Attacks fulfill prophecy
Published November 9, 2005

I have often taken umbrage to the vituperative attacks of the left on the extreme conservative Christian right wing. This week, however, I had to smile wryly because it dawned upon me that, despite their best efforts to denigrate us and our God, these people are simply fulfilling a prophecy that Jesus made in His Sermon on the Mount.

It is from this sermon that we get the divine instruction that has become a catch phrase in our generation: Turn the other cheek. What most people don't realize is that this order comes immediately after Jesus said, and I paraphrase,

Don't be surprised if the world hates you, because it hated me first. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. If someone hits you, turn the other cheek.

So, when we are hated and abused and people seek to disabuse us of our constitutional rights to freedom of religion or speech, they are only doing what God said they would do.

Yet on many issues, we aren't that far apart:

1. We don't believe in torturing prisoners or committing murder. Humans are made in the image of God, and the Bible indicates that we should respect that image. Of course, that also means that we don't believe in snuffing out the lives of unborn children. So, on that we differ.

2. We don't believe in being cruel to animals. The Scripture tells us that it is an evil man who is cruel to his animals. We don't even believe in abusing the environment. As an avid hunter and outdoorsman, I can assure you that it disturbs me greatly to see our trees in greater Williamsburg being cut down just to build more overpriced houses for the wealthy. Where will the deer and the turkeys go? How will this clear-cutting affect runoff into our lakes and streams?

3. We don't believe in charging exorbitant interest. Hebrew law makes it clear that usury is wrong.

4. We don't believe in getting rich on the backs of the poor:

These are not left wing or Democratic ideals. They are Judeo-Christian principles, though too many Christians neglect to follow them.

On a political note, it was Republicans, not Democrats, who listened to the likes of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. and passed the laws regarding affirmative action and equal opportunity for racial minorities. It is we who want the poor and minorities to be educated and to succeed in life, rather than living in the squalor afforded by meager welfare checks.

Yes, we believe in giving tax breaks to the wealthy, but only so they can afford to reinvest in the economy by forming more businesses and offering more jobs to the poor, thus providing more opportunity for self-betterment.

We got the idea from John F. Kennedy, the Democrats' finest president. It's neither voodoo economics nor Reaganomics. It's Kennedy economics. The tax base increased and, consequently, so did the revenue gathered by the IRS. It's free enterprise. It worked then, and it will work now.

So, slow down and think. Take time to get to know us.

We extreme right wing conservative Christians are not scary, and neither are our beliefs. We are all about love, compassion, fairness, and taking care of the poor.

And even if you continue to verbally abuse us, we will only pray for you and vote more, which in some way makes all the vilification of our ilk rather ironic, doesn't it?
Geoff McKenzie