Evangelical/Republican Racist Hypocrites for McCain, or Redemption?

Senator Obama would be ahead in the polls by twenty to twenty-five points if he was white. I can prove it.

With the economy in the toilet, an unnecessary war dragging on, America's standing at the lowest point it's ever been in the world, our dollar worthless, our educational system in free fall, any minimally fit Democrat would be dizzyingly ahead in the polls... if he happened to be white.

The Democrats have put forward the brightest, most compelling and inspiring candidate since Franklin Roosevelt. I say this as a white, fifty-six year-old life-long Republican and former Evangelical leader, who was turned into an independent voter and ardent Obama supporter by my disgust with the hijacking of the Republican Party by a bunch of anti-American revolutionaries. (See my book to better understand what I mean by the term "anti-American revolutionaries." Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back.)

Senator Obama won scholarships to America's top academic institutions, was voted by his peers to be editor of the Harvard Law Review, is a family man with an exemplary and obviously loving marriage, has a wife who is a brilliant charismatic woman, two lovely children, is a churchgoing born-again Christian comfortable with his faith, has avoided making the fast buck in the new gilded age of greed when he could have, served his community, is thoughtful, considered in his opinions, slow to anger, proved right in his judgment about the Iraq war, looks at every side of a question before making a decision, and is not given to grandstanding. He would be vastly ahead in the polls, even in polls of Evangelical voters who, after all, are also watching their savings and home values evaporate... unless he happened to be... black.

I speak as someone who was brought up in an Evangelical household by famous and influential Evangelical leaders (Francis and Edith Schaeffer). And this year even I've learned something new about my old Evangelical/Republican tribe! This election has shown the true nature of the Evangelical/Republican establishment as never before.

Turns out the Evangelicals would rather vote for a pagan reprobate compulsive gambler windbag philanderer of mediocre intellectual capability than for a well qualified fellow Christian (both in word and deed) because the reprobate windbag is white and their fellow Christian is black.

Everything else is just an excuse. Why? Because everything the Evangelicals and "conservatives" claim they are against is what McCain is. And everything they say they are for-compassion, justice, mercy, decency, family values, clean living, prudence and even temperament -- is what Obama is. (Note: Former diplomat African-American Alan Keyes, perpetual far right, the Rapture is on the way, support Israel, kill all Arabs, all-abortion-is-murder-from-zygot on, free-market purist, anti-welfare, anti-affirmative action Republican pro-Wall Street, trickle down, lower-taxes-on-the-rich candidate, never got more than tepid support from the same Republicans that have wildly embraced equally loony -- and white -- ideologue, Sarah Palin. So much for being "correct" on the issues!)

My point here is to cast a light on the gross hypocrisy of the Evangelical/Republican base using their own standards. By the Evangelical/Republican moral rule book McCain should be beyond the pale!

Here is how, say, Dr. Dobson or Pat Robertson or Rick Warren might describe McCain under other circumstances, say if he was running against a white Democrat:

According to a long exhaustive New York Times report (Sunday, Sept 28, 2008) McCain is a compulsive casino gambler and thus a waster of his God-given resources.

McCain is a man who has wasted hundreds of thousands of his wife's beer-empire dollars on blackjack tables across the country.

McCain has received millions of dollars in campaign funding from the casino industry and all the shady characters within that vice-saturated netherworld.

McCain is personally (and virtually solely) responsible for the spread of the Indian tribe casinos across the country that he both "regulates" (in the Senate) gambles in and receives money from.

McCain would bring with him to the Oval Office the stench of a high-flying and utterly corrupt (and corrupting) vice-based industry.

McCain has deep personal connections to the corrupt politicians and lobbyists in the pockets of the casino industry.

McCain has a reckless personal gambling habit, one that destroys untold American lives and families and drains tens of billions of dollars from those who can least afford it.

McCain pays for his gambling addiction with the money he got by dumping his first wife in favor of a rich young blond with who he had an affair before leaving his wife...

