No GOP monopoly on God

JESSE JACKSON

_D id God vote Republican?
You'd think so if you listen
to some of the evangelical
supporters of George Bush
Regular churchgoers voted dra-
matically Republican in the elec-
tion. Twenty percent of the voters
identified "morals" as their major
concern and voted overwhelmingly
for George Bush (whereas those
who named the economy and jobs
or Iraq as their lead concerns voted
3 to 1 for John Kerry).
Bush charged Kerry, a practicing
Catholic, with representing Holly-
wood values. Many voters believed
in Bush because he had straightened
himself out by taking Jesus into his
life, and because he uses the imagery
and language of evangelicals
through his speeches. Democrats,
Republican operatives charged, are
simply divorced from the values of
mainstream, religious America.
But Republicans have no monop-
oly on religion or on faith. And Re-
publican policies often seem di-
vorced from the teachings of the
Bible. The Bible tells us we will be
measured by how we treat the least
of these. But under this president,
poverty -- including childhood
poverty -- is up. Poor children grow
with inadequate nutrition, no health
insurance, no preschool. Bush's poli-
cies of top-end tax cuts and cuts in
support for the poor only make
things worse.
Jesus was born in a manger, not in
a mansion. He had a manger-up
view of the world, not a mansion-
down view. Jesus taught that a rich
man was as likely to get into the
kingdom as a camel through the eye
of a needle. This was not exactly a
widespread sentiment at the Repub-
lican convention.
He urged his followers to beware
of worldly goods, to simplify their
lives and follow him. He instructed
them to serve the poor, not neglect
them. Jesus taught us to love every
child, to rise above the divisions of
race or tribe or religion. When the
men gathered to stone a prostitute,
he challenged them. Who amongst
you, he asked, can throw the first
stone? He asked us to stand with the
weak, the ill, the stranger in a for-
eign land. The politics of division
practiced in the last election, the ap-
peals to our fear of the other, con-

__________
Republican policies
often seem divorced
from the teachings of
the Bible.

trast starkly with those teachings.
Nor does Bush's rollback of envi-
ronmental regulations reflect well.
The Bible teaches that nature is
God's creation. We are as stewards
to the bounty that God has created.
We should be working to preserve it,
not rolling back regulations to poi-
son our air, neglect our seas and turn
a blind eye to a global warming.
Finally, Jesus was a man of peace.
He came as the Messiah when peo-
ple were expecting and praying for a
mighty warrior who would deliver
them from their oppressors. Instead,

God brought them a baby in the
manger. Jesus taught the power of
love, hope and charity -- not of
weapons. He delivered them by sac-
rificing himself that they may be
free. His teachings are far removed
from George Bush's "war of choice"
in Iraq, the euphemism used to de-
scribe an aggressive war on a coun-
try that posed no threat to us.
The pope has harshly criticized a
war that the U.N. Secretary General
Kofi Annan has called illegal.
Democrats, particularly those like
Kerry who serve in the Senate a long
time, do fall into the trap often of
talking about plans and programs,
not right and wrong. They talk pol-
icy, not values. Not surprising, the
Democrats who have fared well po-
litically -- Jimmy Carter, Bill Clin-
ton -- have been raised in the
church and are comfortable with the
teachings of the Bible. Americans
sensibly want their leaders to have a
strong moral grounding as they meet
the challenges yet to come.
But God is not a political animal.
The Bible tells us to tell a tree by
the fruit it bears, not the bark it
wears. Christ warns against
hypocrisy -- the public display of
faith without a true heart or without
deeds of faith. Conservatives now
suggest that God is on the side of
Republicans at home and America
abroad. That Bush is right to sug-
gest that he has a mission from
above in the war on terror. This gets
the equation exactly wrong. It isn't a
question of whether God is on
America's side. The question is
whether America is on God's side.
As war rages in Iraq and children
go hungry in the richest nation on
earth, the question should sober the
political operatives who see God as
a political weapon rather than an
abiding guide.