Rick Santorum is apparently a Christian.
Yes, the sort of Christian that thinks God gives gifts to women through the medium of rape. That kind of God. The sort of God that hates gays so much but seems to have made them a part of his creation. A bit odd that God. A God of Hate, not a God of Love.
I never quite understand how someone like Rick Santorum can call themselves a Christian when they clearly skipped all the bits about love and peace. The Beatitudes for example. Or that bit about throwing the first stone. Perhaps Rick thinks he is without sin so can chuck stones about to his bitter little heart's content. Don't worry your little head about the pain the stones might cause Rick.
The amusing thing about these Republican primaries is watching what amounts to a panel of arch-hypocrites trying to out God each other in a country where Church and State are expressly supposed to remain seperate. So you get evangelicals voting for serial adulter Newt Gingrich even though Jesus clearly doesn't like adultery. In fact he says much more about adultery in the New Testament than he does about most of the other subjects that tend to arose the ire of the Christian fundamentalists. There's nothing on homosexuality from Jesus. Not a word. He seems to have over-looked how important that issues was going to become a bit further down the line, which was a bit crass of him. But he's got a lot to say about divorce. Perhaps they are being forgiving. After all who can't forgive a chap who dumps his first wife whilst she's being treated for cancer. That's the kind of integrity that makes for great Presidential material apparently.
I've been working my way through the Bible - slowly but surely - as an exercise. I wanted to get an idea of what it actually contained as opposed to what I could vaguely remember from school or what I was told was in it. What I've realised is that you can take from the Bible whatever you wish to suit your politics. If you like a hateful God like Rick Santorum there's a lot you can pick to support whatever prejudices you might be pimping in the name of electoral support. The Old Testament is full of that kind of material, although there's some stuff in there about the Ezekiel about profit that seems to get over-looked by the right when talking about 'God's Will'.
Indeed it is why you can make a case for Jesus as a proto-Communist. After all he's not big on the whole money thing is he? Give it up and follow him seems to be a common thread. As is all that stuff about how hard it is for a rich man to get into heaven and that the rich get their reward on Earth so are likely to find heaven less welcoming than they might think. Remember folks, don't store your treasures on earth, store yourself for treasures in heaven. Then there's that quite strong admonishen about not being able to serve God and Money. But let's ignore all of that a round up Jesus for a celebration of the wealthy and the privaleged. I'm sure he'd be proud as punch.
It is the poor, the sinners and the wretched that Jesus reached out to. It is that Jesus I like, even though I'm aware that this suits my pre-existing beliefs about life. I'm not a hypocrite - well, not in this instance anyway - I know how I'm ignoring the stuff I don't like.
So I say unto you "If there is a God I hope he isn't Rick Santorum's God."
But Rick doesn't care about any of those little inconsistencies. He's a 13th century throwback, who would feel comfortable sitting in as a member of the Inquisition. He think he knows the mind of God, when all he knows is the little mind of a delusional man who has already been rejected by the voters of Pennsylvania because of his ridiculous views.
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