And this is the guy the "Evangelicals" are following!

As we head into the last weeks of this election season let's be very clear: in still supporting John McCain instead of defecting to Obama, the Evangelical/Republican base has shown that it's all about race. This is even the case when it comes to abortion.

The Republican policies of gutting social programs have led to more abortions not less. But the Republican/Evangelical base would rather have more abortions than vote for a black president who's programs would reduce the actual numbers of abortions.

Obama believes that abortion ought to remain legal, but he also believes in real and practical programs that would reduce abortion by doing everything possible to help women, babies and families. McCain says he believes that abortion should be illegal, but knows very well that no matter what, even if the Supreme Court reversed Roe, abortion will remain legal in almost all states since all the Court would do is return the issue to the states. So McCain's posturing is just that: more meaningless contemptible grandstanding while not actually caring about reducing abortion.

Anyone who wants more babies born than aborted would vote for Obama. Everything else is an excuse, just another smoke screen.

The Evangelical/Republican base is also ready to back Gambler McCain even though his choice of running mate is just another irresponsible gamble, roll of the national dice for personal political gain. Evangelicals will vote for a white man, even if he has shown himself to be recklessly unpatriotic, as has McCain instead of a black man who had the good sense to choose a qualified running mate.

McCain, by gambling with our future at this critical moment with his "I can see Russia from my window" Palin stunt has shown that he puts himself first, not his country. Evangelicals know, as do all Americans, that Palin is a joke. But, judging by the close poll numbers, they'd rather live in a joke country in ruins than one with a qualified black man for president.

The choice is clear. When we vote we'll be choosing between Obama; the most intellectually and emotionally even-tempered and best equipped candidate this country has produced in most Americans lifetimes' on the one hand, and McCain, a philandering gambling addict with deep and corrupting ties to one of the most dubious socially destructive industries in United States, who is emotionally reckless and unstable and willing to risk the entire future of his country by appointing a grossly unqualified running mate.

In this election we Americans will be:

1) Voting for a president and vice president.

But also...

2) Passing or failing the greatest moral test of our time; the "exam question" is: will we elect the self-evidently better candidate regardless of his race?

There is irony at work here, and a chance for grace. How sweetly ironic that the best chance the United States has to restore our standing in the world, and to overcome our self-inflicted wounds, comes to us in the form of a thoughtful, self-effacing and brilliant young black man!

By voting for our first black president we Americans may begin the slow climb back to the moral sunlight and send a message to ourselves (and the world) that we have -- at last!--turned the page on our sordid racism. We will also save our country from four more years of Bush/McCain/Palin.

We are about to learn who we are. Will we vote race or conscience, for common sense or prejudice, for national redemption or the mindless continuation of the Bush apocalypse?

In Obama we have been given two extraordinary gifts; a great candidate and a national mirror. We are about to learn who we really are.

Frank Schaeffer is the author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back, now in paperback.

Follow Frank Schaeffer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frank_schaeffer

Comments

[Chuck Lasker - Huffpost Blogger]

The Republican Party is dead. Yes, I'm saying this before the election. Even if McCain wins, which could happen if Obama supporters stay home thinking the election is in the bag, the GOP still has lost its way along with a substantial number of members. While high-profile Republicans like Susan Eisenhower and Frank Schaeffer have made the headlines, the real exodus is on Main Street....

Continued at http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=35856

[okaasan3]

Fantastic!!! This sums up what this election is really about. I am very proud that many Hilary supporters chose to support Obama despite the fact that he was not a woman. Now if we can count on the white democrats & republicans that don't believe McCain/Palin have our country's best interest at heart and believe Obama has the qualities that we need for a president at this time to vote for Obama despite the fact that he is black, than this country will have taken one step closer to becoming a truly unified, mature country. I think that is why so many people feel the responsibility this time to vote. It is almost a vote against racism. A sign of a mature country is to vote for a qualified candidate DESPITE of his blackness. Hopefully that came out understandable.

