Demonizing The Opposition

“Kerry Seeks Support in Black Churches,” the Washington Post reports today, accompanied by a picture of the candidate praying with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton at a church in Miami.

The Democrats, who frequently become apoplectic at the “religious right’s” involvement in politics, welcome the participation of the religious left. Indeed, no seems to have objected when the pastor of the Miami church, Rev. Gaston E. Smith, not only endorsed Kerry from the pulpit but virtually annointed him as the Second Coming:

To bring our country out of despair, despondency and disgust, God has a John Kerry.

And what was Kerry’s reaction?

Kerry, who has compared Bush to those in the Bible story who ignored the wounded man before the Good Samaritan helped him, joked about the risk of being upstaged by Jackson and Sharpton. He said he didn’t mind because “God’s speaking here today, and we’re going to listen.”

Aside from invocations of God’s enlisting in the election and the quaint implication about Kerry being his begotten (or perhaps misbegotten) son, something actually ugly raised its head and became visible in that Miami Baptist church. There have been frequent laments about the increasing harshness of those who “demonize the opposition,” but this is usually simply a figure of speech. But in that Miami church it became literally true, through the good offices of Rep. Carrie Meeks (D, Fla.), who declared that Kerry is “fighting against liars and demons.

And the nominee’s reaction to the demonizaton of his opposition? “Kerry smiled.”

UPDATE

For a thorough, impressive demolition of the Rev. John Kerry, see this post by LaShawn Barber.

Say What? (9)

  1. Thomas J. Jackson October 11, 2004 at 10:31 pm | | Reply

    You mean the congregation wasn’t treated to a sermon on the bonds of matrimony by Jessie?

  2. dustbury.com October 12, 2004 at 9:24 am | | Reply

    Sunday will never be the same

    Everything I’ve read and heard tells me that John Kerry takes his religious faith seriously; he has, to be sure, some substantial differences with official Catholic doctrine, but I’m not…

  3. mj October 12, 2004 at 11:39 am | | Reply

    Propaganda loses its effectiveness as it becomes recognizable for what it is. As the Dems lose the benefits of having MSM shill for them they are going to see drastically negative, and from their point of view, unexplainable, election pattern shifts.

  4. Claire October 12, 2004 at 1:42 pm | | Reply

    Quite a few people are coming around to the realization that for the far left, their beliefs amount to what is effectively a religion. They worship at the altar of “affirmative action” and identity politics, of ideals of the evils of wealth and of capitalism. Their reaction to those who question their ‘dogma’ seems to be to brand the questioners as ‘heretics’ and shout them down. They also continuously label the opposition as ‘evil’ or ‘demonic’, and seek to inspire what amounts to religious zeal in their followers.

    So tell me again how the left is supposed to be secular, humanistic, and anti-religious? You couldn’t tell it from their behavior, which reflects the negative aspects of blind religious fervor down through the ages. These extremists aren’t really much different even in degree from the religious fanatics of Islamofascism; witness the violence of protests and ‘peace marches’, the organized violence against Republican campaign headquarters this past week, and the constant repeating of ‘dogma’ by their self-annointed ‘priests’, irregardless of the questions or discussion.

    Those on the right and in the middle need to be very, very careful; assuming that your opponents ascribe to the same rules of logic, reason, and morality that you do, and that differences are only due to interests or perspective, may serve to leave the rest of us unprepared for what may become a culture of extremist secular ‘religion’. As a former left-of-middle liberal who has gradually moved right-of-center on many issues, I can say that I find the emotional irrationality of the left to be more and more frightening. We hear over and over that liberals seem to believe that the end justifies the means; I suspect that most of the rest of us either don’t really understand what that means or are fundamentally incapable of believing that our fellow countrymen could really have such morally reprehensible belief systems. I fear that we may find out all too soon, in the most unpleasant way possible, if the left prevails in November.

  5. La Shawn Barber's Corner October 12, 2004 at 9:52 pm | | Reply

    John Kerry and Jeremiah

    Update: John Kerry and I have had this “conversation” before. Back in March, I addressed his butchering of James 2 (my first Instalanche and generated about 60 comments on my old blog), and this was the follow-up. Also, I’ve edited the post below fo…

  6. dcthornton.com October 12, 2004 at 10:32 pm | | Reply

    The Great White Hopeful?

    Another recent presentation of the John Kerry Gospel Hour.

  7. Ubique Patriam Reminisci October 13, 2004 at 2:51 am | | Reply

    John Kerry, Religious Fascist

    OH NOES. Things were bad enough when it was evident that George W. Bush envisioned himself as a religious crusader on a mission, but this is just too much!

    If the Catholic priest was trying to send a message to Mr. Kerry, Pastor Gaston E. Smith …

  8. […] mass immigration is imposing on America.  (Note also that Leftists don’t care about the “separation of church and state” if religious leaders are helping […]

Leave a Reply to dustbury.com Click here to cancel reply.