Piety and Bush
3/1/04 00:52![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eredienI didn't cut-tag this because I'd like people to read it. Wanted to write this evening; suprised myself by having it be a religious-political statement.
In this story (I think that the link will only work if you have AOL)Pat Robertson talks about how he thinks Bush will be re-elected by a landslide in 2004.
"The Lord has just blessed him," Robertson said of Bush. "I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him."
I don't pretend to know what God thinks. I think except for the basics--love each other, treat everyone with respect, hope and pray--people can't handle knowing God's thoughts on a daily basis. I know that even those basics are strong enough that really thinking about them and following them can change your life.
I don't pretend to know what Bush thinks, either. I see that his actions have caused pain, suffering, and contention from the beginning. I see that past presidents have done this, and that people who are not presidents can also do and have also done this. I believe he really thinks he's doing what is best for the country, and doing so asking God's guidance as best he knows how.
This doesn't mean I have to agree with what he's doing--I don't--and it definitely means that I have a duty to debunk Pat Robertson's claims about how he thinks God works when I see they're wrong.
And just to make it more interesting, I'd like to do so by looking at a few basic Bible stories.
It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him.
By this, I think Robertson means: God has mercy on us when we screw up. This is a good thing, and as far as I can tell, something that God does say It does indeed do, and wants us to do to other people.
I think most people will interpret Robertson's statement as meaning: If you pray God doesn't care what else you do and you've got it made.
It's easy to misinterpret this. I misinterpreted it this way at first myself, and--who knows?--Robertson may have been meaning this as well. I would like to speak to this misinterpretation, and to the people who might have taken the statement in this way.
Because the idea "God doesn't care what you do if you pray" is wrong.
Let's look at a few examples.
There's this powerful man, this poet-king, David. He's a war hero, and one of the people. He prayed a lot, before his rise to power, and after. Then he saw this hot woman, and sent her husband off to war because kings can do that, and, oops, look at that, he died. Hey, and she needs a wife, right? Would she turn the poet-king away when he came courting? I did nothing wrong, thought David. Someone would have sent him off sooner or later, I'm sure. There's always another war. Yeah, right. And guess what? David prayed his whole life, and God's been listening to him this whole time, but that doesn't mean It's not pissed off about what he did: This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.'
And Job. He's a well-off rancher, the kind who never needs to take care of his cows himself because he has underlings to do that kind of thing for him. But he's not a jerk. He's concerned about his kids and teaches them to love other people (and then worries about them anyway, praying and wondering where he went wrong some nights). Job's the kind of guy who puts money into the Salvation Army kettle really believing and hoping it'll feed someone less fortunate than him. And then God takes away his stuff, and his house, and finally his family. His friends come and philosophize with him, telling him, "you're a good person, man. Look at that and all God's done, and hope." But philosophy doesn't work after the only thing you have left is the feeling you get after you've cried until you're sick. And finally Job says, "why did I even bother doing good, being a good person, when all I get for it is this?" That's what he does, finally.
God doesn't hate Job. Job prayed. But Job also did something--spoke against God and himself--that God isn't happy about. Job isn't out of hot water just because he's pious and it would be wrong to assume he might be. God later reminds Job of this--I'm God, boy. I'm not happy that you badmouthed me to make yourself look better.
Personal note: I've never read through Job's story before this. It's actually about depresson, the kind that makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning, the kind that makes it hard to speak. Even if you're not Christian, reading it might help. I think.
And one from the New Testament, not only for fairness' sake, but because I believe the facets of God are displayed differently between Old and New Testaments, but that God Itself doesn't change essentials.
The disciples are antsy. They know something's going down because Jesus has been acting weird lately, like he knows something's up, and in their time with him they've learned to read each other's breath, sighs. They're nervous. It's all going down tonight, and they don't know what it is, really. They're guys who pray a lot, all of them. You can't avoid it when you're one of Jesus' friends. But you get tired, and your feet fall asleep--you're not perfect, you think wryly--and suddenly it's an hour later by the angle of the sun and Jesus is poking you with the toe of his sandal and saying, "hey, why're you sleeping?" and frowning at you. There isn't much time left and he isn't shy about letting you know you've squandered it.
Just a few examples, really. There's more.
I could be wrong, but here's what I think: God cares what Bush is doing; God cares what Robertson says and does. God cares what I do too, just as much as he cares about anyone--everyone. I don't think there's any merit to the idea that God is endorsing Bush because he's pious. I think God knows what It's doing, though; and I don't have to be happy with Its decision in order to trust it knows what it's doing. I'll vote for who I think is right, and inform myself, and write, to powerful people and not, about issues that matter to me--like this one--and that's what I can do.
In this story (I think that the link will only work if you have AOL)Pat Robertson talks about how he thinks Bush will be re-elected by a landslide in 2004.
"The Lord has just blessed him," Robertson said of Bush. "I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him."
I don't pretend to know what God thinks. I think except for the basics--love each other, treat everyone with respect, hope and pray--people can't handle knowing God's thoughts on a daily basis. I know that even those basics are strong enough that really thinking about them and following them can change your life.
