The Politics of Godliness

You know. If Obama hadn’t recognized early on in the game that he’d need to court all the churchgoers if he ever wanted to attain any serious political office, I’ll bet he wouldn’t be in this mess today. He’d have been home on Sunday mornings catching a nap, and working on something worthwhile, and maybe watching the game later on. I seriously doubt that he ever paid a great deal of attention to Rev. Wright’s sermons. I mean really - how many people actually listen to whatever nonsense the joker up there is preaching? Can’t be many. They certainly aren’t living that gospel. But for politicians, regular church attendance remains, unfortunately, a requirement.

So why are we as Democrats, never mind as a diverse population of Americans, still letting a bunch of people who cannot discriminate between facts and fairy tales dictate government policy to the folks who are actually able to grasp that the science of 2,000 years ago has been updated? Isaac Newton put us on the moon. Nice job. Abraham told us how many sheep to set on fire in order to keep God from throwing a hissy fit and raining down bricks and fire on us all. Hmm. I think maybe I can rest my case right there.

I’m thinking maybe Obama attended that church because it was politically a smart move to stay real visible within that community of folks who were his constituents. Probably half the people who go there attend as much to be seen and gossip about those they saw as anything else. But for a politician, church attendance is mandatory. If you can’t prove you’re a good Christian you are toast. You gotta nod your head up and down and murmur the occasional hallelujah when they start going on about virgin births, resurrected corpses, and that vengeful supercop in the sky. I have a hunch that Obama may be a just a wee tad more sophisticated than that, but admitting it would be political suicide.

Now I’ll grant you - he could possibly have found a somewhat less controversial preacher. That is true. But among the folks who were voting for him there in Illinois, those views are apparently not particularly controversial. Or at least, not in a bad way. And the real issue here - so far as I’m concerned anyway - is why on earth do we hire these guys based on their presumed knowledge of the correct number of sheep to set on fire? You hire priests to do that shit. You hire presidents to run the damn country. They are entirely different skill sets, thank all the gods.