(I try to stay out of politics as a clergy-person, and I do not speak of things like this from the pulpit, but this has been weighing on my heart. You are intentionally reading my personal blog. It does not represent the opinion of anyone except myself as a Christian American Citizen. If you believe that a pastor should never make a political statement in any forum that is publicly accessible, you should probably stop here.)
It's hard to see a personal hero fall, and I've experienced that with John McCain. I've been a registered Republican since I first registered to vote, although I vote rather independently. I have been alarmed by the takeover of the party by the Neo-Cons from the traditional Goldwater Conservatives, whom I share a lot of fiscal views with. In my view, Neo-Con philosophy with it's nationalistic and interventionist bent seems to be tainted with a kind of neo-fascism that has very little to do with traditional conservatism.
In 2000, I was John McCain's man. When he made the speech that labeled people on the fringe as "Agents of Intolerance," I cheered. I voted for him in the Virginia primary and hoped against hope that he might be the nominee. Standing in the rain in a sea of cowboy hats at Bush's first inauguration, I could feel something was changing, and I didn't think it was good. Throughout the last eight years, which have seen the abridgment of civil rights, rampant greed in the corporate sector, and a war with unclear cause and objective (Iraq, not Afghanistan) I have been inspired when McCain occasionally broke ranks to speak out against the administration. When he became the Republican nominee for president, I was heartened. "Now," I thought, "The Republican party can pull back from the extreme right. John McCain will speak out against this crazyness and make things right in the party again."
But it was not to be. First, he cozied up to the extreme evangelicals like Hagee - people who made the "Agents of Intolerance" he mentioned a few years earlier look like Barney the Purple Dinosaur. Then he dropped his usual eloquent and well-reasoned style at Saddleback Church to deliver the short, pithy statements that that audience craved. He employed Karl Rove in his campaign - a sign that he was certainly willing to sign on to a neo-con agenda to get the presidency. He chose Sarah Palin as a running mate. Whether she's qualified or not (I tend to think "no," since she had never heard of the Bush Doctrine), there are many more aptly qualified Republican women out there. None of them, however, could deliver James Dobson, and that's what Palin did.
Most disturbing to me, though, has been the way campaign rallies have been handled of late. The crowds have been "whipped up" to the level of hate speech. The things that have been shouted at Republican rallies in the last few weeks have been shameful, and any responsible politician would see where it was leading and at least stop the rally and remove the offender before continuing. The Republicans have been happy to ride on the hate. I've heard the argument that it's just a few crazies and you can't do anything about it, but if that were true, why doesn't it happen at Democratic rallies? McCain had his chance to redeem himself in Minnesota when the woman said that Obama was a Muslim. McCain quickly took the microphone from her and replied, "No, Obama is a decent family man" completely missing the point and implying that Muslims cannot be decent, family men.
It took Colin Powell, two weeks later in his endorsement for Obama, to publicly point out the problem with his response, "Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?" Then he spoke of this incredibly moving photograph of a mother resting her head on her son's tombstone in Arlington:
We have to get it into our heads that Osama Bin Laden does not define Islam any more than Timothy McVeigh or David Koresh define Christianity. American Muslims died in 9/11 and they are dying right now as American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you freeze frame on McCain after remarks are yelled out at some of these rallies, you can see an almost pained look, as if he knows the monster he's helping create. But still, he doesn't speak out.
Since I respect him so much, I can only assume he has fallen prey to the "Saruman Syndrome." In the Lord of the Rings when Saruman tries to convince Gandalf to help him hand Middle Earth over to Sauron, he says:
"As the Power grows, its proved friends will also grow; and the Wise, such as you and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it. We can bide our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts, deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish ... There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means."
Gandalf, of course, rejects this. The ends do not justify the means, and using evil transforms the user, no matter what the intention. I suspect McCain thinks he will simply ignore this hate speech until he is elected, and then he can discard it and continue with his REAL agenda, but most likely, it will be him that is tainted and transformed.
I miss you, pre-2008 John McCain. I hope that if you lose, you will be able to re-claim your soul and return to being the American hero and public servant I have always respected. I pray that if you win, our souls will not be tainted by the hate, fear and intolerance of your current campaign.
David+
