The Jesus Election

opinion by Todd Huffman

While schemers and mythmakers and peddlers of fear abound in his administration, confusing the President with them gives him too much credit. He seems to see the world only in simplistic division: good or evil. Believing his own intentions good, even divine, he plainly admits himself guided by the hidden hand of God.

As a younger man and not so long ago, wrestling with the devils of alcohol, the President professes to have found his salvation through Jesus. Which Jesus he found, and which Jesus this nation believes he found, lies at the heart of what we'll be deciding this November 2nd. Born of the most humble beginnings and raised in poverty, Jesus was throughout his life most affected by the poor, the powerless, and the oppressed. He was the friend of sinners, of the undesirables, and of the outcasts. Ridiculed, scorned, betrayed, condemned, and crucified, his life was defined by suffering.

Jesus resisted all temptations toward spectacle. There were no dazzling, pyrothechnic displays of omnipotence. No smart bombs and cruise missiles from him! In fact, Jesus refused the devil's temptation of coercive power, knowing respect and faith are garnered through patience and compassion, rather than compelled through fear. Using power and the promise of security to force obedience was instead the way of Herod, the Rome-installed "King of the Jews".

Jesus instead preached the way of God, the way of non-violence. "Love your enemy", and "resist not evil", he said. Jesus refused the temptation to destroy evil by force, preferring instead to destroy it by faith, and love.

Therefore, a nation that rains down destruction upon another people, and then waxes triumphant, cannot possibly be becoming in God's eyes. A leader who claims war as his providential mission is a leader, quite frankly, whose Christianity needs born yet-again. Blessed are the conquerors? Blessed are the strong? No! Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek" and "Blessed are the peacemakers". Never does Jesus allow for the exception of a "just war" or a "holy war".

Moreover, Jesus saw people not as citizens of nations, but of mankind. Nations he considered inventions of men; no one truly favored over another by God. I wonder if Jesus would consider it vainglorious to say "God Bless America", as if America were divinely entitled--singled out for and deserving of God's special blessings, especially during wartime? Somehow I cannot imagine God as being in the cosmic stands as war plays down here on earth. Look! There's God! He's cheering for us! The God I believe in is impartial, even to a fault. If He shows favor, it is only towards the weakest and most humble members of humanity. This country once welcomed such people, as evidenced by Emma Lazarus' eloquent invitation to the tired, the poor, the huddled masses, and the homeless inscribed at the base of our Statue of Liberty.

Having taken it upon ourselves under this President and his Jesus to export and forcibly impose our "values" abroad, our nation is ever more failing to keep them intact at home. Instead, the President and his party leaders in Congress are possessed by a desire to legislate an agenda of so-called "compassionate conservatism" and of "Christian family values", while ever more failing to value and show compassion for those members of our society whom God and Jesus most favor.

This November, it is up to we the people to avoid the ways of Herod, and rescind our powers to force obedience and destroy. We must send the message that we believe that the Jesus the President found was not the right one, and we must send Bush back to Texas to find him again.

Todd Huffman, MD, is a pediatrician residing in Eugene, Oregon.