The Dishonest God and the Dark Christianity of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay, et al

by Lonna Gooden VanHorn

George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Tom DeLay all profess their Christianity.  If that means they believe in God and Jesus Christ, I am sure they are Christians. 

I do not have the right to judge whether these men are Christians or not, but I can comment on how I see what most people regard as Christian principles reflected in their policies and actions and the policies and actions of the Pentagon and other agencies they use to advance their agenda.

Christ said “Build up no treasures here on earth,” but if there is one element that is the linchpin of this administration it is greed.  Building up treasures here on earth is what they are all about.  Their greed and lust for both riches and power knows no bounds.  Some of the riches the opportunists in this administration seek to steal are ones God gave to the people of other countries.  Like the oil God gave to the people of Iraq. 

This administration seeks to secure all of the earths resources for America and American companies.  It gives lip service to developing renewable sources of energy, but in actuality its policies discourage such development because such sources would cut down on profits for oil companies.  And profits for oil companies and other corporate contributors to Republican coffers are the highest priority to the corporate cats who make up this administration.  Cheney has been a bagman for Halliburton since the administration of the president’s father.  We know the Pentagon has plans on how to deal with potential future oil and water shortages as well as with what might happen because of global warming.  Their plans have to do with securing resources through military force. 

Jesus was big on sharing.  Remember the feeding of the 5000?  Remember Paul’s letters?  But this administration does not see America as part of a world community dependant on one another for survival.  Bush’s choice as ambassador to the U.N. is a man who has confessed to hating and having no use for the U.N.

Jesus hated greed.  One of the few times He reacted in anger to anything was when he drove the money-changers from the temple.  Under the guise of supporting their religion, they were enriching themselves.  Kind of like what is going on now.  The Republican right is invoking the name of God to raise money to further their militant “Christian” agenda.  They forget that God is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution, and they are doing everything they can to marry their particular brand of Christianity to the state.

On the eve of the Iraq invasion in a televised speech aimed at the Iraqi people, Bush did not tell the Iraqi people not to attack our soldiers or even to keep themselves safe.  What he did tell them was to not sabotage the oil!   In the initial invasion of Iraq, our soldiers did not guard the museums, schools or hospitals, the only building they guarded was the oil ministry.   Priceless artifacts, some of them priceless religious artifacts, are now gone forever.  Were such priorities of protection Christian? 

After the 9/11 attacks, Bush told the nation to “go shopping.”  Materialism, which is perhaps, more responsible than anything else for the blight on the soul of America and the misery of many of its people is how Bush wanted Americans to demonstrate our support for the country. 

Right-wing Republicans engage in a sort of “success theology.”  If you are rich you deserve to be, and if you are poor, you deserve to be.  And, if you make a lot of money, it is yours.  You should not have to pay taxes on it.  George Bush's primary goal since becoming president was in cutting taxes for the wealthy, even during war time.  He, apparently believes the government can somehow operate without being funded.  Molly Ivins offers a great take on this:

“Okay, we cut taxes for the rich and so we have to cut services for the poor.  Presumably there is some right-wing justification along the lines that helping poor people just makes them more dependent or something.  Welfare, Medicare, Social Security, food stamps -- horrors, they breed dependency. Whereas inheriting millions of dollars and having your whole life handed to you on a platter is good for the grit in your immortal soul?”

The Bush  family fortune was accumulated in ways in which Jesus would never have engaged in and never have approved.  This generation of Bush's especially  got rich while their investors and we taxpayers took the hit.  That happened for George W. Bush under Harken, and Jeb and Neil in failed savings and loan dealings.  Compare their ethics to those of Harry Truman.  He, too, went broke in business, but he worked and he paid off every one of his creditors.  The genesis of some of the Bush family fortune came from bankrolling Hitler.  And Bush, Sr. has enriched the family coffers by the Carlyle Group’s war profiteering made possible through the presidency of his son.  The entire Bush family seems to believe “government” is an entity to be used for self-enrichment.  They are now using the military for that purpose as well. 

