Bad Theology

Sarah Palin says it is God's plan to go to war in Iraq. Let me summarize the entire Bible - love your neighbor ("red, yellow, black and white"). It is NOT God's plan to go to war. The Christian tradition says to also love your enemy - Matthew 5:43:

43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor[h] and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."

In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."

Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq, and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.

"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."

A video of the speech was posted at the Wasilla Assembly of God's Web site before finding its way on to other sites on the Internet.

Palin told graduating students of the church's School of Ministry, "What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys." As they preached the love of Jesus throughout Alaska, she said, she'd work to implement God's will from the governor's office, including creating jobs by building a pipeline to bring North Slope natural gas to North American markets.

"God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she said.

"I can do my job there in developing our natural resources and doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded," she added. "But really all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God."

Palin attended the evangelical church from the time she was a teenager until 2002, the church said in a statement posted on its Web site. She has continued to attend special conferences and meetings there. Religious conservatives have welcomed her selection as John McCain's running mate.

Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, lamented Palin's comments.

"I miss the days when pastors delivered sermons and politicians delivered political speeches," he said. "The United States is increasingly diverse religiously. The job of a president is to unify all those different people and bring them together around policy goals, not to act as a kind of national pastor and bring people to God."

The section of the church's Web site where videos of past sermons were posted was shut down Wednesday, and a message was posted saying that the site "was never intended to handle the traffic it has received in the last few days."

Church and State

I heard something yesterday that really ticked me off. If I see the guy again, I will have a little conversation.

This Democratic party leader said "God is on our side." You know what; he's wrong. God didn't create Republicans or Democrats on the 7th day. God didn't even create the electoral college map with Red and Blue states. Heck, God didn't even create the border between the United States and Mexico. God cares about all the hungry, all the sick, all the poor, all those in prison. Red, Yellow, Black or White - ALL MEANS ALL.

When the religious lawyers were trying to trick Jesus with a question about the most important commandment, that great prophet told them to love their God and love their neighbor. When even those two got too complicated, my faith tradition tells me that this is not a new commandment, just love one another. 2 John 1:4.

Democrats have allowed Republicans to high jack God. More importantly, the church universal has allowed Republicans to high jack God. God's message is very clear, you have to give Caesar his due, but love your neighbor. All people of faith (or without faith) should act as the moral compass of our government, but should never allow any one party to claim "God is on our side."

Steelman Attacks Hulsholf for being pro-Viagra

State Treasurer Sara Steelman (R) knows what it takes to be elected state-wide. So, I trust that she knows Republican primary voters, the kind that elect State Senator Matt Bartle in primary fights. Steelman obviously thinks attacking Hulsholf for being for Viagra and "pro-recreational sex" will work. The ad must be focused on some in the religious right community.

Barack on Faith

Presumptive Democratic Nominee Barack Obama spoke with Disciple's World, a publication of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ. They interviewed all the candidates, Barack's was published in the May, 2008 issue. A few highlights:


What makes you a better choice: As an individual, I don't claim any superiority to the other candidates. I am an imperfect person and an imperfect candidate. And if elected, I won't be a perfect president. Like all of us, I am a flawed human being relying on the grace of God to get me through each day.

How does your faith influence your public life: My faith in Jesus Christ influences every aspect of my life, public and private. I pray, I read the Bible, I try every day to follow his example of loving our neighbors and work for "the least of these" in our country and our world.

Is there a particular message you want to share with people of faith: Yes I strongly believe that people of faith can and must work together to bridge the political and religious divisions in America, Our nation faces serious challenges and there are no easy solutions. And all of us - people of all religions and none, and people of all political persuasions - have a shared stake in solving these problems. Often, my politically progressive friends fail to fully appreciate the role of values and culture play in addressing some of our most pressing social problems. For my friends who are political and religious conservatives, I think it would be helpful to remember the critical role that separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy but also the freedom and richness of our diverse religious traditions


Well, there's some humility, there's some loving your God and there's some loving your neighbor.

