Prayer and Probability

“Hang ‘Em High” Jerry
Is Jerry Kilgore a Christian Conservative or just another right wing reactionary?

For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Kilgore he is the GOP nominee for Governor of Virginia this year and like me he professes to be a Christian. However some recent pronouncements by him make me believe there is a contradiction in our individual understanding of Christian. He has come out as strong proponent of the death penalty. And try as I may I can find nothing in the life or words of Christ to justify such an opinion. It takes a convoluted deconstruction of the Gospels to even imagine such a thing much less say it.

Unfortunately this is not the only conflict Mr. Kilgore has with the teachings of Christ. He also is a strong supporter of President Bush’s social agenda which is not just indifferent to life outside the womb, but openly hostile to it unless of course you find yourself among the economic elite of America. Mr. Bush and Mr. Kilgore openly push welfare for the wealthy at the expense of medical care, education, and the overall standard of living for most Americans. They are both firm believers in and defenders of Social Darwinism and its credo of ‘survival of the fittest’.

While this is undeniably antithetical to Christian beliefs it is totally consistent with the Bush motto of life ‘No sacrifice is too great for others to make.’ Perhaps the best example of this is Mr. Bush’s and Mr. Kilgore’s passionate defense of war while avoiding placing themselves in harms way to defend their convictions and all the while calling for sacrifice. ‘Do as I say not as I do,’ or “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” we each not only get to, but have to, make that call ourselves.