Joe Scarbrough Slams Pastor Jeffress

In a recent column on Politico, Joe Scarborough proves that there are a few decent conservatives around, albet the numbers seem to have dwindled badly. Why so? Because he goes after Pastor Robert Jeffress (pictured at right) and similar hate merchants who wrap themselves in the Bible even as they engage in evil deeds and make a mockery of Christ's message of not judging others. Scarborough even uses a term that I use on occasion to describe bastards like Jeffress: modern day Pharisees. After the Roman Catholic Church few large denominations display more hypocrisy and homophobia than the Southern Baptist Convention and Jeffress is a big deal in the SBC. It's individuals like Jeffress who constantly judge others who are helping to drive younger members from the SBC. A trend that one can only hope continues until a critical mass is reached and the SBC either moves into the 21st century or collapses and withers away. Yes, the latter is a delicious thought to contemplate. Here are some highlights from Scarborough's piece:

Judge not that ye be not judged”; so said Jesus. But don’t try telling that to Southern Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress. Jeffress, a prominent Texas preacher and Rick Perry supporter, created a firestorm at last weekend’s Values Voters Summit by omnipotently declaring that cult member Mitt Romney was headed straight for hell.

Isn’t that special? I have always been fascinated by mere mortals who arrogantly ignore Jesus’s teachings to make declarations about the salvation of other men’s souls. By assuming the Almighty’s role, Jeffress has embraced the proud tradition of Christian stalwarts like Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard and the PTL Club’s Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.

Modern American politics as practiced by Jeffress and his ilk require that Jesus Christ be thrown under the bus with great regularity by the very same people who claim His name. For these modern day Pharisees, a president who declares Jesus Christ as his personal lord and savior is to be doubted if he is from the wrong political party.

[I]n all the years I spent going to Southern Baptist churches, attending Sunday school, Sunday morning services, Training Union, Sunday night services, Tuesday Bible studies, Wednesday night church supper, Vacation Bible School, Bible drills from the age of 5, and just about every other fellowship meeting that the Baptist church offers, I can recall nothing in Jesus’s teachings or the New Testament that should fill you with the kind of self-righteous arrogance to declare to Americans which candidate is spiritually fit for the Oval Office. That’s not just bad politics. It is bad theology.

[O]ne of the great truths that even I absorbed was Jesus Christ’s repeated warnings to his followers to shun the self-righteousness of religious leaders and instead to lead with love. . . . . Jesus declared that heaven would be filled by those believers who clothed the poor, fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty and brought hope to the hopeless.

And I wonder how much longer candidates like Perry will allow modern-day Pharisees like Jeffress to do harm to the Republican Party.

For years now, GOP leaders have sat silent as extremists called political rivals everything from “Nazi” to “Racist” to “Marxist.” Now we can add “Cultist” to the GOP lexicon. how some courage, Gov. Perry. Stand up to a powerful supporter, because sometimes being tough requires more of a man than shooting a coyote in the face.

Ouch! Scarborough is 100% on point, of course. What is the most sad about today's GOP is that even arch conservatives like Scarborough - who held a seat in Congress for the GOP some years back - now are labeled as soft or "RINOS" by the Kool-Aid drinkers and their spineless political whores in the GOP.