Sam, that sounds positively “Clinton-esque,” as you and your fellow travelers might say (and I don’t know of anyone who holds the point of view noted in that second sentence).

Well, since all of these individuals seemed to be seized by some notion of spirituality, I thought I would make a contribution also (realizing, as I always do, that I am a highly imperfect instrument when it comes to these things)…

O Lord, in thine infinite mercy
We beseech steadfast tolerance in your name
In the face of high-office opportunists seeking our votes
Endow us with purpose and wisdom
As we hear the pleadings of a serial adulterer
Who professes to be the hero of our darkest day
But in fact neglects firemen and abuses civil liberties
Show us how to respond to a courageous Vietnam War pilot
Who seeketh high office following a path as “straight” as a pretzel
And lend us the blessing of good judgment
Towards a governor asking for our support, implicitly as your agent
Who imagines a conspiracy of all Mideast countries against us
And wants to double the size of our most notorious prison
While allowing to escape our country’s greatest enemy
Likewise, set firm our wary eye
As we listen to an earnest Senator from New York and former White House resident
Who ceaselessly runs away from her vote on the Iraq war
Temper our enthusiasm towards a fine candidate, much maligned
Who persuades us all but about who little is known
And deliver us once and for all from the seeming pestilence
Of well-to-do homes, hedge fund participation and $400 haircuts
Give them all the gifts of understanding and humility
So that it may cast aside their smarmy unction
With the hope that the best Democrat may emerge triumphant
And thus never again feel the need
To invoke your name in debates, press conferences
Or pre-screened candidate forums with like-minded special interest groups
And lead us not into a recount and court challenge
But deliver us to blessed sanity once more after eight years of utter darkness
Amen

To close, I want to note what former president John Kennedy said about religion here (as follows)…

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute… where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source.

Would that all of the candidates took his advice.

(All that being said, though, here is an example of someone who has managed to blend public service with living a life of faith - he made the news recently for his appointment to head Common Cause; as I've said before, there are a few maxims I have in life, and one of them is that if Bob Edgar is involved, it's probably a good thing.)

Update 1: Et tu, Kos?

Update 2: I was a little hard on HRC above - this is important to keep in mind also.