Guest Post by Morbo
Stuart Shepard is the type of right-wing Christian whose vision of faith is more informed by the mean-spirited, vengeful God of the Old Testament than the founder of the religion he so claims to cherish.
Shepard makes his living producing short videos for James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, the largest, best-funded Religious Right group in the nation. Shepard undoubtedly believes these videos are hip and clever. I suppose they are — if you’re a benighted fundamentalist Christian who just got web access last week. (“Look, Ma, I’m surfing the ‘internets.'”)
Consider Shepard’s most recent effort. He asks Christians to pray for rain on the evening of Aug. 28, when Sen. Barack Obama is scheduled to give an outdoor address at Denver’s Mile High Stadium during the Democratic National Convention.
Shepard calls for “abundant rain, torrential rain … flood-advisory rain.” He adds, “I’m talking about umbrella-ain’t-gonna-help-you rain … swamp-the-intersections rain.” (He later denies he wants people to be flooded out of their homes, however.)
Why would Shepard pray for this? As he puts it, “I’m still pro-life, and I’m still in favor or marriage being between one man and one woman.”
Oh, I see.
Obama favors legal abortion and supports rights for gay people, and thus God should smote him with a downpour. But why stop with rain? If Obama’s views are this evil, wouldn’t it make more sense to pray for an earthquake, too? That would teach Obama and all of the secular humanists who support him.
Shepard denies he wants anyone to be harmed by this deluge, but a rain that swamps intersections and sparks flood advisories is not be trifled with. I’d guess that people in the Midwest, who grappled with rains like this recently, would not find Shepard’s comments amusing.
Shepard’s suggestion isn’t funny, witty or clever. It’s just mean-spirited and immature. It is also nothing like what Jesus would do.