Mission Accomplished

President Bush sealed his fate in history with his own words in a recent interview billed as a reflection on eight years as highest leader of the nation. He stated that 9/11 was the defining moment of his presidency. With that said, one could imagine Osama Bin Laden, watching from a cave semewhere in western Pakistan saying to himself: "Mission Accomplished."

Bush never got it and the world and the nation he led has suffered because of it. For the terrorists, there is nothing more to have been gained from 9/11 than that the U.S. would allow such an event to define the next seven years of its life. This is exactly what terrorists do. Terrorists cannot take control of a nation or a national project as they are a very distinct minority. Terrorists cannot manage a society as they have a plan that is unacceptible to the majority. What terrorists can do and did in the case of President Bush, is make society abandon its real mission for the sake of combating terrorism.

So, President Bush, who began his presidency with the stated mission of implementing a plan of government that he called "compassionate conservatism", ended his presidency by sending the nation and the world into an economic tailspin and leaving the nation captive to two wars that cannot, in any acceptable way, be won.

If the President had responded by saying that he would not allow the terrorists to define America or his presidency, today we would be celebrating seven years of high accomplishement, no wars and a stregthened economy. Instead, the President allowed the terrorists to define the agenda for the nationa and the world, he took his eye off the eonomy, wasted more than a trillion dollars of taxpayer money on wars we cannot win. What a sad day for America when a radical fundamentalist with a burning hate in his heart can capture the agenda of our nation.

It is true that there were no more terrorist attacks on American soil during the remainder of the Bush Presidency. No need to expend such energy for the terrorists when the President himself is helping you to accomplish your mission.

We All Make Mistakes, Mr. President

We all make mistakes. President-elect Obama seems not to make too many. Inviting Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation is a mistake. It is a political mistake which willpolarize not unite. It it is one thing to invite Rick Warren to be a guest and another to give the invocation. Jesus often sat with folks he didn’t agree with, but it was Jesus who prayed, not the Pharisee, not the tax collector. So, Mr. President, let Rick join the crowd at the podium, dance with him at the party afterward, invite him to have lunch at the White House, but don’t let him pray over you or, much less, over us.
It is a political mistake to invite Rick Warren to give a prayer at the inauguration because it will divide, not unite. That is what is politically wrong with Evangelicals. They divide, they polarize, they accuse and they do not unite.
Mr. Presdient, in this case you have met the enemy and it is you and/or your advisors. This could be your first “McCain choosing Palin” kind of mistake: it sounded good when you thought of it, but when it actually took place, the result was not so helpful.
But, the worse mistake for those of us who have an interest in Theology is that Rick Warren gets God wrong, misunderstands Jesus and, thus, insults believers. Jeremiah Wright gets God right (it is not a pun). The American public, especially the good ole boy evangelicals who run the GOP might not think so, but that is because they get God wrong. Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, was rejected by the King and King’s priests exactly because he had a message that called the nation to repentance, not self glory. Jeremiah Wright, in what I have heard of him, does the same. It is the word of God that interests Jeremiah, not the approval of the “silent majority”.
Rick Warren dilutes God for the sake of book sales, reducing God to being the source of our “purpose” in life. The God whose love is shown in its depth exactly for its special concern for the poor, for justice, for peace, for human understanding, for those who are marginated by society and cast out and made weak is not to be found in Rick’s theology. His God will save your soul for a quick prayer at the altar, but will not ask you to love the one you hate or sacrifice for the sake of justice for the other.
Let me state it another way. If the purpose of an invocation is to call down or ask for a blessing upon our new president and the nation he will serve that can really “save” us from the current trouble, the God Rick prays to cannot give this blessing because the God he will pray to is not Almighty God who heard the cry of his people and delivered them from slavery, but rather God in the pocket of political ideologues who pander to self absorbed Americans who want individual salvation (exemption from problems) with no social responsibility. The problem with Rick is that he get’s God wrong and we don't need more false gods showering blessings upon us. We all make mistakes, Mr. President. When we make mistakes the best thing to do is to confess them and change our ways and I hope you do.