Don't Lose Heart? How About We Return To Our First Love?

Dr. Beam has written an opinion piece over at the Christian Post that is truly amazing. He is all worried that the scandalabras coming out of the right wing are going to keep us home on election day. These scandals could elect Hillary or Obama and bring us worse scandals! It comes down to this very serious choice: Right wing scandals or left wing scandals with more social spending.

Mr. Beam starts out warning us of the secret Plan B of the left (The same secret Plan B they have used for the last 60 years):

“If you are a self-defined conservative evangelical the Left is counting on you. They are counting you for one of two things. First, they hope you will be so discouraged by the recent spate of moral failures by high profile Republicans that you will chose to stay out of the 2008 race for president. For those of you who decide to rise above the discouragement the Left has a plan B. It involves confusing the moral issues by pushing life and gender issues to the back burner while elevating environmental and health care issues.”

NO! They wouldn't dare! Ok, seriously, since when did they NOT have a Plan B? Since when did they NOT push their issues? What else is new? Big snore.
Dr. Beam assumes we are discouraged by the all the scandals and is challenging us to ‘rise above the discouragement’. Please. Give me a break. He probably also believes we are ‘Christian nation’.

Ya know, it seems that when one gets to a certain age, all the scandals run together. Only the names change. In the case of the Kennedy’s, only the first names change. I have heard people describe soap operas this way. You can turn them off for a few years and find that the same stuff is going on except now all the actors have ‘lifts’, tucks and Botox. Washington is a real live soap opera with the same moral DNA as soap opera writers.

Being a political junkie and history nut since I was in diapers, (I came home from grade school and watched the Watergate hearings everyday), I finally made the connection: History really does repeats itself in a million little ways. From the reprobate grandson of Jonathan Edwards, Aaron Burr to Warren Harding to Bill Clinton and now the Duke and Larry.

Beam asks:

“How should evangelical voters view the shortcomings of their leaders?”

First I want to ask him: What exactly is your definition of an evangelical? Ted Haggard?

But since I cannot ask him that I have to ponder his declaration that these are our leaders. Leaders? I thought they served the people? You know, worked for US...the people. (snicker) We all know they are there for themselves…it is not a big secret. These people could not lead me out of a parking lot.

But more importantly, Mr. Beam, we should view their shortcomings as just plain old sin. But, ‘shortcoming’ has a nice ring to it…kind of like ‘mistake’ instead of ‘sin’.

Beam continues,

"We should pray that those who are guilty will turn to God in repentance and be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with Him. We should pray that God would give us wisdom to be able to discern the difference between a genuine fall of a leader and a contrived hatchet job. And we must never allow the moral failures of the few destroy the will of the faithful.”

Shouldn't we pray that ALL turn to God in repentance, even Barney Frank? But I cannot figure out what Dr. Beam means by discerning the difference between a genuine fall of a leader and a contrived hatchet job? Can he be anymore vague? Does he know something he is not sharing?

In any event, if you go and read the article you will see he is not original. Like everyone else explaining away sin, he paints parallels in scripture with King David that are supposed to make us feel better about all forms of debauchery. Ever notice how such moral failures (sin..we call it sin!) always bring out the King David comparisons? There is only one problem: Nathan is missing.

Here is my favorite part because now he is resorting to scare tactics:

“Former President Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton have committed themselves to convocation of Baptists to be held in Atlanta in February of 08. The banner they are waving is one of unity at the expense of conviction.”

Here is the 'Right Wing Plan B': Scare us with thoughts of these guys siphoning off evangelical votes! Hum. You may want to go back and check on how many 'so called' evangelicals voted for Clinton...twice.

Dr. Beam, you can try to explain all of these scandals away in the name of political expediency but it won’t help. The emergents and many seekers are going to vote for Hillary or Obama anyway. John McCain will probably endorse Obama to be 'different' and if we are really lucky, Fred Thompson will keep all of it from being a big snorefest for the next few months.

Yes, yes, I am going to vote. I will hold my nose and vote for the most conservative one I can find. But I will need to pull out my rose colored glasses, first.

I finally realized that politics is not the answer. Never was. You want proof? Just take a good long look at us!

The answer should be going back to our first love and praying HE comes quickly.

Third cartoon: Federalist Party attack ad depicts Jefferson as attempting to destroy the Constitution, stopped by God and an American eagle.