Professional Thinkers

I try not to read, it only makes me think. It also makes me question my opinions and beliefs. No wonder Republicans are cutting funding for schools.

The latest text has been Porch Talk: Stories of Decency, Common Sense, and Other Endangered Species by Philip Gulley. The author is a Quaker minister and is on Indiana PBS. Despite Mr. Gulley having written several books, this is my first. The ministers at my church occasionally suggest books to read and somehow this Quaker's musings made the list.

One chapter relates the story of how when Gulley is asked his profession, rather than admit to being an author and then being faced with the response of "I've never heard of your book," Gulley simply responds that he is a professional thinker. With his homespun, Midwestern story telling ability, the Quaker pastor hits one home:

Despite our need for professional thinkers, our country has lately been relying on amateur thinkers. They populate radio, television, and the Internet, spewing their invective in the name of wisdom and common sense. Though wearing the guise of the thinker, they care less about knowledge and more about propaganda, trading in the party line, the half-truth, the telling wink. They speak with forked tongues and crossed fingers, ask God to bless their efforts, wrap the flag about their shoulders, and then strangle the freedoms they claim to love.

There ought to be a law that all thinkers, professional and otherwise, must foreswear all allegiances, resign from all factions and parties, and abandon all preconceptions before undertaking their work. Except for me, of course, who alone of all the professional thinkers is able to remain above the coarse partisanship of human exchange.

How quickly I can read this passage, yet jump to criticize the religious right or even praise Obama. The passage from Matthew suggesting that I worry about the speck in my neighbor's eye when there is a 2X4 stuck in my own surely comes to mine.

No More Right Wing Judges

I'm sick of Republicans talking about the need to appoint strict constructionists to the bench. The far right makes no bones about saying they want more of judges like Altio and Roberts, all up and down the federal bench. Finally, someone is fighting these knuckleheads.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is a group of 200 organizations - folks like the NAACP, NEA, League of Women Voters, AFL-CIO, National Council of La Raza, AARP, National Council of Churches - that has been around since 1950 to fight for civil rights. "LCCR is the unifying force for national organizations representing people of color, women, children, older Americans, gays, workers and religious groups. We are leading one of the most important fights in our history the fight to stop the right-wing takeover of the courts."

Here's an example of the positions that LCCR takes:

The Senate recently held a hearing on the controversial nomination of Attorney Richard Honaker to a lifetime position on the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming. Honaker is one of many controversial nominees who threaten to weaken established constitutional rights and civil rights protections for ordinary Americans. Given the damage already done to the courts because of the President's partisan engineering, the Senate must refuse to confirm any more controversial nominees. Call your senators today at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to stop confirming controversial nominees, including Richard Honaker!

The #1 priority of Alberto Gonzales when he ran the Department of Justice was to pack every level of the federal bench with Alitos and Roberts. They pack them when they are young, so they can be there forever. They get those on the very far right to serve as lifetime federal judges because the religious right knows that every civil liberty this country has ever got (after the Bill of Rights) has come through the federal courts - Right to vote without Jim Crow laws, interracial marriage, choice, etc. The LCCR gets it "because the Supreme Court takes such a small percentage of cases, lower federal judges often represent the only shot at justice individuals get."

The right wing gets it, does the left?

Blue Blog Ties Payday Lenders to Right Wingers

This Blog likes to point out the hypocrisies of many in the religious right, but KC Blue Blog does it with reports from college professors!!

A new study from Utah School of Law finds that Pay Day Loan Companies are tied to areas of dominant "Christian Conservative" Republican politicians and not areas with the largest amount of low income residents.

It appears a "deal with the devil" was made by "Christian Conservative" Republicans to partner with Wall Street, big business Republicans. In exchange for financial and political support for politicians who manipulate voters by playing at their religious beliefs; pay day loan sharks received lesser regulations and the ability to collapse families and communities.

Sadly, Missouri ranks #1 in the nation for this type of corruption. Over $315 million was made last year alone by Pay Day Loan sharks off vulnerable families struggling to get by. Go check out KC Blue Blog.

