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Sunday, July 23, 2006

Thanks be to God?

This morning I linked to an old friend's church website and read his most recent "letter from the pastor." It ended with the words, "The wisdom of God surrounds us. Thanks be to God!"

I share the belief that we are surrounded by and can participate in something we might call "God's wisdom," and I believe that gratitude (not taking good things for granted, but accounting them blessings) is a valuable attitude and makes a significant difference in the tone of a person's life.

But it seems to me that thanking GOD for things that make us glad implies reproaching God for things that make us mad...such as the fact that we have in our country today a pretend president who makes statements like
My desire [is] to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq—where there is a free press and free religion—and I told [Russian President Vladimir Putin] that a lot of people in our country would hope Russia would do the same thing.

Bush's "good friend" Putin, into whose soul Bush imagines he can look, responded that he didn't think Russians would want to promote what's going on in Iraq. And more and more Americans are coming to agree with him.

While I am grateful for this, I don't thank God for it, anymore than I blame God that Bush supporters seem to vote for political leaders for much the same reason they select country club members: "What will this person do for me or my interests? Is this person 'one of us'?" (Thanks to a friend of fifty years, a high school classmate, for this formulation of Bush voter values.)

So, whether God has anything to do with Bush's dwindling support, or with the growing numbers who realize that the man's a nincompoop, I don't know. But I'm still grateful.

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