Unwanted Bedfellows

I was watching the lastest chapter of VH1's The Surreal Life, the Omarosa vs Janice version and ... well, let's just say that Omarosa was downright evil and mean. Hey, Janice Dickinson is not the sanest person, but she didn't seem cruel to me.

Interestingly enough both were religious in their own way. But what amazed me was that at the end of the episodes, after being downright nasty to Janice, self-righteous Omarosa (speaking to her mom on the phone) declares, "She needs Jesus, Mama." Yep, I coulda cringed. Why, oh why, do some Christian people say that in such a self-righteous way? Hey, we all need Jesus.

That kind of situation just makes the rest of us Christians look like cruel pious self-involved folks. It didn't help matters that she was black. Gosh, I cringed.

So that's one bedfellow I have to deal with. Since Ms Omarosa is a Christian and all.
But then there was President Bush. I neither like nor dislike him. He's human with vices and virtues like the rest of us. Although....truth to tell the way many Bible-believers act, one would think he was a prophet sent by God. Call me cynical but I am very suspicious of every human being. Especially ones who use my religion. And it annoys me no end that a mere person could cause so much divisiveness among Christians. I mean, I suspect only the anti-christ would get Bible-believing Christians arguing with each other. It seems as if only the truly elect would know that Bush is saintly or otherwise.

Over the past three years I have lost my liberal friends because I defended the president, and lost Bible-believing friends because I criticized him. Okay, I'm against abortion, against capital punishment, against the Iraqi War, pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian homeland. This is what kinda happens when you're a Christian who is a minority in the United States. But Christianity in America has sooo many political definitions, well....let's just say that we are living in dangerous times when have to totally praise or totally reject politicians, and when we define our faith by what we think about politicians. WWJD?

I am sure there are folks out there who cringe that I am their bedfellow. They want Christians to be seen as nice, kind, nonjudgemental. Hey, I'm nice, kind, non-judgemental. But there are certain things I say -- certain Biblical things-- which will definitely annoy a few folks. "Why does she say that? Doesn't Carole know that talking about Jesus being God's son kinda annoy folks? Doesn't Carole know that talking about Christianity just makes her look like some unenlightened uneducated Black person? We Blacks have outgrown that." That kinda stuff. Well, I believe what I believe. And while many modern folks have given up their faith in Christianity (not other religions mind you, because it seems that only Christians are treated like idiotic unenlightened persecuters) I will not be shamed into tossing away my religion.

So ... as it is, I -- like many Christians-- have strange bedfellows. And if I want to be accepted by many American Christians, it appears I must follow a particular political line. Everything is so darn cut and dried now. In my story, Homecoming at the Borderlands Cafe, which will be published in the Jigsaw Nation anthology in March 2006, I manage to pick on both the red states and the blue states. Alas, why don't I learn to ALWAYS praise one group ONLY and to ALWAYS pick on the other.