PICK-A-POL (part 4)

THE PREACHERMAN™

"The day is coming, my brothers and sisters, when a man will return from heavens and lead his people to the Promised Land" ("Amen!")

"He will bring peace to the masses" ("Amen!")
"give shelter to the homeless" ("Amen!")
"He will heal the sickness and the suffering" ("Amen!")

"And best of all, my brothers and sisters…he will deliver us from pork barrel spending and give us this day our lower taxes!" ("Wait a minute. Are we talking about the same guy?")

Hope, redemption, change, the end of the morally corrupt world of present. Such is the domain of the Preacherman. They sound a lot like those holy men from the past; the ones who used their religion to change their world. But if you listen closely, my brothers and sisters, you’ll notice that Preacherman pols are less concerned with Kingdom Come than they are with Fiefdom Now.

In Washington, politics is religion. But, historically speaking, the reverse is also true. The Church was the world’s first tax-supported government - offering leadership, community, a contract of moral obligations, and at least ten civil laws in exchange for an annual tithe. Continuing on down the road a couple of thousand years, religiously themed rhetoric still packs a political punch. By now, it’s in the Blood.

But not just any politician can be anointed a Preacherman. One must have a certain charisma, above-average oratory skill, and the ability to guild their politics in spiritual gold. But, there’s a loophole…an indulgence if you will. Those who lack these attributes can still be considered Preachermen simply by wielding the Bible like a blunt instrument. Pat Robertson and the sitting President flash to mind.

The so-called separation of Church and State would seemingly preclude a Preacherman from holding political office. But remember, religion is politics as surely as politics is religion. And a few Preachermen always seem to capture the imagination of the spiritually famished American people. When preaching to the choir, they invigorate hope and spark dreams of a nation reborn. When preaching to the unconverted, they inspire what can only be described as a religious sense of dread. They are divisive figures, and for that reason Preachermen don’t often ascend to the Presidency. In the rare historical instances of a Preacherman President, a legacy of legendary proportions is assured. Whether the legacy is for good (Lincoln) or for ill (W.) depends mostly on the political religion of the man himself.

If you find yourself looking for a little of that old time religion this year, there’s a pair of Preachermen to choose from. The charismatically fresh-faced Barack Obama, who promises life after the recent death of the American dream. Or there's the revamped, polite version of the Christian cudgel - Rev. Mike Huckabee - who promises government by the Book (his interpretation, of course). Of the two, Obama is the only one with a prayer of getting the nomination. But the general election is another ball of wax, and never in the course of American history has one Preacherman President succeeded another. Still, one could argue that the only true antidote for a poisonous Preacherman like Bush is a promising Preacherman like Obama...or perhaps the apocalypse.

My advice: MATTHEW 7:15