My email Inbox and my Facebook page have been overflowing with hate ever since the publication of my article — If Republicans Won Their Wants — and the comments stream for that article have to be cleansed daily because people can’t abide our comments policy and disagree without cursing or calling names.
A friend of mine read that article and we had an interesting discussion about why the GOP has become a magnet for hatred and punishment.
My friend suggested the need to punish and condemn in the Republican party is because of their religion. Conservatives, in general, believe in the Old Testament God of punishment for sins — both perceived and real — and they think they are being “Godly” by meting out His punishment here on earth. They see themselves as the moral watchdogs for God and they will call out, and punish, everyone in their line of sight who isn’t fitting into God’s mandate. Everyone’s a sinner. Nobody and nothing is above suspicion.
I thought God was all about love and forgiveness and compassion.
My friend told me I was thinking of the New Testament God. The “old book” God is one who seeks out sinners and publicly punishes them as an example to others.
I wondered about the immoral and deceptive Conservative undercover stings — that are meant to punish and intimidate — and how that worked into God’s plan:
Ever since ACORN was taken down by a bad pimp costume and a hidden camera, right-wing media mogul Andrew Breitbart and provocateur James O’Keefe have discovered that by the time their work is exposed as disingenuously edited hit jobs, the damage is done, and their brand has been boosted. As Breitbart told the AP, “I’m committed to the destruction of the old media guard. And it’s a very good business model.”
Pimps and hookers aren’t Godly, are they?
My friend laughed and told me, in the Conservative view, God isn’t funny. God isn’t fair. God is cruel. God wants things his way and there’s no notion of immorality when it comes to taking down the evildoers.
It was then I realized that the USA is fighting three wars in the Middle East based on this theory that we’re doing God’s work by punishing the non-believers.