I've never been able to calculate the equation: that anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-choice sentiments, added to pro-execution, pro-war, and pro-torture, add up to anything good.
Throw in a little Jesus-talk and vague references to prayer, and a lot of people go gaga!
But truth will out and the times, they are a-changing!
The failure of the right is painfully evident in the chaos of our country - an economy ever-weaker vis-a-vis the world, a national reputation ruined, 40 million uninsured Americans, the obscene gap between worker wages and CEO robber barons, the greed of celebrity preachers and the silly complaining of Christian talk show pundits.
I'm not expecting Camelot, but we can do better.
The rest of the civilized world has universal health care and enough taxes to care for the citizenry. Our allies work tirelessly at diplomacy, finding a way through a crisis, managing their world quite well.
It's time for America to be America once again ... to be utterly humble before the God in which we trust, to be loving and caring of one another - to strive for the public good and live with a little less.
New voices are heard ... there are stirrings of the spirit ... is this not of God?
I believe so.
Like the theo-cons, I have faith, too. And so do millions of Americans - not the scathing, in-your-face kind of faith touted by the right, but the faith taught by Jesus ... and Mohammed ... and Buddha ... and the Dalai Lama.
I'm a Christian, and the last time I read the Bible, it reminded me that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life ... not me, not my faith; not the church nor its many books, its prelates and its pronouncements.
That such things belong to Jesus is a freedom from spiritual bondage for all the world ... Jesus for all the world ... in every faith, in every heart ... in every decent act of kindness and mercy, in every calm thought and positive decision, in every prayer and every hymn ... in Tibetan prayer cloths and a well-worn prayer book ... in temple, mosque and church ... with rabbis and mullahs, priests and pastors.
A new day is dawning.
