5.05.2006 | "God Bless Everyone -- No Exceptions!"

This morning on my walkabout, I noticed this bumper sticker: "God Bless Everyone -- No Exceptions!" Googling this expression of a loving but blind God, I came up with this website, Turn-left.com, with its "Liberal Christian Bumper Stickers."

The problem isn't the sentiment on many of these so-called "liberal" Christian signs. It is the sheer hypocrisy of those who place their politics above Jesus Christ accusing conservative Christians of doing the same. Examples of hypocrisy include "Do you really think Jesus would be a Republican? (red in the original, for emphasis, I suppose...), and "Pro-Life/Pro-Democrat."

So, we must assume that those who buy this last bumper sticker are among the small percentage of Democrats who actually don't agree with a "woman's right to choose" to kill her baby. Or, they are merely lying.

Some of the sentiments are pacifist silliness, such as the high-school sophomoric "what part of 'Thou shalt not kill" don't you understand?" Then there are a few (very) select quotations from John Paul II, including "Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of men." Except, of course, when "violence and arms" are the only things that can defeat slavery, communism, fascism, and, we pray, Islamism. Not to mention that there is very, very, little of the late JPII's beliefs that would pass muster among those on the Christian left.

Other sentiments are those which are shared by most, if not all, confessing Christians. Most of us know that when we go to war, it should only be when lesser means at conflict resolution have failed. And that war is the only means to protect the innocent. If we don't go to war, and tyrants continue to kill the innocent, shame on us.

Those who ignore the suffering of the innocent and place these sanctimonious statements on their vehicles are not worth arguing with. We go to war not for empire, or oil, or because we can conquer and kill our fellow men. We go to war, or we should, only as a last resort. Reasonable people may agree, or disagree, on the current war in Iraq -- but not on the absolutist grounds that we should never go to war.

Getting back to the "God bless everyone" nonsense, it should be true that all Christians would wish for all men and women to merit those blessings. The truth, which should be self-evident, is that many, if not most, people around the world go out of their way to turn away from God and His teachings -- especially those revealed by His Son.

God will surely bless those who fear Him, love Him, and do His will. Everyone is certainly eligible. But since we are all born captive to sin, not all will earn God's blessing. And, if anything is assured, it is that God hates sin, and can not turn a blind eye to those who persist in their sin. Such will never be blessed, unless and until they truly repent.

Which brings me to the conclusion, where I have to state that I can share some ground with the lefties, when they feature one of my personal favorite Scripture verses from the prophet Micah (6:8):

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,[b]
and to walk humbly with your God?

Unfortunately for the bumper-sticker crowd, the context of Micah 6 includes the destruction, by God, of those who do not walk in His ways.

Which very much seems to include some "liberal" Christians.

| technorati tag | Christianity|