Reflections: Faith and Citizenship in Turbulent Times

Yale Divinity School publishes a journal called Reflections. This edition is titled "Faith and Citizenship in Turbulent Times."

Listen, I know what you are thinking - if Senator Jack Danforth (R-Mo) went to Yale Divinity School, it must be some radical conservative place where preachers are taught to handle snakes. Some of you are thinking - quit mixing religion with a Democratic blog and just go back to bashing the religious right wing. If Jack Danforth can bash on the religious right, so can I. Remember Danforth's great op-ed in the New York Times:

By a series of recent initiatives, Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians. The elements of this transformation have included advocacy of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, opposition to stem cell research involving both frozen embryos and human cells in petri dishes, and the extraordinary effort to keep Terri Schiavo hooked up to a feeding tube.

Danforth is right - his party was transformed into the political arm of the religious right. Some of these bible thumpers care more about judging thier neighbor than feeding thier neighbor. What shocks me is that it is the corporate folks who bought the Republican party who are amazed when the religious right won't just go away so they can have lower tax rates (i.e. Huckabee).

One of the many articles on Faith and Citizenship in Reflections is Theologies of Democracy in a New Century by E.J. Dionne, Jr. Under the caption of "The Waning of the Religious Right," Mr. Dionne writes:

There has never been a better moment for a new religious conversation, especially one organized around the theme of community. We meet at a moment when the religious winds are changing. The future of religious engagement with American public life will not, I believe, be defined by the events of the recent past. . . . The public voice of religion, as reflected in the supposedly liberal mass media, was deeply inflected with a particular brand of southern, conservative evangelicalism. . . . But in the new millennium, new religious voices are rising to challenge stereotypical views of religious faith.

He goes on to describe religious leaders on the right, like Rick Warren, who talk of caring for the poorest of the world. He mentions Bono standing up for the poor. He notes Rev. Jim Wallis who wrote God's Politics; Why the Right is Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It.

So here is the question - is the Democratic party's tent big enough to handle people of faith? If John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama talk about faith, it makes the front cover of Time. If may faith tells me to love my neighbor (caring for the sick, feeding the hunger, clothing the naked) and your personal values tell you the same thing and we both think universal healthcare is a great means to care for other Americans, can we still be in the same party?

Prayers for Huckabee

Born again Christians may have made up to 60% of Republican Iowa caucus. These ladies and I shared a prayer; that Huckabee would win. Nothing like the Republican party being torn apart by the corporate guys (who only want to allow hedge fund managers to be taxed at 15%) who fund the party and the religious right who get led around with gay marriage and abortion carrots.

For the record, Matt Blunt supports Romney. Jeff Roe and State Senator Matt Bartle support Huckabee. Sen. Kit Bond backs Guiliani. Let the blood letting begin.

Religious Right Tears Apart Republican Party via Huckabee

The Buzz on A2 of the KC Star had this little tid bit:

Arianna Huffington writes that Huckabee's poll surge is partly the result of decades of Republicans capitalising on evangelical voters as "just a resource to be cynically exploited every few years in demagogic anti-gay get-out-the-vote campaigns.

"But now the holy-rolling monster the GOP's Dr. Frankensteins have created has thrown off the shackles, fled the lab, and is currently leading in Iowa. And the party doesn't know what to do."

In Missouri we are all too familiar with the religious right's hold on the Republican party. Right here in Jackson County we see Senator Matt Bartle attacking on Warren Erdman (former chief of staff to Senator Kit Bond) for an appointment to the board of curators because of right to life issues. We see Sen. Chris Koster quiting the Republican party based, in part, on the stem cell issue. We also see the far right's favorite political consultant, Jeff Roe, being retained by Huckabee to push him on his blog, The Source. It should also be noted that the religious right - who is already disenchanted with Gov. Matt Blunt - can't be happy with Blunt backing Mitt Romney. There are too many examples of the religious right dictating Republican policy to even mention.

