(AFP/File/Brendan Smialowski) |
I have no doubt. God talks to me. Literally? No, of course not.
I'm no apologist for the President, as we know, but I do believe in fairness. And, I believe there is a kind of hostility toward Christianity in the media and it is all very baffling in a way. It gets couched in so much language: right wing, evangelical, fundamentalist, etc. We have all these media outlets constantly bombarding us with anything they consider news.
It is not enough that we have to deal with our own media but the foreign press as well. And, regardless of whether or not our own or foreign, we must never forget that the media is interested in a story and not the truth.
Go fight the Terrorists
Some Palestinian yoyos said they were in a meeting and the President said God talked to him: "George, go fight the terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq." Did he say it? His spokesperson says no. But what if he did? If so, the statement was not meant to be taken literally; but, in a sense, was meant to be a metaphor for saying, "We must fight the terrorists, it is the right thing to do." In my view, much of the interpretation of any political/or religious statement is labeling: conservative, liberal, etc. and interpretation of what all the labels mean. What they may mean to one person and what they mean to another can be entirely different things. The media lumps everyone who believes in traditional values with one label.
For instance, my Church is the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. We would interpret evangelical, I think, entirely different from what the press would. We are very tolerant and operate on the idea of essentials and nonessentials. Essentials of the faith are the basics: God, the Trinity, Resurrection, etc.; All the other issues fit in the nonessential category like various social issues-This doesn't mean that these issues are not important, but they are not essential to the "Faith."
If the President does say God talked to him, it just means, he sees himself as a spiritual person; and, consequently, it is part of his language. He has a strong sense of what is right and wrong and his decisions reflect that. I don't agree with him on Iraq but understand exactly what he means. He, like myself, should stay silent often or at least pay attention to his handlers because the press eats him alive for such remarks as "God talks to him."
The Use of Language: Religious, Spiritual
The President's language is in the same vein as we use the concept of prayer. In times of crisis, people say, "We pray" because we are spiritual beings. It is a natural thing for us to do. It is almost like saying, "God bless you." I even saw a picture the other day with a caption on it, "Clinton prays with victims of Hurricane Katrina." There was Bill holding hands with two displaced African American families. More power to him. Was God talking to Bill? Of course, He/She was.
What fascinates me is that the media doesn't hassle the rest of the culture like they do the President and his conversations with God. For instance, a new movie, The Gospel is out. Roger Ebert thought it was great and the ease of how he and Roeper used Christian language on the program in reviewing the movie was quite honestly, refreshing. They were talking about the movie and using words like Jesus and God, etc., very comfortably which disclosed that these two movie reviewers were themselves spiritual persons or so it seemed. Nobody took them to task nor will the media be negative toward the movie; which, in its nature, is very evangelical. (Roeper did give it a mild thumbs down, however.)
Unfortunately, the forces in our society that represent the extremes of our spiritual worlds, like Pat Robertson and these TV preacher types, give such tawdry impressions of what it means to be spiritual. And, we know God talks to them as they are forever saying, "God says."
In the case of the Prez, let's be fair. The White House denies the President said God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, but if he did say it, as stated earlier, he didn't mean it literally.
Personally, I think the President mixed up the voices within if he thought God was telling him to go into Iraq. I hope now the voices he's hearing are telling him to figure out how to get the hell out.
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