Outrage In Colorado

While the nation's attention has been riveted to the government shutdown and fight over Obamacare for the last couple of weeks, other things are happening across the USA that should anger Americans even more than the smarmy goings on of Washington politics.  One of those things was an outrageous incident that happened in Sterling, CO about two weeks ago.

The grieving family of Linda Baker, wife of Baptist pastor Mark Baker, were denied their request to have the ichthys--an early fish symbol of Christianity--with "Jesus" written inside it, placed on Mrs. Baker's headstone.  Shawn Rewoldt, manager of the public cemetery where Mrs. Baker was buried, refused the family's request on the grounds that the name "Jesus" might offend someone. Stunned, the family protested only to have Rewoldt compare the Jesus-in-the-ichthys symbol to the hooked cross of Nazi Germany.  "What if somebody wanted to put a swastika [on a headstone]?" Rewoldt reportedly told the Bakers to defend his decision.  Next, the family appealed to the city council for help but the council supported Rewoldt.  Only after being pressured by a Facebook campaign launched by the Bakers did Sterling city manager Joe Kiolbasa overrule Rewoldt.  Linda Baker will get to have the symbol she wanted put on her headstone after all, but her wish should never have been denied in the first place.

Yes, I know the cemetery in question was a public, city-owned cemetery, but the manager didn't use the separation of church and state ruse to block the Baker family's religious freedom.  Oh no.  He tried to stop Jesus's name from being seen on the grounds that its "Christian connotation" might offend.  If the Bakers had asked for the name "Allah" or "Mohammed" for their loved one's headstone you can bet your proverbial bottom dollar that neither of them would've been deemed potentially offensive.

This entire incident was despicable and outrageous!  Yet, as outrageous as it was I would've expected it in the big liberal cities on the east and left coasts.  Shockingly, this attack on Christianity occurred in the heartland in a town with less than 20,000 people.  The poison of political correctness and Christophobia is seeping into and corroding every nook and cranny of America.   All the budget and policy battles in Washington will be for nothing if we don't stop the march of the Left's cultural rot through America.  To paraphrase Jesus, what does it profit a nation to gain fiscal order yet lose its soul?

Try banning that, Sterling, Colorado.

I Wanna Be Oppressed Like This!

Take a look at this house. It's a $1.6 million dollar, 10,000 square foot minimansion being built in a ritzy Chicago suburb. Dig that entry way! And it's got a cool $10 million dollar line of credit attached to it. Oh, and did I tell you it belongs to Jeremiah Wright? Yes, THAT Jeremiah Wright.

It seems that Obama's former pastor is as big a hypocrite as Jimmy Swaggart. While preaching Black liberation theology and denouncing "middle classism", the dear reverend is quite happy to retire to a tony house in an overwhelmingly White gated community. I guess he couldn't find a Black neighborhood good enough for him. Apparently, it's ok to live with rich White people so long as you trash them in your sermons, thereby showing that your heart is still with the homies in da 'hood.

Ok, I'll be fair to Rev. Wright. This house isn't technically his; it's being built for him by his church, Trinity United Church of Christ. But still, this is the man whose "gospel" is that America is irredeemably racist and Blacks suffer great oppression here. Indeed, all Black folk's problems are the fault of Whites. Rev. Wright preaches this belief in spite of the glaring fact that his own life contradicts it. But why let a little thing like truth get in the way of the lucrative trade of race hustling? Obama's pastor will enjoy every inch of his home's 10,000 square feet. He'll enjoy every stroke on the golf course with his new, pale neighbors. And I'm sure he'll enjoy that $10 million dollar line of credit. Ahhhhh! Oppression never felt so good!

The Dems (Try To) Get God

Ok, I admit it. I didn't watch Clinton's and Obama's little town meeting on faith that aired tonight on CNN. I know. It would've made a great post, but I just couldn't bring myself to sit through it. I couldn't bring myself to endure what I suspected would be a blatantly obvious political ploy to win over religiously conservative voters, a ploy Dems have been using for a while now.

Dems have been trying hard to get religion ever since they lost the presidential election in 2004. Before then, the Democratic party had been staunchly secular. It was the party of choice for most unchurched voters, polls showed, as it supported a host of liberal causes rooted in a rejection of traditional, Judeo-Christian values. The defeat in '04, attributed to the overwhelming support "values voters" gave Republicans, forced the Dems to rediscover their collective soul. God became acceptable to them again...to a point.

While wanting to make inroads into the (conservative) faith community Democrats, especially liberal ones, didn't want to get too touchy feely with the divine. Rather than actually changing their fundamentally secular worldview Dems sought to convince the faithful that it was compatible with their God-centered one. And to a large extent they've succeeded. In the '06 midterm elections the Democrats received a larger than expected share of the White, evangelical vote and they stand to do the same in '08. The trick has been to get people of faith to "broaden" their concern from their usual hot button issues, i.e. abortion or gay marriage, to include such things as protecting the environment and caring for the poor.

I find this strategy insulting. It assumes that religious conservatives were backward, one dimensional voters until shown the way by enlightened liberals. Of course, this is garbage. Conservative people of faith have been concerned about a wide range of issues, especially helping the poor, for many years; they just haven't been inclined to view government as the solution. That's why the issues they actually voted on were rather narrowly defined. It had nothing to do with being narrow minded, ignorant, or uncaring. Religious conservatives don't need to be "enlightened" by anyone.

Still, the Dems' success in convincing a portion of the conservative faithful to rethink their political allegiance can't be denied, and tonight's forum is an attempt to solidify those gains. Will it work? Will Hillary and Obama be successful? I'm not sure. As disappointed and even disillusioned many people of faith are with the Republicans they also know that the Democrats haven't exactly been their friends. Hillary and Obama will have to walk a fine line trying to woo a lot of still skeptical "values voters" while reassuring their secular base they haven't gotten too cozy with the faithful. Watching the Dems trying to stay on that tightrope during the entire election season is going to be very funny.