Columnist Tom Krattenmaker noted how far afield those who claimed they were God’s chosen have strayed.
Just 17 months ago, President Bush and the Republican Party seemed to be riding a divine tide. At the GOP convention in the summer of 2004, religious rhetoric flew through the air like streamers and confetti.
The GOP was being cast as “God’s Official Party.” Typifying the spirit of the campaign season, one alternate convention delegate, Judith Manning, declared to the press, “President Bush supports God, and God supports President Bush, absolutely.”
As if God needed Bush’s support. Or that God could not accomplish His work without Bush. Puh-leaze.
Tellingly, the president and his political brethren aren’t invoking the divine as frequently or boldly these days…
The past year has been anything but triumphant for Bush. The president’s approval rating dipped below 40% this fall before rebounding somewhat. Criticism of the Iraq war is steady, along with doubts that the president has been completely honest with the American people both before and during the war. The Bush White House has found itself associated with cruel deeds such as torture and prisoner abuse…
The past year has brought a series of scandals involving prominent Republicans…
Along with these woes have come the president’s other debilitating domestic problems, chief among them his administration’s widely perceived failure to respond effectively and compassionately to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The picture of the Bush administration that emerged from Katrina — one of indifference to suffering by New Orleans’ poorest residents — seems not to square with Christian ideals of loving and caring for the least among us.
Oh God, why hast thou deserted us Repugs? Haven’t we helped sort out the wheat from the chafe? Haven’t we leaped to expose as evil so many things we know you abhor, like gay people, unwed teen mothers, and husbands who want to take their brain-dead wives off feeding tubes, so they can at last be with you? Why have you turned your back on us? Where did you take the wrong turn, God?
Thank you for your invocation. Please note that all messages imploring answers or interventions from God should be routed through Pat Robertson (madpat@aol.com). Your message will be added to the queue and Mr. Robertson will personally deliver it to God the next time they speak.