Protest in Harrisburg

I will be traveling to Harrisburg, tomorrow, to visit a city where I once called home, now on the brink of financial disaster. I'll be there to protest Mayor Thompson's "Don't blame me I'm Religious" attempt to protect herself from criticism using Christianity as a shield. Article here.

She's apparently a religious bigot, having abused her authority and caused members of her own team to quit their jobs to escape religion-based insults, prayer-fests and conversion attempts. Also apparently, despite plenty of warning, she was incapable of doing her primary job of keeping the city out of financial trouble and is now pulling the religion card in order to keep her job.

She has broken the law she swore (to God) to uphold by asking her constituents to pray to God and join her in fasting to get her city out of debt. Hopefully, the employees who haven't quit yet will be changed by the all-powerful ruler of the Universe and pull together, somehow allowing the city to get out of debt. You figure it out. The irony of such a divisive woman praying for unity does not go un-noticed.

What HAS gone unnoticed is her use of the Christian religion for her own personal gain. I am reminded of President Clinton who, after the Lewinsky scandal broke, immediately went to church to show how moral he was (I have vivid memories of him on TV leaving a church, clutching a Bible, flanked by preachers). Now, Mayor Thompson, having failed in her primary duty, is hiding behind her religion as well. It's a smart move, and it's apparently working very well, as religious sheep show their unwavering support for the woman so deeply religious that she is willing to break the law in order to divert everyone's attention. If people were actually looking only at her performance with an objective eye, she'd be impeached immediately, but this religious stunt is allowing her to escape with her job, like Clinton. Clinton's specter was immorality, Thompson's is incompetence.

I can't think of a better example (save Clinton) of a politician using religion for political gain. Christians fall for it over and over again, so the politicians do it over and over again. It's regrettable that she is using churches to protect her job, instead of taxing the churches to pay off the city's debt. It's unfortunate that so few people voted in her election that they elected an incompetent mayor. But perhaps worst of all is the Teflon coating that protects those who use religion when they can't handle their responsibility.

I hope I see some Christians on OUR side of tomorrow's picket. No Christian should tolerate Christianity being used to protect the pathetic.

We will be handing out protein bars at the protest. Protein helps you think.

By Dave Silverman