Tuesday, August 31, 2004

What would Jesus do?

Here's as much of this Tavis Smiley interview from NPR today as I can stand to transcribe: Smiley starts by asking Keyes if there is any question that no one has asked him. Keyes answered that yes, he wanted to know why no one is asking him how he is going to "get the Roman Catholic vote," in a state that is highly Roman Catholic. So, Smiley obliges him and asks him. Here's Keyes' response:
I think I plan to get it by appealing to the clear conscience of Catholic as well as Christians in general because the stands I take on the issues are in fact the stands that are required by the moral conscience that is shaped by the precepts of Christianity. And, uh, I think that is a really important element in this election that is everyone is overlooking in this election. The simple fact of the matter is that we are dealing with a moral crisis in this country. ... We all know that the crisis is rooted in these moral factors and I think that we all recognize as ordinary people just living our lives as we do that our moral conscience is shaped by our religious faith. If you don't bring that faith to bear when you are judging about areas that have moral content then you are betraying your faith. So it becomes a serious challenge to me as a Roman Catholic Christian to others whatever may be their background or denomination simple questions like would Jesus Christ allow himself to be represented by somebody who is willing, as Barack Obama is for instance to allow a baby who is born alive . . . to die like garbage. And I think it behooves someone of the Christian faith to ask themselves would Jesus allow himself to be represented in that action? As a matter of fact, we know he wouldn't. Because we know that when we are thinking the way that we are supposed to be thinking we are asking ourselves "what would Jesus do?" We know that Jesus would not let a helpless child die simply because someone else wanted to take its life.
I'm so angry, I can't reply yet. Update: Darn. I just spent all that time typing that, when Keyes already had it on his website. Update 2 (2 hours later): Still angry. Did he really have the gall to say that Jesus would not vote for Obama? Did he really say that I'm betraying my religious faith if I vote for Obama? Did he really say that being a Christian means voting for Keyes?