Frank honesty from career politicians is a rare and refreshing thing. So let us breathe in the words of Robert Bentley, the newly elected Republican governor of Alabama.
”But if you have been adopted in God’s family like I have, and like you have if you’re a Christian and if you’re saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister. [...] Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.“
Did I mention he said this at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day address? Naturally Bentley’s press secretary went into damage-control mode at once, saying “he is the governor of all the people, Christians, non-Christians alike,” and his office sent out a statement reiterating that he will be governor to “all Alabamians,” but the curtain had been drawn back to reveal what we already knew about politicians like Bentley. That conservative Christian politicians tend to prefer and favor Christians, despite the secular ideal that mandates equal treatment under the law. So perhaps it is for the best that Hindus, Jews, atheists, Buddhists, Muslims, and Pagans living in Alabama are put on notice now.
There are, of course, many Christians who don’t feel as Governor Bentley does. Let us acknowledge that now. As the Hindu American Foundation pointed out, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. greatly admired and respected Mahatma Gandhi, and I doubt he would have rejected him as outside his spiritual family.
Padma Kuppa, Executive Council member of HAF, elicited Dr. King’s admiration for Mahatma Gandhi and his teachings of non-violence and civil disobedience, noting “there is an incredibly wide chasm between Dr. King who embraced Gandhi, a Hindu, as an apostle for peace, knowing that the universality of that message transcends religion or race, and Gov. Bentley, who prefers to live in an exclusionary and divisive world of people he sees as Christians or heathens.”
But for those Christians who do feel a palpable separation from non-Christians, who see us as lesser, or flawed, or not deserving the same considerations, let them at least be honest! Too often politicians with ties to extremist religious groups try to bury them deeply come election season, wearing an blandly faux-ecumenical mask to a voting public concerned more with the economy and jobs than with the state of their soul. Let us thank the transparent triumphalism of politicians like Bentley and preachers like Franklin Graham.
Mr. Gonzales blessed the “eastern door, from where we get visions and guidance,” the “southern door, where we get the energies of the family,” the “western door, where we honor the sacred ways and sacred ancestors,” and the “northern door, where we receive challenges and the strength to meet those challenges.” Rather than calling on the God of heaven who made us and created this universe, which He holds in the palm of His hand, the university professor called out to “Father Sky, where we get our masculine energy” and “Mother Earth, where we get our feminine energy.” How sad. Father Sky and Mother Earth can do nothing to comfort Capt. Mark Kelly, who had been at the bedside of his wife, Rep. Giffords, wondering if she’d ever leave her bed. [...] What a shame that the University of Arizona didn’t have enough sensitivity to suffering families and a watching nation to invoke the name of the God who is “Father to the fatherless and protector of widows.” In fact, any of the 150 chapters of Psalms picked at random would have offered more comfort than the mystical rambling delivered from the stage.
In Graham’s world, only his God can offer comfort and hope, and an invocation from any other faith or tradition is an insult. I don’t agree with him, but at least he told us the truth about his views, and we can now know that he should never be trusted when it comes to any matter that involves non-Christians. That, like Bentley, all men may have been created equal, but some are more equal than others.
ADDENDUM: Governor Robert Bentley has issued an apology.
“What I would like to do is apologize. Should anyone who heard those words and felt disenfranchised, I want to say, ‘I’m sorry.’ If you’re not a person who can say you are sorry, you’re not a very good leader,” Bentley said. [...] Bentley today said he was speaking in the language of his faith (he’s an evangelical Christian) to other Baptists.
The apology came after a meeting with Alabama’s Jewish community. Meanwhile, the Hindu American Foundation has mounted a letter-writing campaign to ask for a retraction.