What's Wrong with the Evangelical "Message" to John McCain?

Mike Huckabee stubbornly stays in the Republican primary race despite the reality he would be a number 3 finisher, best case. He goes on air to remind John McCain of who and what he stands for, perhaps hinting at his preference for a vice presidential nod. And, if you can believe headlines, evangelicals sent John McCain, the Republican front runner and all but officially stamped candidate, a 'message in Virginia by voting for Huckabee. They aren't going to be silenced. Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck may now be irrelvant, unable to force feed Americans their opinions and voting preferences, but evangelicals, like Mike Huckabee, have God on their side (my apologies to Bob Dylan for their lack of understanding of his harrowing lyrics from 1964).

There are just a few things wrong with the 'message' being sent, not the least of which is - if any Republican has a chance to take a general election in the wake of George Bush, it is a moderate who is also a respecter of constitutional separations of powers. One way to sink the Republican ship and suffer a potentially Mondale-esque flogging come November is to put a fire breathing preacher on the ticket. No offense to Mr. Huckabee. He believes in what he says - it's just that what he says drops our constitution on its head and then kicks it in the stomach - all in the name of Jesus, who did not, for the record, sign the Declaration of Independence or at any time in His public life seek or hold public office. The people running screaming from the party are those who believe it is out of touch with Democracy, and they will cross party lines to vote against such a ticket or will stay home come election day if they are forced to endure more "Party of God" rhetoric. In contrast, if John McCain has any hope of winning in November, he needs to pull the very Decline to State and Democratic voters who were 'fooled' into voting for the 'compassionate conservative George W. Bush. After all, we all know the evangelicals who call themselves a 'voting block' aren't going to be flocking to the polls to vote for either Hillary Clinton or Barakc Obama. So, if one does the backroom math at McCain headquarters - it adds up like this - 'get the evangelicals on board, lose the election' or ''pick a running mate with broad reach in the party and some appeal across the aisle, and have our best shot at winning'. I'm sure at the end of the day Mr. McCain can make all due peace with God over such a choice.

Which brings me to perhaps the most egregiously offensive thing about this so-called message to any Republican who would dare to seek his party's nomination without bowing before the altar of the Christian Right - Jesus Christ, MY personal savior, didn't just caution me to 'render to Casear what is Caesar's (but) render to God what is God's' - He outright commanded it. Don't be a tax dodger in God's name, Jesus exhorted. Taxes may be unjust, and life may be unjust at times, but God's kingdom is in heaven, not on earth. Jesus Christ was among the most humble humans to ever walk the earth and He died amist public mockery at the hands of the very people He would save through His death and resurrection. WDJD? He waited out the vagaries of life on earth, living within the law, within the construct of His human faith, and in hono to His parents. In short, Jesus wouldn't be found on any PAC list, would not be making phone calls from precincts, and most certainly would not be admonishing any political candidate to put a man of the cloth on his ticket in order to get God's endorsement. Anyone who is simultaneously the Way, the Truth and the Life, does not lower Himself to punditry. When all is said and done, if one is indeed a faithful Christian, good action, love of mankind and following in the example of Christ's life will lead to heaven. None of the paving stones on the road to heaven are believed to be superdelegate votes. What has God told us - He allowed His chosen people to be help captive, kicked around in servitude from one country to the next, to wander in the desert, and face unthinkable choices (Abraham) where perceived duty of obedience to God would in the end have been the wrong course. Fortunately for Abraham the God of the Old Testament, with His myriad rules, ambiguous messages in burning bushes, and plagues of all sorts, was also a mercicul God ready to come to the rescue of the small child of a faithful Israelite and spare the boy and remind Abraham of a father's real duty to his son.

Yet, with all these messages, especially those of the New Testament, some Christians in the US today don't see the vanity of claiming to know who God would vote for and how God would want us to run our little tiny countries on this little tiny planet. God, who did not intervene to spare the human suffering of his beloved Son. Jesus, who died not so that we could have power on earth, but redemption in heaven. These are the guys evangelicals and Mike Huckabee think are comeplling them to run for office and get elected and dismantle something as inconsequential in heaven as civil rights, civil order, balance of power and Democracy? It just doesn't sound like Jesus. It doesn't sound like the man who knelt down to spare a woman's life by writing something in the sand that shamed the crowd around Him, into not stoning her to death. What does sound like Jesus, is being quiet, living a just life. In fact, we are admonished to pray in behind closed doors, not like the pharisees and not to boast of the visions in our prayers, etc. but to accept God's word humbly. After all, what is so different from a presumably honest, just and diligent man like Mike Huckabee saying God told him to run for president and David Koresh, for example, saying GOd told him he was the new savior? One guy is a crazy guy holed up with people and guns in a stand off with the government, and the other is having his disciples 'send messages' to more persuasive and popular political candidates.

What did Jesus do? He did not run for office. He did not rise up against a government of man. He did not endorse any political candidate. He accepted a death penalty for the commission of now crimes and he asked for mercy only from his Father in heaven, not from any authority on earth. He accepted His fate on earth because He knew the glory of heaven. I think when we toss religion into politics, we doubt that glory of heaven. I think we need some sort of daily physical reminders of the rightness of our ways because we wonder at the end of the day, what IS heaven, and what we really want is reassurance. Well, it is not to be. It is unknown, unfathomable. You can't get there from here. You can't get there by electing a guy who said God told him to run, even if you think the guy really believes God told him to run. Because, if you're a faithful Christian, you know government is an institution of man, not God. Government tried to kill God in Christ's lifetime and yet it was let stand, the death penalty for Jesus Christ, because Christ's life is ephemeral, otherworldy - not about the corporeal. God won't solve poverty. God won't solve immigration. God won't solve inflation. Man will. Or we won't.. It is left to us, in our hands, as are the other institutions of man. We set up a structure in this country, a representative democracy hearkening to the ideals of ancient Greece as a relief from religious oppression. Full participation in this Democracy requires us to let God remain where He always has been - above the matters of mankind. We can't exactly take issue with radical Islamic states when we are attempting to set up a radical Christian state here. Let's not ignore the mote in our own eye.

So, that essentially is what is wrong with the so-called evangelical message to John McCain. It is using the power of faith for evil, not good. GOd will come to earth in HIs own time and in His own manner and little political minions will have nothing to do with the why or the where. In the interim, the message to Christian is to love God above all things and love one another as God has loved us. Our human example of that is Jesus. Jesus did not invovle himself in politics and had no interest in political power of any kind. He never wielded the powerful voting block of two women named Mary and twelve unemployed disciples. If we don't get the message of the humility of traveling in such a pack from town to town, then we know nothing of the Kingdon of heaven. If we don''t like the way things are, we do like Jesus did, we live right we carry the message not just with our lips but in our actions and on our hearts.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain - all basically good and decent people. We'll vote fo rone of them come November to be President of the United States. The first thing that President will do is to take the oath of office and promise to uphold the Constitution. Religion will have nothing to do with the ability of that person to uphold the constitution. Blessedly, it is that Constitution that allows each and every citizen, from the President on down, to worship or not worship, according to personal conscience and to assemble, pray, even evangelize in this free country in a way and manner no other constitution allows. We should take care not to try to bully candidates with the threat of witholding support unless they are willing to set aside a constitution that is for all in order to serve the interests of some or many. Jesus, I am quite certain, did not ever endorse such heavy-handedness in God's name.