Politics and Lies - Or, Where's the Integrity?!?

I was watching THE PRINCESS BRIDE Wednesday while staying home to nurse this cold/flu that's been lingering for almost a week. There is a great scene with Carol Kane and Billy Crystal. Crystal plays Miracle Max, the man called upon to bring Westley back to life to save Buttercup from the evil Prince Humperdinck. The noble reason for working this miracle is "true love" - only when the "mostly dead" body utters those words, he refuses to think that's what was said. That's when Kane, playing his wife, comes rushing around the corner: "Liar! Liar! Liii-eeeeerr!"

I keep hearing those charges - "Liar! Liii-eeeerr!" - with every piece of political news, every soundbite, every campaign commercial, and every politically motivated talk-radio host. If fifty percent of what the Democratic party says about the Republican machine is right, they're filthy. And if fifty percent of what the Republicans allege against the Democrats is right, they're equally out there. I'm just fed up with not having anyone with real integrity, and it seems that we don't deal with real issues in real ways.

I know deep down that it's the fault of the Church - and maybe that's why I'm so fed up. There shouldn't be a need for welfare reform in a country where the founding fathers were supposed to have laid this vast foundation of Judeo-Christian ethics. There shouldn't be a need to deal with aggressive soldiers in the Iraqi prisons, abusing real people with such humiliation - why is that kind of angry attitude allowed an atmosphere to burn if we're really the country we claim to be? Instead of leading the way, the Church tags along with whichever political entity most closely mirrors the interpretation-of-the-day, and lines are drawn within the Bride of Christ to divide the Christian Right from the Christian Left. Instead of changing the world and charging into the world as the Kingdom of God here on earth, we sit back and hope it just gets better before the Rapture comes.
- posted by Rick @ 16:43