[Ex-Expat2]

I applaud you Mr. Schaeffer, for seeing through the hypocrisy that has become the cornerstone of the Republican party as it panders to the Religious Right. Thank you for so eloquently helping to expose the ugliness. But I'm sorry to say that this has been going on a lot longer than you seem to think it has, Mr. Schaeffer. Look at many years of history now. A few examples: David Duke of the KKK, public KKK endorsement of Republican candidates, thinly veiled racist comments of which this latest 'whipping' comment by McCain is only the latest. This is far from new.

I am immensely encouraged that born-and-raised Evangelicals such as yourself are starting to see clearly that the Religious Right, and by extension the Republican Party, stands for everything that is diametrically opposed to Christian values as taught by Jesus. It's time to expose the modern day Pharisees.

[informme22]

Wow, once in a while along comes a zinger that says it all. Thanks for saying what so many are thinking, but are hoping and praying that they're wrong.

[kimest3e]

This is the best post I have read by far during the election. As a born-again African-Amercan Pentecosta­l/Evangeli­cal woman, this post spoke nearly everything that I have been thinking and feeling. Thank you.

[AlexandriaCynic]

This is one of the most compelling posts I have ever read. Having grown-up in the 1950s in Richmond, Virginia (at that time a segregated, Jim Crow hothouse of racism) I have had friends and family who dishonestly acted color-blind. I have suspected that much of the anti-Obama rhetoric came from from racism but never was I able to articulate it as well as Schaeffer has. I hope everyone everywhere gets a chance to read his post and that some small percentage will get an "aha!" from it. We may be on the verge of a transformational national event--one in which we forever leave behind the racism of our parents and choose rationality over greed and bigotry.

As a political cynic, made so by decades of observing the duplicitousness of Republican politicians and their media water-carriers, I have to hope Obama has really big leads in the polls on November 2nd so the Republicans dare not try again to steal or game the election. I'm starting to think this might just happen. And if Obama's lead in the polls is big enough to give hope to all those who know the vote cagers will be trying to deny them their voting rights, these voters may well turn out in numbers too vast for the best voting machine hackers in the world to fool.

I would gladly vote against McCain and Palin for many reasons; but I look forward to proudly voting FOR Obama.

[substance43]

Thanks Frank for telling it like it is!

Race is a man made construct. Racism is a covert and overt issue that can rear its ugly head at any time and place. Just don't dig too far beneath the surface; no telling what you will find I speak as a 65 year old black woman. It's a shame that we have let this thing ruin our country and the world. I believe that ignorance and fear play a big part in keeping racism alive.

ENOUGH in more ways than one.

OBAMA:BIDEN
2008-2016

[eden4barack08]

There you go again Frank, speaking TRUTH!

[peacegurl48]

I am an African American Catholic Christian who is saddened by people in my parish who cannot see beyond the abortion issue. I wonder what happened to Catholics working for peace and social justice and loving all life? How could they support leadership that promotes war, condones torture and has so little regard for trutht Your article gave me hope that people of faith will see that Obama's message honors humanity, hope, diversity and life. The good news is that many people in my parish, even the Deacon, are supporting Obama-Biden.
As we say, Peace be with you.

[Sambadaddy]

And they created God in their own likeness and said 'it is good.' And it came to pass that Goldwater begat Reagan and Reagan begat Bush and Bush begat yet another Bush who defeated McCain who was begat of Goldwater and Budweiser. And McCain ran yet again saying, 'I shall be known as Maverick.' He raised his voice in supplication, 'a POW I came into the world and a POW shall I ever be.' And his running made him exceedingly weary and he tired. And from the wilderness he heard a voice saying, 'Barbecue man, eat of the moose and it shall be succor unto you.' And McCain said, 'I know little of thee, but ye shall be my soulmate.' Yea, tho the wife of McCain, of golden hair and many riches did cling mightily, McCain gazed lustily upon the haunches and painted lips of the pitbull. The multitude praised McCain's folly, drinking new wine from old bottles and they called it change, but it was change not.

