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April 16, 2008

Calling Good Evil and Evil Good

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Isa. 5:20

I cannot help but be reminded of that text over and over again as I watch events unfolding in the run-up to the Presidential election. The insane, obsessive, hateful attacks on Barack Obama, whose message of hope and unity is apparently too much for people like Bill Kristol to bear, try to paint a good man as evil, a man of the people as an elitist.

Meanwhile, the Pope - leader of an organization that has wreaked havoc on the world for centuries, including wanton abuse of children placed in the care of its leaders - comes walzing into America and is treated as if he were the son of God himself. With a statement that he is "ashamed" of the abuse, all is forgiven.

With that in mind, I could not help but be struck by two contrasting images we have been given over the last few weeks: one, of Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a black man in a black suit saying, "God damn America!"; and two, of the Pope, a white man with white hair in a white cassock, arms outstretched, saying, "God bless America!" The deceptiveness of these two contrasting images is alarming.

On the one hand, we have a man who is calling our attention to decades of abuse of a segment of our population and expressing the legitimate frustrations of those people at the rest of us for refusing to acknowledge and make right that horrific wrong. He is painted as a radical hater - as is Obama for trying to help us understand the message. On the other hand, we have a man who wishes to sweep under the carpet decades of abuse of children, not to mention many other horrors, doing nothing more than feeding our already bloated egos and the images coming out of his welcoming event show our President in a near-bowing posture before him. It is apalling.

Don't get me wrong - I love America, our culture, and our people. I would die for this country. I do believe we have the best way in the world. But I don't believe we will remain a good country if we let the haters and users of the world keep tickling our ears while destroying our ability to develop into a stronger, more unified, more nurturing society.

The schemers among us are a crafty bunch. They will always try to manipulate the masses so they can continue to feed on our wealth and take from the weak among us. I am on the edge of my seat waiting for November to see whether America has finally had enough of it, or whether we will succomb to the manipulators yet again.

Posted by Becky at April 16, 2008 09:50 AM