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George Bush is
Immoral
In addition to being a liar whose entire life
is a lie, George Bush is an immoral hypocrite.
Bush claims to be a "born again" Christian.
He campaigned -- at least the first time -- on
"compassionate conservatism" and he pumped for
more federal assistance to faith-based
organizations. He peppers his speeches with
Biblical quotations and references. He
claimed in one of the Presidential debates -- when
asked if he consulted his father about invading
Iraq -- that he consulted with a "higher father"
(meaning God) and he replied to another question
that Jesus was his favorite philosopher.
People should be judged by the standards they
set for themselves. Let's do this for George
Bush. He claims to be a Christian.
Let's judge him by the standards of Jesus.
He fails.
This section of the RightWingLies website
chronicles the immorality of George Bush and his
regime. In this section, I will relate the
teachings of Jesus and the Christian Bible to the
reality of Bush's regime, and, I will post
articles that do a better job then I of describing
how totally and fundamentally immoral the Bush
regime is.
But first, some background -- a lot of
background. Bush claims to be a Christian, a
follower of Jesus who reflects Jesus' values.
Let's start with the values of Jesus.
Jesus' predecessors -- the Old Testament
prophets
In this section, I assume that you, the
reader, have at least a passing familiarity with
the Bible, with the Old and New Testaments, and
the books that make up the Bible. In the Old
Testament we find the books of the law, books of
history and books of prophecy -- let's focus on
the Old Testament prophets -- Ezra, Nehemiah, Job,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos,
Obidiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah,
Haggai, and Malachi.
Why start with the Old Testament (OT) prophets?
Because they are the predecessors of Jesus.
In His teaching career, Jesus referred constantly
to the OT prophets -- because of the elevated
place they held in Jewish culture, society, and
religion.
First we must understand that the OT
prophets WERE NOT soothsayers or fortune-tellers.
They WERE NOT old guys with long beards who sat on
mountaintops, or in caves, or under juniper trees
and told the future, predicted next years crops,
or gave odds on chariot races.
Instead, the OT prophets were some of the
earliest recorded political commentators.
That's right, political commentators.
When you read the OT prophets, you find that
they all had the same message:
- God chose the children of Abraham and his
son Jacob (later re-named Israel, hence
the name "Children of Israel").
- God brought us out of bondage in Egypt to
a Promised Land "flowing with milk and honey."
- In exchange for choosing us, God asks only
that we obey his commandments.
- We have drifted away from God's
commandments -- we are worshipping other gods,
we are marrying idolaters, we are engaging in
sexual promiscuity, and in general we are
ignoring God in spite of what He did for us.
- We must get back right with God.
- If we don't get back on God's path, he
will punish us and it won't be pretty.
Each of the OT prophets listed -- some in great
detail -- the sins of the Israelites, the ways in
which they had fallen away from God's laws.
But what is most instructive is the categories
of sins committed by the Israelites and condemned
by the OT prophets.
When you study the OT prophets, you find that
they condemned two types of sins:
- The things we normally considered as sins
-- drunkenness, idolatry, sexual misbehavior,
theft, murder, and the like.
- The second type of sin the OT prophets
condemn, however, is the sins committed by the
rulers and the rich and powerful in Israel --
and these are the sins of oppressing the poor,
the old, the children, the helpless.
- Furthermore, when you really read what the
OT prophets said, you find that they condemned
the second category of sins far more than the
first. Thus, because Christians believe
that the OT prophets spoke for God,
Christians must believe that the greatest sins
are not idolatry, sexual misbehavior, and the
like, but instead, the greatest sins are the
sins committed by the rich, the powerful, and
the rulers against the common people, the
poor, the old, the young, and the helpless.
Don't believe me? Read the OT prophets
for yourself.
So, what does Jesus say?
Which now brings us to what Jesus has to say
about the matter. Jesus is clear -- very,
very clear -- extraordinarily clear: The
greatest sins against God are the sins we commit
against our fellow man.
Jesus summed it up in this familiar passage
from Matthew 25:
31"When
the Son of Man comes in his glory, and
all the angels with him, he will sit
on his throne in heavenly glory.
