transcendr

This particular post has taken me a long time to complete. That frustrates me to no end. On the flip side, I seem to find more evidence to lend credence to this article. It’s a Catch-22 that this post lingers, but I’m thankful for it, and soon you’ll see why.

So… to begin:

For the last 8 or 10 years of my life, I have been a card-carrying Republican.

There.

I said it.

Can we move on now? Please?

I’m here to tell you that there has been something skewed in the Republican party for awhile now, and since we’re looming closer to an election, I thought that I might address one aspect of where this party - at least for me - has gone off the rails.

I wonder how many of my brothers and sisters are able to recall the lengths that the our government and the media went to, in order to remind us all - especially in a post-911 world - that our president was a man of “faith”. There were images of the W praying. Everywhere. There were cameras rolling as the President thoughtfully engaged people (with that tell-tale furrow in his brow) on matters of God. Altruistic hugs and tears and touching words - all of it seeming to end with those three mantra-ish words: “God bless you…” Rumors circulated all over the internet about conversions that he instigated; some of the grist mill came dangerously close to calling him the Great Apostle of America.

Now, before I cause an uproar with any people of faith that somehow fell into my quagmire, let me just say that the intent of this post isn’t to judge the personal relationship that Mr. Bush may or may not have with Christ, His Dad, or the Ghost. I just want to jar you a little bit, and beg you to THINK before you go to the polls in November.

But first, a short history lesson.

(Unfortunately, there are many Christians who won’t pick up any book other than their Bible or other “approved” Christian literature (fiction, devotionals, books on daily living, prophecy, etc.). So there is a *vast* majority that will look at me with their own quizzical furrow when I mention the name of “Constantine”. And really, that’s a shame.)

Constantine was a brilliant strategist, a military might, and a political genius. He was also a Roman emperor in the early 4th century. The following quote is from Bruce Shelley’s book, “Church History in Plain Language“:

“Upon the death of Galerius (one of the reigning emperors at the time of Constantine’s succession), a struggle for imperial power broke loose. In the spring of 312, Constantine, the son of Constantius Chlorus, advanced across the Alps to dislodge his rival Maxentius from Italy and to capture Rome. It was a daring gamble; and when he came upon his militarily superior enemy at the Milvian Bridge, just outside the walls of Rome, he turned for help to the God of the Christians. In a dream he saw a cross in the sky and the words, ‘In this sign conquer.’ This convinced him to advance. When on 28 October 312 he achieved his brilliant victory over the troops of Maxentius, Constantine looked upon his success as proof of the power of Christ and the superiority of the Christian religion.

 

Some historians have considered Constantine’s ‘conversion’ a purely political maneuver. Plenty of paganism remained. He conspired; he murdered; he even retained his title Pontifex Maximus as head of the state religious cult.”

What Shelley doesn’t mention here is this: Constantine needed to muster some serious troops, and fast. He was outgunned and outwitted by his old nemesis, Maxentius. Realizing that he was in a territory populated with Christians apathetic to the Empire - after all, the Empire was the source of so much of their persecution - that quick military mind devised a fairly clever scheme: if he could just rally the Christians that surrounded him, he just might have a chance of defeating Maxentius. But how? Knowing from his experiences at court - that Christians were a “miracle-inspired” bunch - Constantine dredges up the most polarizing symbol of the early church: the Cross, and declares that it came to him in a vision, with the words “In Hoc Signe Vinces” -  translated from the Latin: “IN THIS SIGN, CONQUER”.

And thus ends this little history lesson. The application?

In commentary that first appeared on his blog on August 16, 2007, Bill Moyers candidly spoke out against a different Texan than his usual target. This one? Karl Rove. But why is this relevant to our discussion about Constantine? I encourage you to read Moyers’ short commentary.

However, to briefly summarize:

Moyers postulates that Rove is at best (and by his own admission), an agnostic. The once great saint of the current administration may not even have a relationship with God:

“At his press conference this week he asked God to bless the President and the country, even as reports were circulating that he himself had confessed to friends his own agnosticism. He wished he could believe, but he cannot. That kind of intellectual honesty is to be admired, but you have to wonder how all those folks on the Christian right must feel discovering they were used for partisan reasons by a secular skeptic, a manipulator.” (emphasis mine)

Now, if you were a conservative Christian in 2000, and again in 2004, you knew that you had one responsibility: no matter what, George W. Bush had to be elected. And how did you get that message? Why, he was the “Christian” candidate! How else could right-wing conservatism hope to beat Al Gore, who was riding the tide of happy liberalism? More so, how else could he defeat even the oatmeal-ish John Kerry, in the midst of an “incursion” that was going poorly? Rove did what he knew best (again, as hypothesized by Moyers - this practice of appealing to the faithful got Bush elected twice to the Governor’s office in Texas) - pander to the Christians, make GW the next American Constantine, and know that if he played his cards right, and flew that Cross up when it was necessary, victory was destined to be sweet.

Did it work? History will be a better judge than I could ever hope to be. It sure seems like it though. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been left with that just-sucker-punched-in-the-stomach feeling. We’ve been had. And, as it’s destined to do, history is repeating itself.

Go back, review the footage and see if the things that John McCain says - the nominee that the religious right is propping up now (when just a scant few months ago, he was scorned by that same crowd!) - match what you as a person of faith WANT to hear.

Then ask yourself: Is this the heartfelt opinion of a man who is truly passionate about his faith, or is this the political maneuvering of yet another statesmen who understands, “In this sign, Conquer?”

“We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again!” - The Who, “Don’t Get Fooled Again”

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