During the Civil War, Union and Confederate generals would each insist God was on their side. Eventually, Abraham Lincoln was drawn into this controversy, and finally told a commander, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”Now Lehigh County Exec candidate Scott Ott is playing the God card in his challenge against incumbent Don Cunningham. Ott claims God is on his side. After all, he's a preacher. He's sending Epistles to churches all over the Lehigh Valley, claiming "Cunningham Attacks Lehigh County Churches."
The Word of Scott must have made its way to Lehigh Valley Christian High School, a charitable nonprofit. School Director Bob Brennan, in a November 1 Newsletter, has these admonitions for his flock.
"Tuesday is a significant day is a few other ways as well. First, it is the first Tuesday of the month, which means that we will be having our Mens Prayer Meeting at 7 a.m. here at the school. We will meet up by the Media Center.
"Tuesday is also Election Day. Even though it is an off year, there are some very important local elections happening. I urge every one of you to get out and vote, particularly those of you in Lehigh County who can affect the outcome of the race for County Executive, where there is the potential for a very godly man to replace the incumbent and make a real difference in our county! VOTE!"
Clearly, this tax exempt nonprofit is promoting Ott's candidacy. I decided to call Brennan.
"Are you a nonprofit?"
"Why yes, we are."
"Can you tell me why you're promoting a specific candidate?"
"I did not name anyone. I 'm just asking people to vote."
"No, you're specifically telling people to vote for a "very godly man to replace the incumbent." How much more clear can you get?"
Pause
"You're right. Looks like I made a mistake."
That's alright. I'm sure Cunningham will understand and forgive, but he's not Godly.
20 comments:
Way to be Bernie.
I remember when you did all your expose' work on Obama's pseudo-non-profit-religious supporters.
Beware the self-righteous wrath of the indignant religious right. Nothing like a good "tell 'em who to vote for," from the pulpit.
If this had been one of the Black churches and Obama, they would have been lambasted.
Double no-no. A religious institution and a school.
All this theocratic religiosity is ridiculous. Case in point: All Catholics are going to hell because they worship statues and the the Pope, a former Nazi. Protestants are going to hell because they don't follow the True Church established by St. Paul and are responsible for the Holocaust and both World Wars. Jews are going to hell for not believing in Jesus, as are atheists. People not Jewish or Christian? They are screwed from their first step because they are different from us. Shell fish eaters, gays, people who wear mixed fabric like polyester, people who don't free Jewish slaves after ten years of service, people who use birth control, get divorced, or men who cut their hair around their ears or have relations with menstruating women or work on Sabbath or plant two crops in one field are all going to hell because of Leviticus -so that takes care of the stragglers. There's no one left. So if we're all going to burn together, let's make sure taxes are low as possible until that fateful day.
Hey, at least we'll have fun. I'd hate being cooped up w/ someone who is so focused on being Godly.
Executive, where there is the potential for a very godly man to replace the incumbent and make a real difference in our county! VOTE!"
Man! You just can't make this stuff up! this is straight out of the Karl Rove playbook, Good Vs. Evil!
Don Cunningham is the anti-christ? right here in the Lehigh Valley?
Amen.
How about those rally caps! Put them on... and cheer for the Phils and J.C. Kelleher! They both can pull it out. Dark horse or long shot, doesn't matter anymore. Go Phils!
And God bless Charles Dertinger!
Peace, ~~Alex
I finally got out of the hospital. The lumps on my head are pretty bad and ugly. They said that I might have suffered some memory loss, but I am not sure. I can't remember. Oh yeah, anyway, they fluid has lessened and my lack of balance and my weary feet have seem to have gone away. But the temperature from the infection has not gone away or down. I am still dehydrated and a little woozy. But hey, at least these blog postings are making more sense. Anyway, I am praying for a bloodless, violentnessless, and fleckless outcome for election day. If I can pick the fleck out of my brother's eye while, still having a plank in my own eye; image what a person can do without any flecks in either of their eyes?
Peace, ~~Alex
You're right, Alex, time to turn your Phillie hat inside out.
(btw - hospitals suck, glad you escaped)
Historically, a huge mountain to climb, down 3-1, but not impossible or unprecedented.