32All the
nations will be gathered before him,
and he will separate the people one
from another as a shepherd separates
the sheep from the goats.
33He will
put the sheep on his right and the
goats on his left.
34"Then
the King will say to those on his
right, 'Come, you who are blessed by
my Father; take your inheritance, the
kingdom prepared for you since the
creation of the world.
35For I
was hungry and you gave me something
to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink, I was a stranger
and you invited me in,
36I
needed clothes and you clothed me, I
was sick and you looked after me, I
was in prison and you came to visit
me.'
37"Then
the righteous will answer him, 'Lord,
when did we see you hungry and feed
you, or thirsty and give you something
to drink? 38When
did we see you a stranger and invite
you in, or needing clothes and clothe
you? 39When
did we see you sick or in prison and
go to visit you?'
40"The
King will reply, 'I tell you the
truth, whatever you did for one of the
least of these brothers of mine, you
did for me.'
41"Then
he will say to those on his left,
'Depart from me, you who are cursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angels.
42For I
was hungry and you gave me nothing to
eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
nothing to drink,
43I was a
stranger and you did not invite me in,
I needed clothes and you did not
clothe me, I was sick and in prison
and you did not look after me.'
44"They
also will answer, 'Lord, when did we
see you hungry or thirsty or a
stranger or needing clothes or sick or
in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He
will reply, 'I tell you the truth,
whatever you did not do for one of the
least of these, you did not do for
me.'
Got that? "I
tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of
the least of these brothers of mine, you did for
me." Jesus makes no mistake about
the fundamentals of his teachings -- we will be
judged on how we treat the
"LEAST OF THESE BROTHERS OF MINE."
Jesus tells us here, without any
equivocation, that the "least" of mankind are his
brothers -- the poor, the elderly, the helpless,
the weak, the sick, the children.
And don't get the idea that this passage from
Matthew is an isolated raving of Jesus. This
passage is the essence, the central core of Jesus'
teachings.
Thus, we come to a
simple truth: If George Bush is a Christian
as he claims to be, we should examine how he
treats the "LEAST OF THESE BROTHERS OF (JESUS)."
He fails. Totally.
Need more proof? Read Matthew, chapter 5,
the "Sermon on the Mount" -- then ask yourself how
George Bush measures up to the Sermon on the
Mount.
Here are the opening verses:
1Now when
he saw the crowds, he went up on a
mountainside and sat down. His disciples
came to him, 2and
he began to teach them saying:
3"Blessed
are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed
are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed
are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7Blessed
are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed
are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9Blessed
are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed
are those who are persecuted because of
righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed
are you when people insult you, persecute
you and falsely say all kinds of evil
against you because of me.
12Rejoice and
be glad, because great is your reward in
heaven, for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets who were before
you.
. . .
A budget is a moral document
To document George Bush's moral failures, we
need only to look at the budgets he has submitted
to Congress since he took office.
A budget is a moral document. A budget is
a document of values. Show me where
you put your money, I'll tell you what your values
are. Show me a president's budget, I'll show
you his moral values.
Here's another little gem from the mouth of
Jesus, recorded in Luke 11:11 :
11"Which
of you fathers, if your son asks for a
fish, will give him a snake instead?"
(Some versions read
11"Which of
you fathers, if your son asks for bread,
will give him a stone instead?")
1
George Bush's budgets have given stones to
the people who need bread. He disregards
the teaching of Jesus.
We need, today, an Old Testament prophet,
standing across the street from the White House,
calling on George Bush to repent of his sins of
oppression, of favoring the rich and powerful over
the brothers of Jesus. We need a present-day
Micah who will say to George Bush:
8 He has showed you, O man, what is
good.
And what does the LORD require of
you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
-- Micah 6:8
George Bush needs to hear the words of the Old
Testament prophet Amos, who cried:
24 But
let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing
stream!
-- Amos 5:24
And there you have it, folks, the fundamental
explanation of why George Bush is an immoral head
of an immoral regime. He claims to be a
Christian. He needs to act like it.
Further reading
The following chart contains links to articles
posted on this site, clipped from other sites,
that discuss and describe further the immorality
of George Bush and his regime.
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