Goose stepping for Jesus!

It’s Sunday as I write this and I am (not uncharacteristically) thinking about God.
How can one help it these days? With the power and the glory granted those in the land whose President ostentatiously begs for God’s blessings at the end of each and every address – likely including “Laura, where’re mah socks?” (and with an unremitting fervour that makes you wonder if he knows something... disturbing...) the Almighty is being thrust upon not only Americans, but the rest of the world with a devotion scarcely to be distinguished from tyranny.
It’s frightening to us of a more liberal mien; and far from accepting their victory with a little much needed modesty, and reaching out, and the sort of appeasement that might actually bring us altogether in a ‘Kumbaya’ moment, the winning side are continuing to ram the All Knowing down our collective throats in a manner that could only with the utmost charity be described as immoderate.
Quite apart from the leader himself (who as I wrote in my last offering is reaching out to “those who share out goals”) even the Presidential henchpersons are out on the talk shows, spreading the word with a vehemence that sounds more like ‘or else’.
As Maureen Down shared in an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times (essentially ‘The Communist Manifesto’ to Republicans) she’s not getting much of a ‘… peace, charity, tolerance and forgiveness vibe’ from supporters of the new/old regime. Dowd quoted from a letter written by Bob Jones III (Bob? The third?) president of an eponymously titled fundamentalist college to the President, presumably to congratulate to him, but also to offer a little helpful advice.
“In your re-election, God has graciously granted America – though she doesn’t deserve it – a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. Put you agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing.”
Eek.
She also mentions the talk show contretemps making the rounds. Seems Dr James Dobson, founder and chairman of ‘Focus on the Family’ was appearing on George Stephanopoulos’s show and gave vent to his feelings about Senator Arlen Spector. Apparently the Republican senator had never been a particular favourite, having voted against Robert Bork in the dim and distant past, supported stem cell research in the present, and most recently had made casual mention of the fact that he thought turning Roe v. Wade around mightn’t be the cakewalk others were predicting.
“He is a problem and must be derailed,” said Dobson with chilling finality.
And then the cocky fundamentalist upped the ante, taking a direct shot at Stephanopoulos when the talk show host asked him if he thought making a nasty crack about Senator Patrick Leahy (calling him if not a God hater, then “… a God’s-people hater”) was much of a Christian thing to do.
“George,” Dr Dobson reportedly snapped back (only just restraining himself from squealing ‘how dare you!’ and smacking the TV host across the face with a gauntlet) “do you think you ought to lecture me on what a Christian is all about?”
Dowd suggests maybe he could, Stephanopoulos being the son of a Greek Orthodox Priest and all, but I think that misses the point. Whether Dobson was aware of Stephanopoulos’s Christian credentials, the overweening imperiousness of such a reply, coupled with his sense of his side’s entitlement to think so, is breathtaking.
Makes one wonder what Christ would think.
For such a Jesus-come-lately, the Son of God surely has attracted a militant bunch of adherents. You’d think it would take at least another couple of thousand years to come up with the sort of Messiah that could confound liberal voters to sweep a bunch of war-loving neo con thugs to victory. But in the new millennium, where fundamentalism is the new normal, this modern version of a Christ bent not only on the destruction of those of an alternate belief, but on the subjugation of those whose views differ even slightly, fits like a glove... an iron glove, covered in pointy spikes and dripping with poison, sure; but a snug fit nonetheless.
Forget that namby-pamby Christ of love, and cheek-turning and neighbour loving and hooker-foot-washing, this Christ doesn’t have time for niceties; this Christ has some non-believer ass whuppin’ to do, and we can hardly be accused of being scaredy souls if we notice the whuppin’ is starting closer to home.
This has become an administration not just of the like-minded, but increasingly of the lock-stepped; and the Devil (and the rest of us) will be lucky to be allowed even the hind-most.