Robertson cuts Faustian deal

The News Virginian / News Virginian
Published: November 11, 2007

As today's edition is unfolded at breakfast tables and in living rooms, many of our readers are preparing for the great Sunday ritual of churchgoing. Faith shapes life and thought throughout much of the Shenandoah Valley, a place where the misty Blue Ridge Mountains and panoramic views make the presence of the Almighty seem almost palpable.

It is difficult to conceive of a poorer match for musings on the transcendent than presidential politics. This is especially true when the politicians considered are a pair of New Yorkers whose idea of salvation appears to revolve more around an Oval Office than divine light. None of this prevented that stalwart of telereligion, the Rev. Pat Robertson, from injecting himself and thus, in the eyes of secular media at least, Christendom into the presidential conversation. Indeed, one of those New Yorkers evidently drove him to it - not Republican Rudolph Giuliani, whom Robertson endorsed last week, but Democrat Hillary Clinton, whom he fears.

In those cloistered places inside the Beltway, television studios and wherever national political pundits gather, Robertson's blessing of Giuliani, the lesser of two evils, stirred talk about the power of what many liberals consider the real evil, the so-called Christian right. Some believe that power has diminished, or at least they relish the prospect so much that they imagine it so. Assuredly, as Robertson's endorsement suggests, the might of the religious right is divided.

Just as Robertson appeared before the cameras and TV lights to back Giuliani, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, a favorite of many evangelicals, announced his endorsement of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. That was hailed as a boon for McCain by his staff, whose boss' Christian cred once took a pounding after he jabbed at Reverend Pat himself, referring to him as "an agent of intolerance." Beyond Brownback, a hue and cry arose throughout the national Christian community over the coupling of Robertson and Giuliani. The latter is pro-abortion, pro-gay rights and pro-gun control. Pontius Pilate looks like a better match. The question is, could Pilate beat Hillary-

It once was in vogue among Christians to ask, "What Would Jesus Do-" It is hard to imagine the Savior endorsing Giuliani or any of the remaining candidates, for that matter. Readers of the Bible — a group that includes many of our own readers — will recall Christ's frequent references to an otherwordly kingdom and his inferred admonition to believers that they should be "in the world, but not of it." This stands in contrast to the images we saw last week, of so many Christian leaders tumbling over themselves trying to pick a politician.

People of faith should vote with their values in mind, no matter how frequently those values are assailed. Christian leaders such as Robertson are well within their rights to express their presidential preferences. But if those preferences resemble ancient Roman governors more than the Savior for whom Christianity takes its name, we wonder, what is the point-