When holiness becomes political instead of personal, it always ends badly.
And even though I’ll be the first to admit that I’m among the super-duper supermajority of Americans that seldom cracks a Bible, I’m pretty sure there’s a warning against exploiting God for partisan political advantage in there somewhere.
Let he who is without sin cast the first press release … or something like that.
It’s the old Christian karmic warning: Keep your sanctimony to yourself or you’ll end up looking like a Pharisee with a self-serving political agenda and a bunch of evil money-changers disgracing your, um, temple.
Anyway, despite all the applicable Scriptural admonishments, his holiness, Focus on the Family vice president of government and public policy Tom Minnery chastised U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar on Wednesday in a press release. “It seems as though the senator could benefit from studying his Bible a little more thoroughly,” he said.
This was in response to a statement the former seminarian and first-term Democrat made on radio Tuesday referring to the Focus on the Family political juggernaut as “the Antichrist of the world.”
For the Focus crowd, that was a public-relations miracle, a glorious, holy- mackerel gotcha moment.
Salazar may have prayed for forbearance over the weekend after enduring days of attack ads paid for by the political arms of the religious right, but the church people who picketed his wife’s Dairy Queen on Sunday had him on his absolute last nerve.
He didn’t like having his faith questioned, for sure – but having his wife picketed made him furious.
So he made the mistake of slipping into an unholy war of words when he should have risen above the stone- throwing and concentrated on the real issues, such as:
Whom would Jesus filibuster?
How many authentic people of faith really spent the Sabbath worshiping Bill Frist and James Dobson?
And if the majority votes for the nuclear option, will they have a prayer in the next election, especially the way the polls are going to hell for them right now?
I mean, the Beatitudes aside, the meek may never inherit the U.S. Congress – ever – even after the reign of Rep. Tom “The Hammer” DeLay is blessedly over.
But it’s a shame they have to live with knowing that Salazar gave Minnery the public-relations advantage – if only for a moment.
On Wednesday, Salazar’s office was furiously beseeching the faithful to forgive his sin of hyperbole.
“As he has said before, and what he meant to say yesterday (Tuesday) is that Focus on the Family’s attack ads and tactics against him and other senators are un-Christian and do not reflect Christian values,” said spokesman Cody Wertz in a curt press release.
Nobody on either side of this sanctimonious blood sport would talk Wednesday. I think they were waiting for grace from focus groups.
But for those of us who prefer to live under a democracy where all are created equal regardless of their faith or lack of it, the whole unholy episode is apocalyptic in its awfulness.
Fortunately, we have been blessed with a new release from Bruce Springsteen to get us through as we walk through the valley of the shadow of the Family Research Council’s relentless negative advertising campaign.
On the CD is a hymn to peace and justice and the danger of killing people or attacking people’s faith in the name of God.
“Well I’ve got God on my side
And I’m just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear’s a dangerous thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It’ll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust.”
Leave it to Bruce to deliver us from evil. Hallelujah.
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-820-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
