Faithful Democrats
The Christian worldview being one of humility and service, no Bible-thumping candidate could possibly be on Jesus' side. Heck, even the Church, the "Bride of Christ," is not on Jesus' side these days.
A couple of Washington Post articles run during the first week of November missed my attention and, apparently, the attention of FD.
Jesus apparently lost the governor's race to Katrina. Well; that is my obscure cynical spin on quintessential Republican Gov. Haley Barbour's victory in the November 7 election. Barbour, a former lobbyist, ran on a record of rebuilding and renewing the Mississippi coast devastated by Katrina.[1]
That expected triumph of the "flood" of incumbency, however, was not what caught my eye. What caught my eye was this comment on Barbour's opponent, John Arthur Eaves, Jr. in the election announcement: "Eaves got little traction with his largely self-funded campaign that seemed to emphasize religion at every turn. He clutched a Bible in his television ads, cited Scripture frequently and criticized Barbour's connections to ‘moneychangers' – big oil, tobacco and insurance companies." This from a Democrat.
I had to find out more about this Eaves guy. There is a lesson here for those who would pander too eagerly to the Christian Right wing of the Evangelical wing of the Christian church – i.e. the Billy Bob fringe.
Eaves, billed as a "wealthy evangelical Christian," ran a campaign based on Matthew 6:24: "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."[2] "The most important question in this campaign (is) ‘Who do you serve?'"
He told the voters, "I am a Democrat because I am a Christian."
Eaves, interestingly, is a plaintiff's attorney who has amassed a fortune in what appears to be a personal injury practice.[3] He put $4.6M of his own money into his campaign and toured the state in a jet owned by his law firm.
That has a uneasy ring about it that conflicts, in my mind at least, with the image of campaigning against the moneychangers. While Barbour has been a hired gun for large corporate interests against government interests, Eaves is a hired gun for individuals injured by large corporate interests. Either way, their path to wealth comes from the same pocket.
How can you campaign against large corporate interests if your income depends on their deep pockets? One gets paid to lobby for insurance companies so that they can pay large contingency fees to personal injury lawyers. Hmm!
Eaves is, by all accounts, a social conservative. He managed, however, to alienate both Republicans and Democrats during the campaign. The notion that an Evangelical can be a Democrat angers the Christian Right. The notion that a Democrat can be pro-life, anti-gay marriage and pro-school prayer angers Democrats.
As an evangelical Democrat, I too have straddled both worlds. In a recent primary for a special election in my state, I had my hat handed to me because I declared myself to be a pro-life Democrat, in favor of stripping the word "marriage" out of the civil code and against a boost in minimum wage without a small business initiative, even though I had won both as a Republican and a Democrat and was the favorite going in.
Eaves, it would appear, had not only a personal perception problem, he had a theological problem. On his Web site he asks, "Who's on Jesus' side in Mississippi?"
The correct answer, of course, is "Nobody, hopefully." The Christian worldview being one of humility and service, no Bible-thumping candidate could possibly be on Jesus' side. Heck, even the Church, the "Bride of Christ," is not on Jesus' side these days.
The appropriate question is, "On whose side is Jesus?" You will find the answer in Matthew 25, "…inasmuch as you did/didn't do it to the least of these my brothers, you did/didn't do it to me." Not finding Jesus in many a local church and especially in a political campaign, look for Him in the prisons, in the homeless shelters, in the courtrooms filled with court-appointed attorneys and their indigent clients and in the food kitchens and bars.
Are there not better places to spend $4.6M than on a gubernatorial beauty contest?
When the NRA endorsed Barbour, Eaves leveled this blast: "I'm a real hunter, you know. I'm not one of those silk-stocking hunters who hunt those raised pigeons – those tame birds."
Plenty of time for hunting this fall, I would venture to guess.
Campaigning on a platform of job growth and rebuilding the coast, Barbour coasted to a 60/40 win.
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/06/AR2007110602289_pf.html
[2] http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/04/AR2007110401490_pf.html
[3] http://www.eaveslaw.net/index.htm
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