The Republicans have a problem here in Missouri. Folks are tired of Jeff Roe attacks. They are sick of extreme candidates. In Missouri, swing voters decide every election and suburban women ain't going to vote for a Huckabee. Here's hoping Huckabee gets the nod.

Republican Poll Shows 71% of Missourians Like the Nonpartisan Court Plan

This blog spends lots of time talking about the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan, mostly because it is being attacked by the radical fringe of the Republican Party, including Governor Matt Blunt, Jeff Roe and the Adam Smith Foundation. Who can blame Blunt, his ship is sinking and judges are easy to pick on. Attorney General Jay Nixon is raising just as much money as Blunt in the governor's race (now that campaign contribution limits are back in place) and Blunt's choice of Mitt Romney isn't selling well with the Religious Right in Missouri.

Public Opinion Strategies - a Republican organization - conducted the study for Justice at Stake, Missourians for Fair and Impartial Courts, and the Missouri Institute for Justice.

A few highlights of the poll:

Bipartisan majorities oppose many of the proposals to change the system recently floated by critics, while 73 percent of those surveyed want Missouri judges to be independent of elected officials like the Governor and state legislature.

By a ratio of more than two to one, voters believe that the Supreme Court of Missouri makes its decisions based on the state’s laws and constitution, not the personal beliefs of its seven members. Self-identified Republicans are the most likely to feel this way – 68 percent of Republicans polled feel law trumps ideology for decisions made by the state’s highest court.

Only 1 of every 50 Missouri voters see changing the way state judges are selected as a top priority for the Governor and state legislature. Voters are far more likely to cite health care, taxes and government spending, and public education as top priorities.

Don't look for the fringe to give up - until they can get thier wackos on the bench, they won't be happy. The Rule of Law is not the goal, its obtaining thier version of justice (which ain't justice for all).

Red Letter Christians

This month's Esquire Magazine features the Esquire 100, a "register of emerging ideas, trends, discoveries, products, people, and obscene gestures you should know about before everyone else does." One of the entries is Red Letter Christians. Nothing like mixing religion and politics as our friend John Ashcroft and the religious right have done for years, so here I go, again.

No. 91 - Red Letter Christians

The Reverend Jim Wallis suggests this experiment: "Go to a street corner and ask 'What do you think of evangelical Christians?' You'll get a lot of adjectives like angry, hateful, intolerant."

The D.C. based Wallis and his allies across the country say they want to reclaim a gentler Jesus for evangelical Christianity. In 2005, they formed a loose-knit group of evangelical pastors call the Red Letter Christians. (The phrase comes from the color of the words of Jesus in some old Bibles.) Instead of focusing their wrath on, for instance, gay marriage, their issues are poverty, the environment, peace and education.

Wallis and his colleagues, such as the Baptist minister Tony Campolo, say they aren't Republican or Democrat, but their politics are definitely more moveon.org that Fox News. Bono is an honorary member. And surveys show that up to 35 percent of evangelicals do not consider themselves part of the religious right. Wallis's network alone has almost 700 churches. They are likely to be a small but influential factor in the 2008 election.

Tony Campolo defines a Red Letter Christian as "Believing that Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, we want to unite Christians who are concerned about what is happening in America." Campolo goes on the say "We are evangelicals who are troubled by what is happening to poor people in America; who are disturbed over environmental policies that are contributing to global warming; . . . and who are broken-hearted over discrimination against women, people of color, and those who suffer because of their sexual orientation."

Here's a challenge find some red letters, the words of Christ, that discuss gays. Looks like Congressman Cleaver is not alone in his desire to see discrimination against gays to end.

Giuliani Can't Be Elected

For good or for bad, Rudy Giuliani can't be elected for President in a swing state like Missouri (or Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas, or South Carolina).

Missourians voted down gay marriage by over 70%. That vote broke my heart. I saved my "No on 2" sign and look at it in my garage sadly. That vote also pushed a new crop of leaders to the top of the heap, i.e. Sen. Jolie Justus. Giuliani may have ticked off his kids by dumping their mom (at least it wasn't for a tobacco lobbyist like Congressman Roy Blunt did to Governor Matt Blunt's mom), but at least Rudy believes that "all men are created equal" applies to gays. Rudy has been an active leader in the NYC GLBT community.