I don't pretend to know what Bush thinks, either. I see that his actions have caused pain, suffering, and contention from the beginning. I see that past presidents have done this, and that people who are not presidents can also do and have also done this. I believe he really thinks he's doing what is best for the country, and doing so asking God's guidance as best he knows how.
This doesn't mean I have to agree with what he's doing--I don't--and it definitely means that I have a duty to debunk Pat Robertson's claims about how he thinks God works when I see they're wrong.
And just to make it more interesting, I'd like to do so by looking at a few basic Bible stories.
It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him.
By this, I think Robertson means: God has mercy on us when we screw up. This is a good thing, and as far as I can tell, something that God does say It does indeed do, and wants us to do to other people.
I think most people will interpret Robertson's statement as meaning: If you pray God doesn't care what else you do and you've got it made.
It's easy to misinterpret this. I misinterpreted it this way at first myself, and--who knows?--Robertson may have been meaning this as well. I would like to speak to this misinterpretation, and to the people who might have taken the statement in this way.
Because the idea "God doesn't care what you do if you pray" is wrong.
Let's look at a few examples.
There's this powerful man, this poet-king, David. He's a war hero, and one of the people. He prayed a lot, before his rise to power, and after. Then he saw this hot woman, and sent her husband off to war because kings can do that, and, oops, look at that, he died. Hey, and she needs a wife, right? Would she turn the poet-king away when he came courting? I did nothing wrong, thought David. Someone would have sent him off sooner or later, I'm sure. There's always another war. Yeah, right. And guess what? David prayed his whole life, and God's been listening to him this whole time, but that doesn't mean It's not pissed off about what he did: This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.'
And Job. He's a well-off rancher, the kind who never needs to take care of his cows himself because he has underlings to do that kind of thing for him. But he's not a jerk. He's concerned about his kids and teaches them to love other people (and then worries about them anyway, praying and wondering where he went wrong some nights). Job's the kind of guy who puts money into the Salvation Army kettle really believing and hoping it'll feed someone less fortunate than him. And then God takes away his stuff, and his house, and finally his family. His friends come and philosophize with him, telling him, "you're a good person, man. Look at that and all God's done, and hope." But philosophy doesn't work after the only thing you have left is the feeling you get after you've cried until you're sick. And finally Job says, "why did I even bother doing good, being a good person, when all I get for it is this?" That's what he does, finally.
God doesn't hate Job. Job prayed. But Job also did something--spoke against God and himself--that God isn't happy about. Job isn't out of hot water just because he's pious and it would be wrong to assume he might be. God later reminds Job of this--I'm God, boy. I'm not happy that you badmouthed me to make yourself look better.
Personal note: I've never read through Job's story before this. It's actually about depresson, the kind that makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning, the kind that makes it hard to speak. Even if you're not Christian, reading it might help. I think.
And one from the New Testament, not only for fairness' sake, but because I believe the facets of God are displayed differently between Old and New Testaments, but that God Itself doesn't change essentials.
The disciples are antsy. They know something's going down because Jesus has been acting weird lately, like he knows something's up, and in their time with him they've learned to read each other's breath, sighs. They're nervous. It's all going down tonight, and they don't know what it is, really. They're guys who pray a lot, all of them. You can't avoid it when you're one of Jesus' friends. But you get tired, and your feet fall asleep--you're not perfect, you think wryly--and suddenly it's an hour later by the angle of the sun and Jesus is poking you with the toe of his sandal and saying, "hey, why're you sleeping?" and frowning at you. There isn't much time left and he isn't shy about letting you know you've squandered it.
Just a few examples, really. There's more.
I could be wrong, but here's what I think: God cares what Bush is doing; God cares what Robertson says and does. God cares what I do too, just as much as he cares about anyone--everyone. I don't think there's any merit to the idea that God is endorsing Bush because he's pious. I think God knows what It's doing, though; and I don't have to be happy with Its decision in order to trust it knows what it's doing. I'll vote for who I think is right, and inform myself, and write, to powerful people and not, about issues that matter to me--like this one--and that's what I can do.
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3/1/04 08:03 (UTC)For the purpose of this discussion, we'll assume God is watching us. I've always been of the opinion there's little Divine involvement in our affairs beyond that observation. Most of the wrath and plagues from the Torah/Old Testament are allegories or pre-scientific interpretations of natural disasters -- and the Gospels focus on mankind's responsibility for itself.
But a monotheistic God in the Judeo-Christian sense, even though it doesn't dabble in its world, is certainly the font from which good and evil flow. What we do is Divinely sponsored if our actions conform to the higher morality God set in place -- not if we simply believe in God and still act in a contrary manner.
If the latter were the case, the Inquisition wouldn't be regarded with the kind of horror it generally is today. Many inquisitors genuinely believed they were doing the work of God -- yet in retrospect, most accept their more extreme actions were actually very wrong.
Unbelievers and heretics can still do good, just as the pious can do such evil. It's all a question of free will, the only real Divine gift bestowed on us. We're not in a land of milk and honey, and life can be hard -- but at least it's our life to live. If we choose to do so in a way of which God approves, I don't think it matters too much if we don't attend church every Sunday. :)