Faith, Hope and War

Right now I am sitting at my computer slowly bobbing my head back and forth barely awake enough to compose a few meaningful sentences. However, after each miniscule snooze I am awoken to a few good thoughts…or at least a few relatively coherent thoughts. In this almost dream like state, my thoughts are only concerned with my neglected homework, the fate of the Boston Red Sox and the many titles of books I’ve seen the past two days during my trips to various bookstores.

I could write about my homework, but it would make more sense to do it. I could write about the Red Sox, but then I’d be using too many curse words in reference to the NY Yankees. But heck, at least the Sox won tonight. Now when it comes to the book titles, a few of them getting me very heated. Those books are the ones that emphasis the faith of President GW Bush.

I cannot and will not ever judge someone else’s faith because I can never know what lies in someone’s heart. Along with this, I really do not believe it is anyone else’s job to judge the faith of others. However, I think when a candidate for public office uses their faith in order to get people to vote for them, I think that their actions (not their faith) are fair game for discussion. President Bush in particular even talked about his acting on faith during the last debate. First, I’ve said it once and I’ve said it a thousand times on this blog, Jesus told us that the most important commandments are to love God with all our hearts, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Now, it is my understanding that as a Christian one is supposed to follow Christ first by following His actions and His words. Second, it is also my understanding that love is unconditional and is not to be applied on the basis of another’s ethnicity, religion, sex, etc. Third, when Jesus talks about neighbors He did not just mean Mr. and Mrs. Schmelter next door, He actually meant our neighbors in the human race. Now assuming these three beliefs are correct, I can see that GW Bush has not followed these commandments as President (or Governor) for that matter. As Governor of Texas he put to death dozens of criminals. If you love the criminal as yourself, do you put them to death? As President GW Bush (or his campaign, which he would be in charge of) has attacked both Sen. John McCain and for Sen. Max Cleland (both wounded in Vietnam, a war which Bush did not fight in) for their Patriotism. Is this loving your neighbor?

John Kerry is not a savior. But he has not told the American people that he loves his neighbors as himself, when he obviously has not done so.