The 'Christian' Slime Machine

"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." Matthew 7:5, The New American Standard Bible

Oh how easily the Religious Right forgets its bible lessons when engaged in contemporary political battles. In supposed defense of social conservative values like defending the "right to life," the religious right has vigorously supported politicians who have lied to the American public, sent innocent soldiers and civilians to their deaths based on lies, failed to provide for Americans in times of suffering and great need (i.e. Katrina), denied health insurance coverage for children in need (i.e. Republicans' veto of the SCHIP bill) and failed to mind the storehouse (i.e. impose regulation or conduct sufficient oversight) as greedy lenders bilked vulnerable Americans out of their homes with fraudulent financial practices--placing all Americans and the world in harms way in the process.

Now, just in time for the final round of the 2008 presidential elections, social conservatives are urging presidential nominee John McCain to "take the gloves off" in the battle for the White House. McCain campaign operatives have indicated that they are prepared to go after Senator Barack Obama for his questionable associations with William "Bill" Ayers-a former 60's radical who teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a convicted Chicago businessman, and the infamous Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor.

Light-as-a-feather and avowed Christian Sarah Palin has delivered the opening salvo by suggesting that Barack Obama has been "palling around with terrorists"--a reference to his time serving on a charitable board alongside Bill Ayers. While her attack is disturbing, it is not because of her avowed christianity. After all, we have come to expect the public rants, accusations and half-truths uttered by so-called christians during the political season. Her attack is disturbing because of the sheer hypocrisy that undergirds it.

Let us consider the facts:

• Sarah Palin's husband Todd Palin was a member of the Alaska Independence Party (AIP) from 1995 until 2002. The AIP is a separatist organization that has espoused the separation of Alaska from the United States. It's founder, Joe Vogler, has been quoted as saying, "I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions." In short, Todd Palin's AIP affiliation could be considered treasonous (i.e., a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state).
• According to a Huffington Post article and other published reports, Sarah Palin's former pastor Ed Kalnins has "preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith;" and said that Jesus "operated from that position of war mode."" Whatever his shortcomings, Reverend Wright--Obama's former pastor--never tied the salvation of his congregation members to their political affiliation or preferences.
• Sarah Palin's running mate, Senator John McCain celebrated his 70th birthday with Raffaelo Follieri, a con man who plead guilty to cheating investors out of their money with a bogus claim that he represented the Vatican on real estate deals connected to the Catholic church. Furthermore, published reports suggest that one of McCain's top aides had a business arrangement with Follieri.
• In today's paper, Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson points to McCain's close association with former Texas Senator Phil Gramm. Meyerson writes, "Chief among those to whom responsibility attaches for the financial crisis that is plunging the nation into recession is former Texas senator Phil Gramm, McCain's own economic guru...As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee during the Clinton administration, he consistently underfunded the Securities and Exchange Commission and kept it from stopping accounting firms from auditing corporations with which they had conflicts of interest. Gramm's piece de resistance came on Dec. 15, 2000, when he slipped into an omnibus spending bill a provision called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA), which prohibited any governmental regulation of credit default swaps, those insurance policies covering losses on securities in the event they went belly up." This is the same Phil Gramm who called Americans a "nation of whiners" suffering from a "mental recession." He uttered these words just a few short weeks before the extent of the real economic crisis was apparent for all to see.
• And we can't forget McCain's dubious role in the Keating Five scandal in which he and four other U.S. Senators were accused of corruption through their questionable dealings with the owner of a savings and loan association which eventually went belly-up causing 21,000 mostly elderly citizens to lose their life savings. McCain was formally reprimanded for his role in the scandal.

What this abbreviated historical overview (the National Enquirer and others are digging up more stuff on Palin, her relatives and associations as we speak) of the McCain/Palin associations reveals is that there is plenty animus to go around. Yet, that won't stop the McCain/Palin train from heading down this malicious and slanderous track. For what matters to these christians and their social conservative supporters is not so much the letter of the Word but the ability to easily forget the Word when it is politically convenient.