People in Jesus' day griped about taxes, but he said "Render onto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."  Hitler kept the German middle class happy by not burdening them with high taxes.  He stole the funding for his war from other countries and foreign people.

Most good Christians have very developed consciences.  Most could not cheat on their taxes, or get rich by making other people poor.  Nor would they seek to make money through manufacturing or selling weapons of death.  But, Bush’s God is okay with cheating and killing.  He would even “okay” cheating to win an election if that is what it takes.  And it did.  Twice.

General Jerry Boykin said that the fact that Bush did not win the 2000 election, but became president anyway proves that God wanted him to be president.  But, if the God I believe in really wanted to influence the election, it seems to me He would take the more honest and certainly less divisive route of nudging enough more Republicans than Democrats to go vote on election day so that Bush would have won the 2000 election honestly and saved the divisiveness of the recount.   He would not cheat.

Good Christians take responsibility for their actions.  They do not shift the blame to others when things they are responsible for go wrong.  When have the people of this administration ever taken responsibility for anything?  They lied about who the tax cuts would benefit.  They ignore the disastrous effects of those tax cuts and seek to intensify those effects by making the tax cuts permanent.  They failed to heed warnings and to take actions that might have prevented the tragedy of 9/11.  They deliberately crafted misinformation that took us to war.  They downplayed and did not take responsibility for the abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.  And on and on.

One question I have for Bush’s supporters who believe that Bush is “God’s” president and Bush has a special pipeline to God.   If Bush and God are so tight, why did God not nudge him to pay attention to the terrorist warnings?  Why did He not tell him the tax cuts would be a disaster?  Why did He not make him aware of what was going on at Abu Ghraib early on?  Why did God fail Bush in every way (or Bush fail God)? And, is it likely God is in favor of the constant bombing and destruction of His earth and the poisoning of His air, land and water for billions of years which the current war is achieving?

Additionally this administration’s policies are allowing their campaign contributors to pollute the earth God said we were to be stewards of in other ways.  The people and corporations who participated in Dick Cheney’s energy task force are still a secret.  If something is honest, it does not have to be kept secret.  Ditto with the 28 redacted pages of the Congressional report on 9/11.  Bush signed an executive order that guarantees American oil companies operating in Iraq cannot be sued for anything.  Pollution, human rights abuses – anything.

The Bible says “Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker,” yet Bush’s emphasis is on policies which help those who need no help at all.  The Bible says “From whom much is given, much is expected.”   That does not mean only money, but it almost certainly includes wealth.  Jesus also said “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”  I guess Bush, DeLay, et al are confident  they are the exceptions to that maxim.

George Bush and Tom DeLay, (except around election time when they believe throwing borrowed money at a problem might buy them needed votes -- hurricane victims’ votes, for instance), seem to almost gleefully cut and eliminate programs that will help those who need help in order to give more to those who already have too much.  They sought to cut benefits for soldiers and veterans in the fall of 2003 although Congress prevented them from doing so, and spending for veterans actually increased, but not enough to keep up with demand.  A $900 billion cut was included in the 2006 budget.

Jesus was big on sacrificing for others.  Bush, Cheney, DeLay believe others should sacrifice for them.  In fact, they demand it.

Christ said “Do good to those that hate you,” That is not just “pie in the sky idealism,”  It is also practical advice.  Doing good to those that hate you may not rid you of all your enemies, but killing and humiliating your enemies makes enemies of all who knew them, and you end up with many more enemies.  That is being proven, now, in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.  Billions more people world-wide hate us because of Bush’s arrogance and belligerence, and because of Abu Ghraib.  How can making billions more people world-wide hate us – some of them enough to sacrifice their own lives in taking Americans out, make us more safe??   As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Violence is a descending spiral.”

“Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.”  But, this administration practices vengeance, and not just against its enemies.  The people of Iraq and Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11.  I wish someone would have told Bush et al two years ago that Eisenhower had said he ‘did not believe there was any such thing as a preventative war, and he wouldn’t listen seriously to anyone who came and talked to him about it.’  Or that he also said ‘there is no such thing as absolute security, but we can bankrupt ourselves both morally and financially in the vain attempt to find it.’