[Jezreel]

Insanely creative and brilliant.

[BarackMan]

Again Frank preaches to the choir.....

President Obama Next 8 Years!
Because He IS The Best Person For the Job!!

[4SMALLERGOVERNMENT]

I believe this view is slightly skewed. Yes, elder evangelicals who's themes are "hell fire and brimstone" can tend to be racist or sexist, which obviously aren't scriptural. The problem I have with the article is that it uses a small portion of evangelicals to give the entire group a label. To me it is like calling muslims "terrorists".
I have a huge problem with the entire election process. For about a year America is divided into two egotistical "teams". Rather anyone wants to admit it or not, both candidates truly have America's best interest at heart, just with different views on how things should be done.
For those who read this that are christian and truly believe
"My God shall supply all your need according to his
riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:19, KJV
So whoever is elected it does not truly matter.

[BarackMan]

WOW.....as a retired SBC Pastor...get a clue. It does matter. Have you been asleep or on another planet the last 7 years.

President Obama Because He Loves Jesus!!
And So Do I!!

[papapj]

That, my friend, is BLIND FAITH.....

Of course it matters.

[4SMALLERGOVERNMENT]

So you are saying that God will only provide for you if the person you vote for is the president?

[budderbean]

I was taught In my Bible training that "The senses register few of the greater realities in life" What you see on the surface is just a symptom of what lay' below the surface.. I have also been taught that.
"the straight of a nation is due to the hearts of the people being right with God" You know kind of a karma thing.. Give receive. Do unto others.
God loves us so we love other's.. The on thing evangelicals have gone astray on (in my view) is that They need to be evangelizing God and Gods love, Not an issue.

Question: In god's eye's (presuming their is one) Is a lie a sin? and is abortion a sin? Which is bigger?

(In my opinion) Sin is sin. God forgives all sin.. So which is a bigger sin in God's eye?. So (brain hurting) Someone is attempting to lie which is a sin.. To stop abortion which (to some is a sin). Im-a fir it but im'a ginit. It's bad to lie and to continue to do so in Gods name. And their in lay the problem.
In my theological mind (that hurts) and in my heart (which aches) I wish people would evangelize God's love rather than his anger.. God is love and forgiveness. Love = walking the walk.

[Jezreel]

Buddrbean, loved reading your comment and I agree with your analysis of sin. Sin is sin.

[fan4truth]

I am glad to see that a fellow believer in the word and actions of Christ understands that sometimes you must stand alone and see hypocrisy for what it is, and speak against the same underpinnings of such hypocrisy. I applaud you for standing up against those who continue to do wrong - it is so much like the trials of Paul.

In a time when we all need a new direction, we need to break away from our past failures, and we need to look ourselves in the mirror and come to grips with the inherent, systemic racism in our country, we need Sen. Obama to become president. He has made great strides to help heal a nation that doesn't believe it needs to heal. He has worked hard to help others, and his spirit of kindness in the face of anger is inspiring.

I will be doing my part to make sure he is my president. I hope others will do the same.

[Retrofuturistic]

Yes, in addition to being fascist, far-right evangelical Christianity is also racist.

The stated objective of the Religious Right was to eliminate public schools through vouchers, home schooling, and charter schools. All of that was just a response to desegregation, a way to keep "Christian" children from having to interact with black people. Vouchers funnel money out of the public school system to religious and mostly white schools. In places like Ohio, the public schools are virtually destroyed, and the evangelicals try to put Creationism and fake history into what is left of them.

And then we wonder why no one knows enough about our government, our Constitution, and our system of checks and balances to have noticed how the present administration was compromising our rights.

[BarackMan]

It doesn't matter because God told him it was alright.....

President Obama Next 8 years!