KC Blue Blog has done a great job of tracking down the Giuliani videos that show Rudy dressing in drag, marching in gay pride parades and doing all the things a good liberal should do in NYC. It would have been nice to put a D up against Rudy because the religious right already feels upset with the Missouri Republican Party over stem cell. The Republican Party created the folks who believe that two gays living together is bad, but two gays getting married will destroy our country and is more important than the war on terror. They created this stem cell fight that divides their party.

Well, you invited them to the party, now you are stuck with them.

Neutral Judges Under Attack from Radical Right

The Columbia Tribune recently published a great article on "Blunt Judges the Judges."

The article traces how the Missouri non-partisan court plan worked for Gov. Ashcroft - including the appointment to the Supreme Court of his chief of staff, Chip Robertson. The Missouri Plan allows lawyers to elect three members from around the state in non-partisan races. The sitting governor appoints for 6 years three lay members to the commission. The governor will obviously appoint lay people of similar political ideals. Add to those six folks the chief judge of the Supreme Court, you get seven people who review the applicants and send three qualified folks to the governor. When Ashcroft packed the Missouri Supreme Court with 7 Republicans (all of whom were qualified), it was after the citizens of the State of Missouri had decided to allow back-to-back Republican administrations. The citizens of Missouri have decided that they wanted 12 years of Democrats and then to elect Gov. Matt Blunt. The Missouri Plan does not allow a governor to come in and change the administration of justice. What a great accomplishment - take the partisan politics out of selecting neutral judges.

The right wing sees the selection of judges as the new gay marriage. You have to give it to the religious right, they know their issues. The greatest victory for for the far right is the appointments of Roberts and Alito to the US Supreme Court. Rev. Pat Robertson had his followers pray for the retirement of liberal supreme court judges so that Bush could appoint conservative ones. Rev. Robertson has even said federal judges are worst than al Qaeda. The Christian Broadcast Network has tons of posts related to the selection of judges.

The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution stating "WHEREAS, This cherished freedom of self-government has been, and continues to be, threatened in recent years by certain unelected judges, who, presuming to legislate from the bench, have issued decrees that subvert the very foundations of our democratic republic." The Assemblies of God, with their headquarters in Springfield, love to talk about judges, including conversations about how judges stole Christmas. The two biggest religious right faith organizations in Missouri - Southern Baptists and Assembly of God - are laser focused on this issue. Just so happens that the two ministers to speak at Matt Blunt's pre-inauguration ceremony were from the 2nd Baptist Church in Springfield and the James River Assembly of God in Springfield.

How does this play out in Missouri? The Republicans are clearly losing it. Sen. Chris Koster dumped the Republicans because of their crazy positions on stem cells and the attacks on judges. Koster fired Jeff Roe - the lead attacker of the neutral judicial system. Jeff Roe is also employed by Gov. Matt Blunt. Blunt is in trouble with the religious right because of his pro-stem cell position. Missouri Right to Life says Blunt can't call himself pro-life. MRL says "the Governor has broken faith with the tens of thousands of pro-life volunteers around the state who helped elect him. He has broken his pledge not to support using public money to pay for cloning or embryonic stem cell research. He has broken his pledge not to allow any research that uses human embryos created by in-vitro fertilization (IVF)."

So, to get the religious right back in his camp - to play to his base - Blunt is going after the judges. Jeff Roe has started the Adam Smith Foundation to attack neutral judges. Everyone associated with the Adam Smith Foundation, according to Fired Up Missouri, is a Blunt/Roe person. There you have it - the attack on judges is not about good government, it's about getting Gov. Blunt re-elected when the religious right has had enough.

It is really too bad that God has been drawn into politics like this. If Jesus came back today, he would say the same thing now: "give unto Cesar what is Cesar's." Don't worry about the politics, just feed the hungry, care for the poor. I don't see anything in the red letters of the new testament addressing the Missouri non-partisan court plan.