Tom DeLay threatens judges who do not see things his way.  Apparently, the God of the Christian right is powerless.  Right wing Christians must not believe God can perform miracles.  God had 15 years to perform a miracle for Terry Schiavo.  And could have up until the time she died.  He did not choose to do so.  They also do not believe if God wants an unhappily pregnant woman to give birth to a child, he can change her heart so that her heart will not allow her to go through with an abortion.   This happens frequently, and it is what the anti-abortionists should pray for.  Do they really believe that if God really wants a particular fetus to become a living child born to the mother who is carrying it, it won’t happen?? But, they try to take the power out of the hands of God and put it in their own hands by threatening judges and blowing up abortion clinics.

Jesus was big on forgiveness.  Which is nowhere to be found among this bunch.  He does not appear to have been hung up on sex.  The Christian right and their ridiculous “abstinence only” sex education policies have been proven to be counter-productive.  People do not know, or perhaps choose to forget that in Biblical times boys and girls were married off shortly after they reached puberty – often in their very early teens.  The Jewish fathers did this because they were smart enough to know how strong the sex drive is.  And, as far as our “holy” forefathers go, many of them were Diests.  Ben Franklin never married the mother of his son.  That son also had an illegitimate son.  Alexander Hamilton was illegitimate.  Abraham Lincoln’s mother probably was.  The slave owners took black concubines almost as a matter of course.  In colonial America, preachers who made it to wilderness settlements every year or so to perform marriages and baptisms often married the parents and baptized their children at the same time.  Half of the people they married had already given birth to children out of wedlock, or the “bride” was pregnant at the time.  In the “good old days” very few females retained their virginity past their mid teens.  They were married off.  They had no right to a life outside of marriage.  To expect kids now to abstain ‘til they marry, which with educational and career pressures, many do not do until their mid thirties, is not realistic.  And, many of the people who advocate abstinence did not practice it themselves, nor do they require their children to practice it. Hypocrisy.  Jesus really hated hypocrisy.

Jesus forgave the woman who committed adultery and chastised her accusers.  He hated self-righteousness as much as he hated hypocrisy.  The self-righteous and the hypocrites were the only people He ever really railed against.  He hung out with outcasts.  I am convinced if Jesus were around today, He would deliberately include in his circle at least one disciple who was gay.  Homosexuality exists in nature.  Recently zookeepers tried to interest some homosexual birds in “sexy” females by importing female birds from Sweden.  The male birds paid no attention to them and kept their male partners.  It is my opinion that Jesus would support providing homosexuals with the dignity of blessing their committed relationships.  I believe He was big on fostering the dignity and self-worth of the individual.  However, I believe he would look on “selfish” sex – sex solely for self-gratification with no thought of the needs or well-being of the other individual -- in or out of marriage or committed relationships as a sin.

And Jesus did not think having a good time was a bad thing.  I believe He celebrated life.  His first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding feast.  He overruled Old Testament teachings many times – the woman caught in adultery, doing work on the Sabbath, etc. He lived his compassion. 

 What astounds me most, perhaps, about the ring wing nuts in charge now – particularly Bush, and the utterly vile and dishonest Cheney – is just that.  Their dishonesty.  I have always thought that God prizes honesty and truth-telling. Do they think He does not know or care that they are lying?? What have these people ever told the truth about?  They sought out intelligence that would make the people support war with Iraq.  Not the best or most accurate intelligence, but the intelligence they could best use to accomplish their goal, which was always war with Iraq, in order to advance their goal of control of the Middle East and their mad fear and greed driven dreams of empire.  They deliberately interspersed the word “terrorist” in close association with the name “Saddam Hussein” because they knew that if people believed Iraq were involved in 9/11, they would be more willing to support the war.  It worked.  Most Bush supporters still believe Hussein had a part in 9/11 and had weapons of mass destruction.  They lied and misled us into the evil of war.  The people in the administration were deliberately deceptive about who the tax cuts would benefit, just as they are now being deliberately deceptive about the seriousness of the problems with Social Security. 

