Vote Your Values
November 09, 2004
The cat's out of the bag. This election was about traditional values versus, I dunno, cosmopolitan values. This "divided America" is framed either as an assault by an immoral cultural elite on traditional values, or as the corrosion of true American values by an ignorant, moralistic herd. The cultural elite contorls the media and undermines the efforts of those trying to uphold the real issues--abortion, the homosexual agenda, the war against evil. The corporate media panders to the public while whitewashing or outright ignoring influence peddling, the destruction of the environment, the futility of a global war that, if anything, has all but destroyed the nation's image and future security.
In last Sunday's edition of the Orlando Sentinel, Kathleen Parker's opinion piece "Who You Callin' 'Ordinary'?" defines the "two Americas" in precisely these terms:
It's the elitism, mes freres....The folks who re-elected Bush not only voted for the man they felt best represents their interests, but also against a culture they see as alien and hostile. The Bush vote was equally a protest agasint Hollywood, and increasingly untrustworthy media and the peurile Michael Moore contingent....
People who velieve in heterosexual marriage because the traditional family model best serves children and therefore society are not ipso facto homophobic. Americans vexed about our casual disregard for human life are not necessarily Stepford-Neanderthals. And, those people who believe in some power greater than themselves are not always rubes.
It's incomprehensible that a vote for Bush would be a vote against elitism. Bush is the elite incarnate. And while he indeed panders to the so-called moral majority, carefully and skillfully mesmerised by the GOP's unctuous message of values and fear, he is the most arrogant man on the planet. Parker's opinion, however, is right in line with just about all Bush supporters. It is just this type of mind-boggling, contradictory and illogical belief that prompted nearly half the nation to vote against Bush. It isn't snobbery or the sense of superiority. It's outrage.
On Saturday, November 5, the NPR program All Things Considered ran a piece discussing of the Born Again vote. They played a sermon delivered on the Sunday before the election by pastor Tim Wilder:
We're so faithful for so many other things, and yet... we get ready to go into the voting booth and make a very important decision for our country. And we don't need to go in there as a democrat or a republican or an independent. We need to go in there as a child of god, a believer in christ. Be faithful to God and faithful in Biblical convictions. What breaks my heart and I know breaks the heart of God is a lot of people don't go into the voting booth that way. They separate their Christianity from being a democrat or a republican or an independent or whatever. And God has been so faithful to us and yet when it comes to things like that we're not faithful to Him. I need you to listen to Matthew, Chapter 22 -- I'm going to start off by saying my name is pastor Tim Wilder and I approve of this message.
According to NPR pastor Wilder is a longtime political activist for the religious right. In 2000 he distributed "scorecards" for the candidates based on, one assumes, their respective positions on issues central to christian beliefs. NPR spoke to him about the election.
Wilder: The line was drawn very clear this year and some decisions were made in our country this year that kind of pushed this stuff in our face and, I think, pushed the Christian community back against the wall. We finally woke up and said, "Let's go to fight."...
We're just talking about a lot of moral issues. When we started to see, the Christian community has kinda been apathetic over the years, you know, let Government do Government's thing and let the Church do their thing... [What the judge did there was] trying to force their values on us and we thought we're not going to take it anymore, enough is enough....
I said to make a list... most of you probably have on your list; health care, education, social security, taxes, all these kinds of things, but what I want you to look at are the values that I think really matter even more deeply to God... [T]here's three values that I believe as Christians we need to deal with when we get ready to go vote. Other issues are important but these things need to be on the front line, these are the priorities. We value life, speaking up for life, the life of the unborn... and speaking up for the family.
When the interviewer, NPR's Jennifer Ludden, pointed out that the war on Iraq is certainly an issue involving the sanctity of life, innoncent life in the case of Iraqi citizens, Wilder says, "We talked about the Iraq war... I believe that war is even being fought to protect the freedoms of others--to stop the spread of evil."
He then immediately turns the question back on its head: "But I've been upset when I've been hearing people on TV say that the homosexual issue, which is dealing with the marriage issue, the abortion issue, which is to me an issue about life, those things are a side issue, they're not really important--what's more important is social security, tax plans, all this kind of stuff, education plans. What I said, is if we don't value family and start standing up for the traditional Biblical view of family--one man, one wife committed together in marriage--those other issues won't matter whatsoever... This country won't stand long. Some of the most mighty nations in the world, like the Roman Empire, they didn't fall from the outside, they fell from the inside. When the morality and the family starts going [away], the nation goes."
