So easily we slander.

Google “anti-Christ” and see what you get.  That’s what he said.  In fact his pastor had suggested it.

So easily we do it.  Slander, character assassination.  But don’t worry because it’s okay if your cause is just.  Actually we don’t usually say that out loud but we do live by the rule.  And it doesn’t matter whether Republican or Democrat, God-believer or atheist, every group does it.

My friend passed that suggestion along to me from his pastor the other morning.  As we were visiting, he gave me a handout which demonstrated how John McCain was the clear choice for president over Barack Obama.  A little later in the conversation he suggested that I “google” the word anti-Christ as I may be interested in the results.

I wasn’t.  I already had the point.  Demonize the enemy so our righteous cause prevails.

It’s kind of like how some people view the process of selling a car.  It’s just business, nothing personal.  So what if a little information is withheld or embellished, everyone does it.  After all, it’s just business.  So the single mom who scraped together just enough money to provide transportation for her family shouldn’t take it personally when the transmission gives out in four or five weeks.

It’s just business.  It’s just politics.  Obama is this distant figure, a target, the object of our rallying cry.  Don’t take it personally, Barack.  We’re just calling you the anti-Christ.  It’s just politics.  And it’s so easy.  So easy in fact that we can do it in our churches and no one raises an objection.

So that is what I am doing as an evangelical, fundamental, Bible-toting believer in Jesus Christ.  I’m saying it is wrong.  It is very wrong.

I learned this several years ago as we evangelicals delighted in slinging mud at “Slick Willie.”  You remember ol’ Willie, don’t you?  President William Jefferson Clinton.  I was a pastor then and did my part in bashing Slick Willie.  Until I read one day in Paul’s letter to the Romans that Slick Willie was one of God’s ministers of government, that his being president was a God-thing.

So I had a choice to make.  I would either honor and respect President Bill Clinton, the person God had appointed to lead our country, or I would choose to disobey God.

That ended the Slick Willie talk for me.  My cause wasn’t righteous enough to justify ignoring God’s instruction.  Is yours?

This is what I sent in to our local newspaper for the editorial page.  I hadn’t written an opinion letter for twenty years but felt compelled to do so.

Here is a link to the Romans text.