Jesus vs. George

George W. Bush won the presidency twice by playing the religion card. He convinced the Christian majority that he was one of them, and that he would defend their good Christian family values. Christian leaders endorsed him fervently.

But wait a minute. I was raised to believe that a Christian is one who follows the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Bible, and who lives by those teachings.

So then can George W. Bush truly be called a Christian?

Let's compare the teachings of Jesus with the words of "born again" Bush, and then decide.

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Jesus: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." (Matthew 5:9)

George: "I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind." (NBC's "Meet the Press", February 2004)

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Jesus: "Judge not, that you be not judged." (Matthew 7:1)

George: "States like [North Korea, Iran, and Iraq], and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil." (State of the Union Address, January 2002)

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Jesus: "Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes', and your 'No' mean 'No'. Anything more is from the evil one." (Matthew 5:37)

George: "The fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in." (Washington, DC, July 2003)

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Jesus: "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:24)

George: "This is an impressive crowd -- the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite, I call you my base." (At a dinner for wealthy New York socialites, October 2000)

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Jesus: "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the [temple] treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything -- all she had to live on." (Mark 12:43)

George: "Poor people are poor because they're lazy." (To one of his professors at Harvard Business School, as quoted in the "Seattle Weekly", December 2004)

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Jesus: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." (Matthew 5:5)

George: "I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation." (Washington, DC, September 2001)

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Jesus: "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me... Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." (Matthew 25:40-45)

George: "Please don't kill me." (Mocking convicted murderer Karla Faye Tucker after her plea for clemency, as quoted in "Talk Magazine", September 1999)

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Jesus: "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s." (Matthew 22:21)

George: "The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway." (Annandale, VA, August 2004)

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Jesus: "Watch out that you are not deceived." (Luke 21:8)

George: "You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." (At a Washington dinner, March 2001)

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Jesus: "Honor your father and mother." (Matthew 19:19)

George: "[George H. W. Bush] is the wrong father to appeal to for advice. The wrong father to go to, to appeal to in terms of strength. There's a higher Father that I appeal to." (As quoted by CBS News, April 2004)

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Jesus: "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:5-6)

George: "Prayer is a vital part of our national life." (Washington, DC, May 2002)

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Jesus: "False Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect." (Mark 13:21-23)

George: "I trust God speaks through me." (Lancaster County, PA, July 2004)

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And so on.

I searched the entire New Testament, and nowhere could I find a passage in which Jesus advocates for a life of arrogance, selfishness, dishonesty, or greed.

I'd say it's time to send George back to bible school -- or back to Texas!