Too many politicians try to justify awful political positions by pretending that God wills what they find preferable. Throughout history, things like slavery, racism, and the oppression of women have been justified by reference to tradition and scripture. Sadly, few politicians have seemed to learn from the errors of the past.

Jack Hitt hands out “The Jimmy Swaggart Award for God Abuse” for 2005, and some of the nominees were:

Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) appeared at a prayer breakfast just after the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 240,000 people. DeLay read a passage from Matthew about a nonbeliever: “…a fool who built his house on sand: The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew, and buffeted the house, and it collapsed and was completely ruined.” Then, without comment, he righteously sat down.

Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) sponsored the Constitution Restoration Act of 2005, which mandates the “acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government”—i.e, the Bible could trump even the Supreme Court, which according to some observers, could allow judges to impose biblical sentences such as the stoning of homosexuals instead of common-law sentences.

Ultimately, the award when to Rep. Richard Baker (R-La.) who said, in the aftermath of the destruction of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina, that “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.” That’s pretty awful, but it was a close contest.

 

Read More:

• Religious Right
• Religious Right News
• Christian Privilege
• Christian Supremacy