How The Democrats Got Religion

I don't normally read Time magazine, but they have a great article entitled "How The Democrats Got Religion."


Democrats have figured out that social justice Catholics care about issues other than abortion. D candidates have finally figured out that Methodists, Christian Church - Disciples of Christ and even some Baptists believe that Jesus never mentioned the word "gay marriage." Main line Protestants focus on hunger, poverty and the environment as issues of faith. An op-ed piece was recently written in the Wednesday Newspaper about Country Club Christian Church conducting mission trips to South Africa and Nicaragua and developing lasting relationships; concluding that "Those who give receive best gifts of all." There is even a Democratic strategy group called Common Good, which focuses on helping Dems connect with faith communities. Heck, the only ordained minister in D.C. is our own Congressman Cleaver. In the 47th Missouri House District (Lee's Summit), Rev. Tom Haley ran against Rep. Grisamore and only lost by 190 votes. Rev. Haley would have been the only ordained minister in Jefferson City.

As a liberal, I don't want God jammed down my throat. I don't want the R's to act like God elected Matt Blunt (I heard the preacher from 2nd Baptist Church in Springfield say "God elected Matt Blunt") and I don't want the D's to start acting like Christians are just a source of new votes. The Time article quoted Howard Dean on the 700 Club as saying that Democrats "have an enormous amount in common with the Christian community." I would think so - BECAUSE I AM BOTH, you knucklehead. A political party should not hold God hostage; rather people of faith should work to achieve results focused on loving your neighbor.

Pope, Church & State

The Pope's recent re-affirmation of the Vatican II principles that there is but "one church"- the Holy Catholic Church- has been the subject of lots of talk this week. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2056515.ece

As an active Protestant, it is easy to get excited by these kinds of faith issues. It is even easier to get excited (mad, frustrated, pissed, etc.) about either political party high-jacking God. One of the most interesting books written about this topic is "God's Politics, Why the Right is Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get it" by Rev. Jim Wallis, a self-professed evangelical. Wallis has been lipping off on social justice issues for decades, but only after the Religious Right has sickened the swing voters, the big business funders of the Republican Party have gotten stung by the religious extremists (i.e. Sen. Matt Bartle's position on stem cell) and Wallis appeared with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=special.display&item=050111_godspolitics, did anyone take notice of Wallis’ ranting and raving.

One thing that I see missing from the religious right wing's family values debate is how does abortion and gay marriage warrant the #1 & #2 (with no #3) positions. Women have been having abortions since Jesus was around. Seems like when the religious scholars were quizzing Jesus about the most important commandments, Jesus told them to 1) love your God; and 2) love your neighbor. How about a little love, food, clothing and healthcare for your neighbor?

Christians, Jews and Muslims don’t have a monopoly on values; we all come to our values from different directions, according to Wallis. So, why do we allow the Republicans to say we Democrats don’t have values? I think that when there is a choice between healthcare for the poor and tax cuts for corporations, the value voter will pick healthcare every time.

OK, enough preaching, but it is Sunday.

Republican Family Values = Prostiution

Republicans love to talk about family values. Well, I strongly believe that most Americans have the same values - work hard, play by the rules, love your neighbor. So, when the religious right is in love with Republicans because they stand for family values, the hypocrisy of the down fall of Republican politicians is wildly amusing.

U.S. Senator David Vitter (R) from LA had his name appear on a D.C. Escort service phone list. Sen. Vitter admitted that he had "a very serious sin in my past." The first Republican senator elected in Louisiana since reconstruction was hiring prostitutes! Read more about the story at http://www.kansascity.com/449/story/183399.html Vitter says he had made peace with his God and his wife. Thank goodness God is a loving, forgiving, graceful god, not the angry vengeful god feared and worshipped by the religious right.

The best part of the story is his poor wife, responding to inquires about Bill Clinton and Rep. Robert Livingston (R - La) cheating on their wives, threatened to go "Lorena Bobbitt" on her husband if he ever cheated. Maybe someone should ask Vitter if he is singing soprana or bass now.