Pittsburgh Pirates came back in 1979 to beat the Baltimore Orioles. I will always remember that with Willie Stargell and the boys (such as Kent Tekulve, who came to Philllies later in his career).
Phillies bats need to get back to life. Pitching, as predicted, can't be trusted. Most important, the one-game-at-a-time mentality.
Downtown Allentown Hamilton Street was awash with NY Yankees hats I noticed at 4 pm today.
I always thought that was a riot studying the Civil War.
BOTH sides said all day long God was on their side.
"If this had been one of the Black churches and Obama, they would have been lambasted."
Funniest comment in a long time.
Bernie,
I have been out all day but it seems to me that one “mistake” was made by the Cunningham campaign and the other was made by an acquaintance of Scott Ott, not his campaign.
I see nothing wrong with Scott Ott communicating to his religious contacts with news of his campaign or of Don’s IRS letter. This is normal communication. In this country one may discuss politics with fellow religious. The one person, the school director who crossed the line and used his religious position to endorse Scott has admitted his mistake and apologized. Have we seen any such contrition from the Cunningham Campaign for their IRS action? Of course not and we won’t.
This again serves to demonstrate the difference between the decency of Scott and his associates and the moral corruption og the Cunningham Campaign.
Scott Armstrong
One mention of religion and the left comes unhinged. It's like teasing a little kid. God! Boo! Hahahaha. Happy All Souls Day lefties! Booooo!
Silly me. There's nothing wrong with a religious nonprofit telling their flock how to cast their votes. I hguess all those complaints about Life Church and Pawlowski must be bullshit, too.
I don't think there is anything wrong for a man to be a believer like Scott.
In todays vile culture Scott should be proud of his faith in God.
Believers that insist on trying to use the church to win elections will never get my vote. I'm a church going man. I'm a deep believer in Christ as my Lord and Savior. But if there is one thing that too many politically inclined believers forget, it is that the Kingdom of God comes from God, not in the voting booth.
Those who tell us to vote for the Godly One are heritics in the eyes of the Lord. God doesn't need politicians to bring about the Kingdom of God.
Besides, last time I read the Gospel (which was last night), Jesus was condemning those with wealth and power, healing the sick, comforting the afflicted and changing the world through common good. He sounds strangly like...like... a liberal.
That's right. Jesus would have been a liberal. Look at what is considered the liberal wing of the Catholic Church, the JESUits.
Anon of 7:23 AM,
I like your point of view. You make some very valid points.
But one thing you wrote, distresses me:
"... God doesn't need politicians to bring about the Kingdom of God."
I have a problem with what you wrote. No matter if you are a priest, bishop, patriarch, or a lay person, I would still have a problem with what was written.
I have two points regarding this and they both deal with knowledge and mind of God. Actually, they are one point with two subsections.
How do you know what God does or does not need? Can you truly understand the mind of God, especially with our mere childish minds? Does anyone truly know God besides what he reveals to us?
God doesn't submit to our human standards or our philosophies. He is God and all encapsuling. St. Thomas Aquinas thought (and the Dominicans still hold this view) that he could demonstrate how many Angels can dance on the head of a pin. Actually he said an infinite amount. REALLY? And he knew that how? Did he gain that knowledge from some Divine Intervention? I realize that his philosophy said that his findings are reasonable but look at this:
When you try to explain a scientific phenomena to a small child, how do you explain it? Do you use big words and scientific terms? Or do you dumb down the language so that the small child would be somewhat able to understand?
If you think the latter, imagine what God has to do for us humans to understand his revelations? We still haven't conquered the Mystery of The Triune God, let alone how many more Mysteries of our Faith. (I am assuming you are Catholic - so forgive me if you are not.)
God chooses sinners to evangelize. If he chose a farmer, the farmer will sound like a farmer when he preachs. If God chose a fisherman, the fisherman would use the language of a fisherman when he evangelizes. If God chose a politican, I am not sure what the politican would sound like when he evangelizes. But I hope it would be good.
So in this long-winded demonstration is merely to illumine the question, as to why wouldn't God choose politicians to bring about the Kingdom of God? Do you know something that God doesn't know?
Peace, ~~Alex
A high school that teaches that science facts are false.
Better known as a place that teaches bullshit before reality!
Osama Bin Laden would love this High School, he too teaches hate, intolarence, and ignoring proving facts.
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