Since God doesn’t talk to me, I had to go to the Internets to learn how God views Obama’s victory. One would think God would be pleased, since God is All-Powerful and, since Obama won, God must have wanted him to win. Just two weeks before the election, Sarah Palin was interviewed by James Dobson, head of Focus On The Family, who said: “God’s perfect will will be done on November 4.” This seems like a tautology; God’s will, being perfect, will, of course, be done. I mean, He’s God, right? And the Lord’s Prayer talks about God’s will being done. But then, James and Sarah sachranized together about how millions of people were praying that God would intervene in the election to make sure His Perfect Will would be done on election day, blah, blah blah. But I don’t think they really wanted God’s perfect will to be done. I think they wanted Obama to lose and somehow thought God’s perfect will could be affected by their prayers. To that I say: Who are these puny mortals that think God is so imperfect that He would allow his Perfect Will to be influenced by their petty importunings? First thing we know, Sarah Palin will be accusing God of palling around with terriers – – especially if the Obama’s pick a terrier as the new White House puppy.
Anyway, now that God’s Perfect Will has been expressed in the form of an Obama Presidency, what are the people who hear from God (or know people who hear from God) saying? James Dobson is “grieving”, but not actually being critical of God. That strikes me as being pretty disrespectful right there also. (Note how I’m trying to adopt some of Sarah Palin’s linguistic style?) If God’s will is perfect, which we all know it is, and despite all the great prayers that I’m sure James Dobson and his minions sent up in the sky there to God also, if God STILL caused Obama to win, then that must mean that God REALLY wanted Obama to win and James Dobson should be celebrating that what God REALLY wanted to happen happened, so it is not respectful of James Dobson there to be grieving also.
Todd Strandberg, editor of one of my favorite websites, “www.raptureready.com“, says: “I don’t see anything shocking in last week’s election. I do believe strongly that a dark demonic cloud has swept over the land, but this is how we should expect the end times to play out.” Do you know what I find disturbing about this? Todd didn’t capitalize “end times”. I mean, this “End Times” schtick is the focus of Todd’s entire life and I think that not capitalizing “end times” is pretty disrespectful. Todd did raise the Rapture Index a point, observing that: “Barack Obama’s election virtually ensures a new liberal sift (sic) is coming to Washington D. C.” Todd also noted that the day after the election, the winning number in the Illinois lottery was 666, the “Mark of the Beast”. (See how respectful I am, and I don’t even believe this bullshit.) But Todd doesn’t think Obama is the Antichrist, although lots of his readers foolishly do think this. (Doesn’t everyone who cares about the Rapture and the End Times know that the Antichrist will come from Europe?)
A Roman Catholic priest in Greenville, So. Carolina, told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Obama, because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion and supporting him “constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil.” Those Catholics failing to follow his advice “place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law.” (This all sounds pretty legalistic; is there canonical law somewhere that defines “material cooperation” and “intrinsic evil”?) Anyway, I think this priest took some crap for admonishing his parishioners and had to make an apology (feeble and totally insincere, I am sure.)
That’s pretty much it so far. Most religious people who were sure God would support McCain now explain that God caused Obama to win for God’s own reasons, which we mortals couldn’t be expected to understand – – religion’s always-useful answer to anything that doesn’t make sense. I haven’t seen one conservative yet who raises the possibility that God caused a Democrat to win because a Republican, who God actually talks to (Bush), screwed things up so monumentally.
I'm Not Making This Up... 