PEDALING FEAR AND DOOMSDAY

Be afraid! Be very Afraid!

Rick Santorum professes to be a Christian. Couldn’t prove it by me. Of course, I walked away from Christianity more than 30 years ago when I realized that to be a Christian, one must live a Christ-like life or be a hypocrite. (Okay, okay, there were other compelling issues, too, but if I spell them out some people will be insulted and that is not my intent here.)

Any way, back to Santorum. First of all, he is not going to get the nod to run for president. Ain’t gonna happen. No way, no how. You read it here (not first, of course, but here, nonetheless).

Thus, we get his new ad, a dark scary video proclaiming that President Obama is out to destroy America. The video uses images of dark, deserted streets, empty playgrounds, shuttered businesses, sad children and so forth. The filmmaker employed the clichés and images popular in zombie/End of the World flicks.

“The wait to see a doctor is ever increasing,” the somber narrator says. “Gas prices through the roof. The freedom of religion is under attack. And every day the residents of this town must come to grips with the harsh reality that a rogue nation and sworn American enemy has become a nuclear threat (images of Iranians and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad). Welcome to a place where one president’s failed policies really hit home. (Images of terrorists and Middle Eastern folks, you know, the not so subtle racism.) Welcome to Obamaville.”

Politics aside, is it really Christian to pedal fear and Doomsday? I realize that many Christians are wetting their pants waiting for the Second Coming and that a lot of pulpit pounders rake in vast amounts of money berating True Believers with images of hellfire and brimstone and all that nonsense. But, really, is Doomsday appropriate campaign material…

Ah, what the hell am I saying? Of course it is. Doomsday/Armageddon/End of Days/the End Times and all the rest of that claptrap is part and partial of Christianity…

Oops, I said I wouldn’t mention other compelling reasons I walked away and here I’ve gone and done it.

“Well, Dougie,” the little angel on my shoulder just said, “you’re going to Hell!”

 
Okay donkeys.