“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to
go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
God."
Matthew 19:24
Apparently, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker credits
God in his war on the working class in his state. While running for governor,
Walker did what all Republicans do these days – he announced he is a Christian.
In an interview with a so-called Christian broadcasting station, Walker said God
told him to make many of the decisions in his life. One of those decisions was leaving
college to take a job with IBM. I never knew God ran an employment service. More
likely, Walker is using God to bury the fact the governor was a sub-average student
who became a college drop out.
The implication of Walker’s testament is that everything
he’s doing in Wisconsin – handing out $140 million in tax cuts for wealthy corporations,
then claiming the state is facing bankruptcy; denying state workers their bargaining
rights; taking millions of dollars away from the public school system to finance
vouchers for private schools for the rich – all this, he says, God and Jesus told
him to do.
The only prophets these self-styled disciples of
Christ follow are the ones preceded by dollar signs. In my opinion, they epitomize
those Jesus accused of turning places of worship into “dens of thieves.”
It amazes me how many Republicans claim God talks
directly to them. How does he it do it? Does he call them collect? Does he send
them videos like Osama Bin Laden? In Walker’s case, how does he know he’s really
talking to God and not getting punk’d by another liberal blogger?
Moreover, how does a man who claims to be a follower
of Christ’s teachings of love, charity, tolerance and forgiveness reconcile his
actions of taking money from the poor and working class citizens of his state and
giving it to its richest residents?
Certainly, it helps if you are a cynical sociopath.
No doubt that’s the case with Newt Gingrich, the disgraced former Republican House
leader who, with a straight face, recently told a Christian news show that his love
of country caused him to work so hard it destroyed two of his three marriages. In
Gingrich’s mind his habitual womanizing had nothing do with those failed marriages,
or with his forced resignation from Congress.
But what if Walker actually believes he is doing
God’s work?
We have become a nation in which rich people who
got rich by lying, stealing and cheating, are getting elected to leadership positions
in state and federal government. Walker’s own reputation as a corrupt county administrator
was so bad he lost the county he used to run. Rick Scott, the new governor of Florida,
was CEO of the health care corporation convicted of the largest Medicare fraud in
U.S. history. U.S. Rep. Darryl Issa, the California congressman now planning a series
of investigations into what he claims are crimes committed by the Obama administration,
has an arm’s-length rap sheet including grand theft auto and arson for profit.
Jesus Loves the Rich
How do these men face the electorate when they should
be hanging their heads in shame? How do they call themselves men of God and followers
of Jesus Christ’s teachings? I’ll tell you how. Because they know something you
and I don’t: They know Jesus hates us. He hates us because we’re not rich.
One of the fastest growing sects of Christianity
in this country is called the Gospel of Prosperity. Dating back to the 1930s – during
the Republican-caused Great Depression – the Gospel of Prosperity believes the Bible
got it wrong. Christ wasn’t sent by God to minister to the poor and downtrodden.
He was sent to aid the wealthiest of the wealthy.
Under this form of Christian belief, the rich have
no problem getting through the Gates of Heaven. It is the poor and middle class
who will have a harder time getting through the Pearly Gates than a camel has getting
through a needle’s eye. You can do whatever you need to do to become rich – lie,
cheat, steal – because you are doing God’s work. Who could argue with that kind
of missionary work? But it also involves destroying the lives of other people.
If you think this is just hype, consider this: dozens
of conservative members of Congress – both Republicans and Democrats – live nearly
rent-free in a Washington, DC condominium project owned by The Family. If you’ve
followed the sexual scandals of Sen. John Ensign and South Carolina
Gov. Mark Sanford, you’ve heard of The Family. Also known as the Fellowship, the
Family has been criticized by mainstream Christian churches as being a cult-like
congregation of the rich and elite that caters to their appetite for power and wealth.
Gospel of Prosperity
The best known apostle of the Gospel of Prosperity
is Oral Roberts, the televangelist who in 1987 invoked his viewers to send him $8
million or he would be called to Heaven by God. I never understood why a man of
religion would fear being called to meet his Maker. But apparently, Roberts’ viewers
felt compelled to save him from his just reward by sending him their life savings.
Roberts was spared, temporarily. He died in 2009 in an exclusive enclave of Newport
Beach, California, after he was forced to sale off his homes in Palm Springs and
Beverly Hills, as well as three of his Mercedes.
Another who preaches the prosperity gospel is TV
cleric Pat Robertson, who has financed his lavish lifestyle with his viewers’ donations
to his church and its shady disaster relief programs. Robertson’s belief that God
wants him to find a gold mine led the televangelist to make a business deal with
Liberia’s dictator Charles Taylor to look for gold in that African country.
Now deposed, Taylor is standing trial before an international
criminal court for crimes against humanity involving his attacks on neighboring
Sierra Leon, motivated by Taylor’s coveting of that country’s mineral riches. Robertson,
who claimed Hurricane Katrina and the Haitian earthquake were God’s vengeance (apparently
because the victims were poor), continues to defend Taylor to this day.
You can also count George W. Bush in this category,
too. When Bush, whose family business – the Carlyle Group – reaped a fortune from
the war in Iraq, said he was a Christian, the Gospel of Prosperity was the Christianity
he was referring to.
The only prophets these self-styled disciples of
Christ follow are the ones preceded by dollar signs. In my opinion, they epitomize
those Jesus accused of turning places of worship into “dens of thieves.”
With such a belief system, one can commit any reprehensible,
even criminal, act to gain power and wealth – lie, steal, betray, even start a war
– because you’re doing God’s will. With this corrupt moral compass, you can commit
any sin; as long as you say you accept Jesus into your heart, you’ll be forgiven.
To me, this gospel’s idea of Christ smells more like the Antichrist. In the meantime,
the rest of us are just so much flotsam left in the wake of God’s miraculous work.
I am certain Gov. Walker considers himself a good
Christian as well as a patriot. But then history is filled with evil men who cloaked
themselves in patriotism and Christ. “When fascism comes to America,” Sinclair Lewis
prophesized in 1935, “it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” If there
is a hell, then I believe there is special place there for Gov. Walker and his phony
“Christians.” They, in turn, would consider me a heretic for suggesting God and
Jesus were interested in such heathens as the unwashed masses. So be it. I will
remain, as Jackson Browne wrote, “a heathen and a pagan on the side of the Rebel
Jesus.”