The Bush administration simply does not care about the lies they tell.  And the lies that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, have told that have hurt the people of this country and the world would fill volumes.  If they don’t like what a report has to say about the effects of their policies, they change the wording of it.  Or they simply stop releasing the reports.  They fire people or threaten to fire people for telling or trying to tell the truth, as they did with the accountant who wanted to tell the truth about the cost of their prescription drug plan, or the forest ranger who said the national parks were in terrible shape because of budget cuts.  They seek to destroy people who question or criticize their methods -- Paul O’Neil, Joe Wilson, Richard Clark -- or people who are even simply less than gung ho about their ideas (Colin Powell).  Bush brags about a program knowing full well he is going to cut funding for it.  He says he is going to fund another  program, but the money never materializes.   The number of people who have left this administration and condemned its policies is unprecedented. 

A Methodist minister wrote me that the name for Satan in the Bible is the deceiver.  I cannot think of anything this administration does more constantly and consistently than deceive.  Its modus operandi is deceit.  And the deceit is very carefully orchestrated. 

More than anything else their constant deceit about important things is why I give no credence to their also constant self-proclaimed Christianity.  Hitler, too, spoke often about being directed by God.  The people of Germany bought his rhetoric, just as too many Americans, now, buy Bush/DeLay’s rhethoric.   What evil leader has not donned the cloak of righteousness and claimed to be good?  Remember David Koresch and Jim Jones?  The Ku Klux Klan were “God’s” avenging angels as well.  Jesus basically said to pray in a closet.  Your faith and your relationship with God is a private matter.  It certainly is not to be used in an effort to gain political capital. 

Christ said, ‘Blessed are the meek, the peacemakers, etc.’

Meek?? who among the right wingers ever demonstrates any meekness or humility??

The Bible says not to bear false witness.  The people of this administration consistently and systematically misrepresent John Kerry’s positions and stands on virtually every issue.   FAIR has documented the differences in that regard in the 2004 presidential campaign.  The Washington Post and New York Times wrote articles about it.  A former Methodist bishop called their campaign “blasphemous.”  They also attacked and slandered anyone who spoke out against them.  In the case of Valerie Plame, they may have committed treason to “punish” her husband for simply telling a truth they did not want people to be aware of.

In his 2005 State of the Union address, Bush basically said that it was his goal and America’s mission to spread Christianity throughout the world by force.  The God I believe in would not try to win converts through force. He would expect people to come to Christianity because they would come to the belief that Christianity is the best religion based on the good examples of living by the Christians in their midst.  The sad fact is that the war with Iraq has marginalized the 800,000 Christians who coexisted with Muslims in that country under Saddam Hussein.  They and their churches are now targets of violence, and many of those who can are leaving Iraq.  As are leaders in all fields – the people Iraq needs most.  Doctors, engineers etc.  Iraq is now so lawless that kidnapping of the elite and their children is rampant. 

And Jesus said “Be not afraid.”  When has any American administration sought to keep its people so frightened??

This administration’s focus is on keeping the people afraid. Like Hitler they know fear and “terror” are a great way to keep people under control.  Especially if you are intent on doing something the people would not approve of if they were not too afraid of an “enemy” to think for themselves.

Unfortunately, war and violence is much more profitable to some than seeking to solve problems using diplomacy.  And, none of those who pushed this war or their children are among those in harm’s way

I said at the beginning of this essay that I cannot judge whether Bush, Cheney, DeLay, et al are Christians. Kierkgard said that being a Christian is not something we are, it is something we are always in the process of becoming.  If these men are Christians, it appears to me from their priorities that they are not very far along on the path Kierkgard was talking about.

As a bishop  (Democrat – yes, Virginia, not all Christians are either right-wing Republicans or fundamentalists) who is an acquaintance of mine has reminded me, we are told we must pray for both our leaders and our enemies.  Not being as good a person as he is, I sometimes have a problem deciding who is which.

Bio:  Lonna Gooden VanHorn, mother of 6 and a grandmother has become an activist and troublemaker in her old age.  Raised on a small farm in Minnesota, she now lives in New Mexico with her husband, a veteran who served 18 months in Vietnam.

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