 | Here’s MY Favorite Bible Verse, Tim Russert |
Tim Russert took the last few valuable minutes of a Presidential Debate to demand every candidate answer the question, “What is your favorite Bible Verse?”
What is your favorite Bible Verse?
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BIBLE VERSE?
Here’s my favorite Goddamn Bible Verse:
EXODUS 135:1-2: Thou Shalt Not Use Thine Media Post to Put Presidential Candidates on the Spot and Force Them to Recite Allegiance to Christian Religion. It is an Abomination, Tacky and a Waste of Time. Like Shrimp.
Or, as Joe Biden effectively retorted:
“The Pharisees. I’m worried about the Pharisees, Tim.”
That would be you, Reverend Tim.
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“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.” Words of Jesus. Sure does sound like separation of church and state there.
Comment by Iroquois — 9/26/2007 @ 11:20 pm
Notice how Mike Gravel dodged the question? That’s the second time. He’s a Unitarian. I don’t think he’s a Christian. Whatever the case, his was the best response, I think, though Biden’s was good too. The other candidates were pandering, just like Tim Russert was.
How about at the next debate, the presidential candidates are required to identify their favorite verse from the Baghavad Gita?
It’s disgusting how the media pushes presidential candidates into proving how Christian they are, as if being a Christian in particular is a qualification for office.
Tim Russert ought to be ashamed of himself.
Comment by J. Clifford — 9/27/2007 @ 6:55 am
“No one buys or sells without the money of the beast on/in mind or hand.” — Apocalypse
“You can’t serve God & Money: you’ll either love the one and hate the other.” — Jesus
I love what Biden said, warning us of the Pharisees. Who did he mean, pious hypocrites without a conscious like Joe Liberman (the Ultimate Pharisee) and George Bush or the Zionists & Neo-Cons?
Biden has my vote!
Comment by Raquel Baranow: 666isMONEY — 9/27/2007 @ 10:34 am
Years ago it was not at all proper to talk about religion in public. It was not supposed to be something to wear on your sleeve. You were supposed to have a church, sure, but if you didn’t attend that much, it was no biggie as far as getting elected.
Asking the question in a public forum does give legitimacy to the very idea of asking it. I absolutely cringed when Tancredo in another debate, used a general question to “testify” to “accepting Jesus as his personal saviour.” Eeeww. Talk about the Pharisees using religion to boost their own self-importance.
Comment by Iroquois — 9/27/2007 @ 10:53 am
For me as a Christian, the question was an interesting one, not because I judge a candidate on their Christianity but because one’s favorite passage tells a good deal about their approach to life. It is not really a relevant question, however.
I respected that Kucinich did not answer with a quote from the Bible but rather the prayer of St. Francis, and I was impressed that like the Constitution, it’s always in his pocket.
Gravel actually did answer from the Bible, just in paraphrase (as did Clinton). Paul said, “The greatest of these is love” (I Corinthians 13:13). The Golden Rule, as such, does not appear in the Bible though the idea is there in similar language.
As to the responses of Obama and Richardson–c’mon, the “Sermon on the Mount” is a fallback when you don’t know what to quote. I wonder if they even know where it is found (Matthew 5-7). It is a long sermon and has many more than one principle–including hypocrisy.
Edwards (”What you do to the least of these, you do to me”), Biden (not a passage per se, but a reference to Jesus’ repeated castigation of the Pharisees), and Dodd (The Good Samaritan) gave more orignal answers. I found Biden’s to be by far the most incisive, recalling Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
Maybe next debate they can be asked their favorite quote from Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. Or Shakespeare: “What fools these mortals be!”
Comment by LM — 9/27/2007 @ 2:55 pm
How about their favorite line from the Tibetan Book of the Dead? It would be just as relevant.
What a dope Tim Russert is.
Comment by Fruktata — 9/27/2007 @ 3:37 pm
The sermon on the mount (New Testament) is a sort of litmus test between mainstream Protestant denominations (including Obama’s Church of God) and the goofy Baptist types who want to put the ten commandments (Old Testament) on courthouse lawns. Some groups do consider it to be a the defining document of Christianity as well as what makes it unique from other religions that also invoke the golden rule. So no “the sermon on the mount” is not a “fallback answer”, it is code.
Comment by Iroquois — 9/27/2007 @ 4:47 pm