The view, then, is that the war in Iraq is a war against evil. Therefore, the lives of American and Iraqi soldiers (those fighting for us, anyway) and the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire are sacrafices in a greater struggle. The real struggle is to keep the empire strong--strong in its fear of God, strong in its moral certitude, strong in its conviction to continue bringing the innocent unborn into the world, into the fold, into the ranks of the empire's armies. Because if we waver in our fight against evil, and the empire falls, Jesus cannot return to fight the final war and bring the everlasting peace. Confused? Jerry Falwell explains:
With the Bible clear on our responsibility to live peaceably, it seems that there would be no reason to ever go to war. However, if one depends on the Bible as a guidepost for living, it is readily apparent that war is sometimes a necessary option. In fact, just as there are numerous references to peace in the Bible, there are frequent references to God-ordained war.Many present-day pacifists hold Jesus as their example for unvarying peace. But they ignore the full revelation concerning Jesus pictured in the book of Revelation 19, where He is depicted bearing a "sharp sword" and smiting nations, ruling them with "a rod of iron"....
President Bush declared war in Iraq to defend innocent people. This is a worthy pursuit. In fact, Proverbs 21:15 tells us: "It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity"....
We continue to live in violent times. The Bible tells us war will be a reality until Christ returns. And when the time is right, Jesus will indeed come again, ending all wars.
But Jesus needs a base of operations, an empire to launch his war of peace. How, then, does the party of God, Family and Fear reach the faithful? What are God's talking points?
Wilder: We had two rallies here called Save America Now rallies. [The] Christain Coalition sponsored one here at our church... And I preached a sermon here the Sunday before the election; 'Fighting For America: Vote Our Values.'I'm part of the Southern Baptist Convention... President Bush even spoke [via] satellite at the Southern Baptist Convention. And we're one of the largest demoninations in the United States, there's 16 million of us. We have an organization called I Vote Values. And of course, James Dobson, [director of] Focus on the Family, sent out a pastor packet kit to, I think, every pastor in the United States. It was [about] how to talk to your people. And a lot of the information I got for my sermon was from his materials.
NPR: There are laws prohibiting churches from endorsing a specific candidate -
Wilder: Yes, right... I never have done that. I never said, "vote for Bush," or anything. I told people don't go into the voting booth as a republican or a democrat. Go in the voting booth as a Born Again believer in Jesus Christ and vote your values. If anybody kinda read between the lines, they knew. Of course, they knew how I felt. I never did come out and say 'I'm voting for Bush,' which I could have said, personally. I cannot tell the church who to vote for. But if people asked me personally outside the pulpit I can tell them who I'm voting for and that kind of thing. But I've never said from the pulpit, and I'm real careful about [endorsing a candidate.]
[Bush] stands strong for these issues and now that he's got more Republicans in the senate [maybe] he can get more done... [I also said to the congregation] whoever wins this election is going to appoint Judges that probably are going to have a big say-so on the pro-life movement. I know everybody's turning it into the homosexual issue. It was not just about that. It's about morals, period.
We deliberately included this extensive quote, practically the entire interview, because it is imperative to understand that Wilder's views are not those of the radical fringe. Nor is Wilder, despite his name, a hell-and-brimstone preacher. He speaks in calm measured tones, almost dispassionate, and he's articulate. We can assume other pulpits echoed this message all across America that Sunday. This is a large movement and many, many more Americans not necessarily Born Again are in agreement. But the churches got out the vote.
Bush is seen as a decisive, morally correct man who protects marriage, protects the unborn, protects the nation. That he is body and soul the very embodiment of the political and corporate elite is lost in the clamor to Vote Your Values. That he would send thousands of innocent civilians to their death and pour young men and women into a hideous, possibly endless war are acts that betray an amoral, delusional being. One that admits no mistakes, that receives wisdom from the Almighty, that sees no contradition in proclaiming himself pro-life while planning an invasion, or espousing family values while shattering more and more families every day when they learn their son or daughter won't be coming home. That his most ardent admirers would return this man to the White House on the basis of moral issues is truly an act of blind faith. Onward Christian Soldiers.
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