Power Confused
Stephen Harris
March 25, 2005
We have a president who fancies himself as chosen more than
the rest of us. He has rallied a population of people who base their faith on a
naïve interpretation of Christianity from which they rigidly hang their
morality. But George Bush himself has a naïve interpretation of Christianity and
morality.
If he understood Christianity more he might notice that spreading Christianity
is impeded by violence and suffering. Although his broad sweeping shoot from the
hip clumsy cowboy approach to apparently every aspect of his life is not without
its value, it is a very dangerous approach from the position of President and
just plain wrong from the position of a religious leader. He found the power of
herding millions of people but he has no concept of responsibility.
His pseudo tough guy polarizing politics is what has led us to this place of an
outraged country on a wild “Citizen Ruth” kind of rampage. Because this
unfortunately is an extension of the abortion issue. And just like Ruth the
fighting has almost nothing to do with Terri Schiavo anymore. I believe the test here is
not in what dogma tells us to do, but what we believe to be the right thing to
do here and now. I’m not sure how it works in other religions but as Christians
aren’t we supposed to ask ourselves “What would Jesus do?”
If Jesus were here now, what would he do? Imagine Jesus in the hospital talking to
the doctors and Terri and her family. I have a tough time imagining him saying
that Terri Schiavo’s life should be prolonged as long as medically possible. I also have
a tough time seeing him saying that she should be allowed to starve to death. My
guess is that he would suggest giving her a heavy morphine drip and to let her
die easily.