Attending does not make you God's mouthpiece for the world.

People are scared. For the millionth time, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and the like have said that Americans are scared right now. They’re scared that America is headed down the wrong path; that our leaders are so corrupt and evil and that America’s innocence is gone and our perch atop the world is in danger.

These are recent fears of course. Theys have come because Barack Obama is president, and his new liberal policies will destroy the very fabric and spirit of America. Some people are scared—but why? We weren’t scared when George W. Bush was president, and he was busy starting wars and constantly telling us of the looming threat of deadly terrorist attacks from extremists who hate us. How are we in more danger now?

The root of the problem is who conservatives believe is running the conservative movement. No, as popular as I would be if said Rush Limbaugh, he’s just a mouth piece. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin admitted who conservatives believe runs the party last summer while talking about the Iraq war:

“Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”  

 

Clearly this woman is not among America's great thinkers.

 

That’s why conservatives are scared—because the Republican Party is run by God. Not only was God apparently born in America, but He’s a card carrying Republican. This is dangerous for a few reasons.

First, it gives far too much power to the Republicans when we accept their word as God’s word. For example, conservatives are worried about the end of the world when our Democratic president wants health care for poor people, but if George Bush starts a war to find WMD’s that don’t exist and protect freedom that was never endangered, that’s God’s will. When George Bush eliminates our right to habeas corpus with the Patriot Act—kidnapping Americans without trial or charges—“that plan is God’s plan” can’t be true.

For conservatives, it is “country first” while a Republican is in office, then “NOBAMA” when they lose. The focus is now on how corrupt every elected official is now, when six months ago there would have been cries of “America hater” and “unpatriotic.” Conservatives do have every right to criticize the president, his appointees and his policies, but they don’t have the right to silence the left when America elects a Republican.

This thinking allows immoral and poorly thought out acts to be justified under the premise of being God’s idea. The literal danger of believing that a politician is speaking on behalf of the Creator of the world is as staggering as it is false.

Second, when a Democrat is president, conservatives believe that God’s will is not being done. The panic ensues because our liberty, innocence and virtue are being destroyed by evil liberals. A fundamental problem with this thinking is that America is a pure beacon of light. The truth is that our government has issued deadly plagues to Native Americans, legalized the murder of Mormons, put Japanese Americans in concentration camps, and tortured innocent civilians at Abu Ghraib and around the world.  

This is not anti-American, these are facts. You would never say to a confessing Alcoholic not to confess, or that if they admit they have a problem that they hate themselves. Taking responsibility shows awareness and maturity, and in America we are far from perfect. We have not been a flawless represebtation of God’s love.

The truth is that God is not American. God does not love Americans any more than He loves someone from Germany or Iraq or North Korea. To assume that America is God’s chosen land and people would make us the same as those who blow themselves up to do God’s will. It just isn’t right.

While president Obama’s approval ratings are the highest America has seen since 2002, Beck and Hannity and Limbaugh will rant to that uninformed minority about how much people are scared. Shame on them. It’s the same as telling an anorexic girl that she’s fat, or an ugly person that no one loves them. It fuels their paranoid fire and uses fear to get attention and ratings. Not to get preachy, but here’s what God thinks of that:

 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

–2 Timothy 1:7.