God is a registered Republican

... or so I've just heard. Just received the email. I'm aquainted with the person who sent it. This person holds jobs, bathes, properly sequences sentences, and has no troubling mental health diagnoses. At various times in the past, I would have said we were friends. Even that I trusted her.

But right now I'm thinking about her more like a character in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. They got her.

Now, what's funny is this blog isn't ultimately about my friend or what she sent me to read. It's more my breaking point -- the straw that broke my camel's back. The moment in time pointing to my much larger despair.

But we'll start with my friend. Here's what she sent:

"I was very dismayed when, recently, a family member of mine said to me with great resignation that Obama will take the presidency. These words came from someone who in the past has been a great prayer warrior. What is happening? Our apathy is leading us to perdition."

"It is time for all Christian Americans to raise the battle cry and take our nation back. Maybe McCain on his own cannot defeat Obama, but our God can and He will if we take to our knees in prayer and raise a mighty cry to the heavens to 'Save us O Lord.' We have the power to change the course of this election and to keep a man as suspect as Barak Obama from leading our country to who knows where with his message of 'change' -- a change which I fear will be away from our Christian ideals and away from Christ and further away from one nation under God to one nation under Allah."

Here's something you should know about me. I freely admit it's prejudicial. Just trying to be honest about that, because it's not going away any time soon. I'm very alert and made anxious by possessive pronouns placed in front of the idea of God. Our God. My God. Your God. Their God.

Because, if there is an ounce of meaning left in the idea of God -- and for me there is -- then let there be no doubt God will not be possessed -- not by God's benefits nor God's attributes. And certainly not by the Republicans. And certainly not by the Democrats.

God is never mine. Not if I possess a shred of humility or even the barest capacity to think critically.

God is not an American. God is not Irish. God is not a Christian. God is not Wiccan. God is not a Republican. God is not a Democrat. God is not white, or black or lime green. God is neither a man nor a woman. And quite recently I -- even I -- had to swallow the most bitter pill of all: God is not a Green Bay Packer fan.

You think this is mere theological banter? Irrelevant navel gazing? Think again. The moment God is possessed it is only a matter of time before someone will start to bleed -- politically, socially, economically, or actually. Bad theological ideas have "real time" consequences which are likewise bad. Or worse.

"Okay, prayer warriors, here is your challenge -- start those prayer chains. Get the spiritual power working on our behalf and stop Obama the proper way, by calling on our God to save us from the deception that charismatic preaching is using to lead us on the wrong path. Stop those who would take God out of our country and our government. Rise up good men to lead us and protect us. George Bush is being buffeted because he has fought a holy war against the evils that attack us and we should not be surprised because a prophet is not honored in his own country. But we should not rest on our laurels and allow ourselves to be taken further off the path of Christianity and to have God removed from our presence in our school, courts, government, and business. Invite God into the fray. Ask that His power rest upon us and give us victory."

Ergo, God is a registered Republican who is voting for John McCain. Wow. Now THERE'S a bitchin' endorsement if ever there was one.

Good Reader, this blog is NOT about either McCain or Obama. Nor is it about who I'm voting for or why. This blog is about my near total despair for the two-party system in America, and the bizarre distortions of "group-think" each create in their own way. It's about an America who, as a group, actually found compelling and relevant the debate about which candidate correctly and morally used the colloquialism "putting lipstick on a pig."

It's about a Republican party that has sold its soul to the religious right. It's about a Democratic party that has sold its soul to special interest. It's about the brazen cynicism of power and staying in power.

Oh, I pray. Yes indeed. I pray for a statesman. The return of the statesman. A true statesman has a vision, a plan, and an argument, married to an essential humility. The statesman then proceeds to persuade and convince ME that his/her plan is best. The current two-party system isn't about that much any more. It's more about polling me, then pandering to me. And if I won't be "pandered to," then I'm villified.