The Christian leaders are at war with each other...

...and their followers don't seen to realize it.

Every serious contender in the Presidential election this year (yes - for the purposes of this muse I am counting the Republican Primary Candidates as serious contenders) insists that they are a Christian. This religious claim is the issue underlining the entire process. Every policy debate is being cast as a theological and doctrinal issue whose very foundation lies in the dictates of the god of the bible. From off the reservation the debates have veered deep into the territory of the insane.

It is being seriously argued that god would not approve of taking care of the poor, revising the American judicial system, or providing health care for impoverished kids. Likewise it is stated as accepted fact that god demsnds women should, once again, have their lives dictated by continuously being pregnant. This god of the American right demands that the earth be exploted exclusivly for the benifit of the current human generation without regard to the next generation of humans, let alone any other creatures on the planet. Yet somehow, while agreeing to most of these basic tenets, they are still at war with each other over forcing this ideology on the rest of society.

Listening to the Christians who all claim a mandate from god to run for the White House must be very hard for any god that might actually be close enough to hear. Someone is slinging a lot of bullshit while claiming god as the source. The result is that all political debates have become theological debates rather than debates of policy or various approaches to solving problems.

Poverty is a good example. Some of the Christians out there seem to think that poverty is not actually a problem. Poor people deserve to be poor. Rich people deserve to profit from the efforts of the poor. After all, god himself supposedly said "the poor will always be with you." This pretty much suggests that "the poor" are not included with "you," god's chosen. Certainly taxing rich people to provide a safety net for the poor is decried as "un-Christian" by a large segment of political / Christian leaders. Others of course, suggest that god would demand just such a thing.

Yet the true cure for poverty is there for anyone to see, demonstrated time and time again throughout history and in any culture; the education and emancipation of women INCLUDING access to birth control. Where ever that happens, when ever that happens, poverty is drastically reduced. Both warring Christian sects have it wrong.

I have not heard a single political leader or candidate state that birth control and universal education for women is the cure for poverty and, as such, the will of god. Not a single one. The Christian war for the White House has totally obscured the truth when it comes to poverty.

Abortion is another place where the Christians have lost their minds. Drastically reducing the numbers of abortions is actually pretty straight-forward; do everything possible to make every pregnancy a wanted pregnancy. Real (as opposed to the idiocy of "abstinence-only") sex education, universal health care for women AND access to birth control. For the most part the only unplanned pregnancies remaining are those from rape and incest. We should have the debate about the morality of insisting women carry those pregnancies to term - so long as the debaters are women who have suffered from those assaults.

The Christians like to insist that the abortion debate has only two sides, you are for it or you are against it. They are, as usual, full of shit. The Christians don't care much about abortion. What they care about is dictating how other people live their lives. I emphasize the "other" because it appears that the self-proclaimed Christian leaders are regular fans of mistresses, serial philandering, and girl-friends. (And are clearly using birth control - for which I very much thank them.)

They often seem to be pretty fond of their boy-friends as well. So many Christians who hate gay people...so many gay Christians. Like I said, they are at war with each other.

When it come to war the Christian war gets even more bazaar. None of the current political / Christian leadership suggests that god is opposed to war. (And I guess in this case they are all consistent with the war god of the Old and New Testaments. The first war of the Bible is found in Genesis 14, the last in Revelations - first and last books of the Bible.) The debate here is spending more on war, or much more on war. None of them suggests spending less on war. None of them much suggests exploring alternatives to war. Obama is actively involved in several wars and is moving toward a shooting war with Iran. The other Christian leaders would have him start that shooting war as soon as possible. All of them worship the war god of the military.

For some reason god loves oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants. But solar and wind power? Not so much. Or maybe he does. It depends on which of god's chosen leaders is standing at the microphone. I'm not sure exactly how this has become a theological debate and not a discussion on sustainability, economics and pollution.

Then again the Christian / political leaders seem to think that Armageddon is just around the corner so sustainability isn't an issue. Supply side economics is god's own gift and thus oil, coal, etc. get the nod for tax support, not solar power. (That one baffles me a little but I'm sure it makes sense to the Christan politicians. After all they are, to a person, outspoken capitalists.) Pollution gets a bit more debate as some Christian leaders seem to think poisoning ourselves isn't actually subduing the earth. Still, they don't worry about it enough to take on King Coal or Big Oil. Anyway, even what would seem the most secular of discussions, energy supplies and management, are sheathed in theological rhetoric. "My" side is "good" and "god approved." The "other" side is evil and out of step with "god's plan" for humanity.

It is strange that this election has become a battle of some Christians against other Christians when less than a quarter of the American population bothered to go to Church last Sunday. When it comes to established religion nearly 20% of Americans label themselves as unaffiliated. I know that many of these folks still think of themselves as Christians. But they are explicitly (as opposed to the Christan / political leadership) NOT Catholics or Protestants, Baptists or Methodists or Mormons. From off the reservation I certainly understand why, and welcome their declaration of Independence from ridged religious ideology.

I wish our political leadership would join them.

If they did we might get the debate, and the leadership, that is needed. We might get a debate about how large a war machine the country can support. There might even be a debate on energy production, consumption, and distribution. Both sides might admit that reducing poverty is to every one's advantage; deficits would go down, revenues would go up, a rising tide that would help reduce the severity of many of human kinds problems. Even if it was possible to err on the side of providing woman with too much freedom, too many rights (it isn't, but lets suppose) it would still be of overall benefit to EVERY BREATHING PERSON ON THE PLANET! If god has a problem with that, fuck him.

All of our problems have answers, or at least we know avenues we might pursue to find those answers. None of those avenues, not one of those answers, are exclusively Christan ones. (Some of the them, the emancipation and education of women, are explicitly not Christian.) Various Christian sects are fighting a war to lead the country.

None of them can save it.