On we go

On with another day. Today is inauguration day, oh joy. We welcome another four years of George W. Bush's presidency . . . well, welcome it or not, it's coming. His reelection has spawned much discussion on the topic of values - which bodes well for Christians as values are kind of our thing. Unfortunately, many Christians have allowed the Religious Right to dictate the moral agenda of Christians most often reducing it to hot-button issues like abortion, family values, and stem cell research. Sure these issues are important to Christians, but they aren't number one. That's right, reading the Bible the main emphasis is never on these things. The Bible clearly states that taking care of fellow mankind tops the list of importance. The religious right says we must be pro-life, and right they are, but that applies to war as much as it does to abortion or anything else. Thousands have died under a president who seems more and more willing to engage in "pre-emptive" wars in the name of national security. Nothing should fear the world more than when the world's last remaining superpower decides to engage in pre-emptive wars as the whim of a vindictive president. Thousands have died, thousands more will continue to die until President Bush revisits his theology of war. Christian leaders throughout the world are nearly unanimous on the war in Iraq - it was a mistake. But nowhere is that said in this country. Two years after the war, our troops occupy a nation highly unstable, and not capable of the democracy that we are told is inevitable.

But for a day all that is forgotten. For a day all of Washington wines and dines. They party and spend millions of dollars reminding the world that we are the wealthiest nation and when it comes to our leaders, we let they know that. In the midst of the jubilation and the "hope-focused" inaugural address, don't forget about the widening economic disparity between rich and poor, don't forget about the Iraqis who die each day because of American occupation, don't forget about the environmental backsteps that we have taken in the past four years, don't forget that capital punishment kills just as horribly as abortion, don't forget that our President's tax cuts continue the Washington tradition of assisting the wealthy while taking vital resources away from the poorest of this nation, and most of all, don't forget that just because a Christian president has been elected to lead this nation, his decisions are always the result of good theology . . . or theology at all.