Newt Gingrich's big win in the South Carolina primary this Saturday has me perplexed. What happened to the rigid moralists in the Bible Belt? I used to be able to count on them to hold the scriptural line on morality. It was a line I thought was drawn in the wrong place, but a predictable, unmovable line nonetheless.I mean, I believe in forgiveness and being washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, but this quantity of forgiveness and let-bygones-be-bygones has not been seen since a very bad Friday on Golgotha hill.
Newt, the serial philanderer, and a Catholic, no less! Folks, where are your standards?
The best I can figure is that anti-Romney votes were really anti-vulture capitalist votes. Mitt is still the darling of the 1%, while fellow millionaire and man of the people Gingrich captured a higher percentage of the middle class vote. It's the Republican version of the Occupy movement -- support whoever is running against the mega-millionaire, even if he is also wealthy, morally bankrupt and an opportunist.
Or maybe they are anti-Mormon votes? In the Bible Belt universe, born-agains are the true Church, with Catholics considered honorary Christians at best. Mormons, with their treasure-finding, wife-stealing founder, are hardly on the radar as Christians at all.
Which makes me wonder why wan, super-Catholic Rick Santorum didn't pull more than his 17% of the vote. Maybe if you're going to vote for a Catholic, vote for the guy who can stick it to the media.
At this rate, it's going to be a long strange primary season!
Why is quantity of forgiveness a bad thing? Wouldn't Jesus scoff at the idea that there is a quantifiable limit to how much forgiveness God gives, even to the most lamentable sins?
ReplyDeleteIs it worse that people have forgiven him, or worse that they don't see he's a bad person? What makes him a bad person, in jesus' eyes, more than the rest of us, who rack up minor, apolitical sins on a daily basis?
I don't think there's anything wrong with forgiving a lot. We're supposed to forgive over and over.
ReplyDeleteBut when there is one standard of forgiveness for one's friends and another for one's enemies, I wonder what else is going on.
These same SC voters never forgave Clinton for his affair. But Newt, their champion, is forgiven without even showing a sign of repentance or regret.