Jerry Falwell achieved one of the demagogical milestones in American political history during the 1984 presidential race when he solemnly proclaimed that the Republican ticket of Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush had been selected by God to lead the nation. Democrats and other comparably appalled citizens expressed outrage at Falwell for in effect declaring, "God is a Republican".
Falwell was back busily at work again this week, declaring before a convention of the "godly faithful" that Hillary Clinton, should she be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, would serve as an even greater lightning rod to mobilize his constituency than the Devil.
Even some of the religious right saw potential problems stemming from such a tasteless and absurd remark. They engaged in instant spin control, insisting that the right reverend from Virginia was only kidding and his remark was not to be taken seriously.
Whenever it appears that the Republican religious right's bigotry brigade has reached its low level watermark, a demagogue of the moment leaps forward with blinding purported spiritual impetus to enhance momentum.
This time the spark came from James Dobson. Perhaps Dobson decided that the 1984 maxim of "God is a Republican" needed to be extended in a climate when presumed heathens have reached such an alarming and appalling level that George W. Bush is polling, even under the rosiest current scenario, no better than the low forties in public presidential support.
Dobson was initially exorcised by Hugo Chavez's reference to Bush as "The Devil" and that denunciations of the Venezuelan president's comment on the part of America's political figures had not been vigorous enough. In the constant spirit of the religious right, Dobson then quickly moved on to his next sermon for America.
It appears that not only has James Dobson been examining current polls on the upcoming November mid-term elections; he has fearfully anticipated what the bleakly unacceptable prospect that the Republican Party could lose control of Congress. In addition to stating how horrendous a result that would be, Dobson issued a somber warning.
Nobody speaks for God with the level of confident authority than spokespersons of the religious right. Dobson decided it was time to establish a warning to serve as a test of faith for true believers.
Dobson warned that, when presented with the opportunity to vote for a good Christian, failure to exercise that opportunity might well be a manifestation of sin. So Dobson joined forces with Falwell in presenting a two-tiered message of 1) God is a Republican, and 2) Failure to vote for God fearing Republican Christians is risking the wrath of the Almighty.
Since failing to vote for appropriate Republican Christians appearing on ballots throughout America risks the wrath of God in Dobson's view, the obvious question is: How godly has the conduct of the Republican Congress been?
For those of us who have been learning about the antics and sometimes imprisonment of the likes of Duke Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, Adam Kidan, John Boehner, and Tom DeLay, along with their sundry activities within the shadowy world of lobbying and, in the cases of Abramoff and Kidan, possible involvement in a murder scenario involving South Florida businessman Gus Boulis, the question is one of whether a Congress with a majority party pursuing a "let's make a deal" mentality lies within the letter and spirit of godly Christian conduct.
For those who have read and absorbed the message of the New Testament, the shadowy activities of the special interest dominated Republican congressional majority harkens back to memories of an angry Jesus Christ tossing out the moneychangers in the Temple.
To read the pompous pronouncements of James Dobson and his ilk the question that arises is whether they have read the New Testament at all, or if they seek to skirt around it as they ally themselves to the fire-breathing figure of vengeance of the Old Testament, Jehovah at his most destructive.
While the messages of principles attributed to Jesus Christ in the New Testament involve acts of charity and ministering to the sick and the poor, hardly staples of the current Republican congressional majority, figures such as Dobson and Falwell instead harken the fires of Armageddon and conflagration, hungering for acts of aggression in the Middle East.
We attack Iraq as part of God's unfolding mission. We prepare for more of the same in Iran and other points of interest pinpointed in direct order of importance by neoconservative leadership figures such as Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Perle, Krauthammer, and Kristol.
What we have are materialistic and predatory greed mongers creating God in their blasphemous image. It is a frightening image indeed. In a government merging Church and State would the religious right reinstitute punishments for "non-believers" such as the rack and the thumbscrew? Could the next Inquisition be close at hand?