"It is the principle of sin, rebellion against God and His truth
which has brought about birth defects and other destructive natural
occurrences."
It's difficult to take
"Bishop" E.W. Jackson seriously. God knows we've tried before ( OpEdNews, May 27 ) in warning Virginia
and the rest of the country that if he was "the future of
conservatism" (as Teabaggers put it), we were all in for very hard times.
Perhaps the problem lies not with Jackson himself, but with the GOP's failure
to see what they have in hand: a moralizing disaster in the making. From
calling Planned Parenthood "worse for blacks than the KKK" to
labeling the repeal of DADT a "disaster of epic proportions", the
Republican candidate for Virginia's second-highest office makes the GOP's new
"outreach" a parody of epic proportions.
Of course, Jackson sees himself as a savior. From the
Washington Post:
"I say the things that I say because I'm a
Christian, not because I hate anybody, but because I have religious values that
matter to me," Jackson told reporters at a campaign stop in Fredericksburg.
"Attacking me because I hold to those principles is attacking every
church-going person, every family that's living a traditional family life,
everybody who believes that we all deserve the right to live. So I don't have
anything to rephrase or apologize for. I would just say people should not paint
me as one-dimensional."
He may, however, have
a harder time defending his 2008 statement about birth defects and sin. It was
enshrined in his tome Ten Comandments to an Extraordinary Life (see cover
below). His one and only dimension seems to be casting aspersions of sin upon
everyone, including the disabled. In his interpretation of Scripture, "God
so hated the world that ..." He not only made everyone responsible for the
sins of their fathers, but sent His "only Begotten Son" to suffer on
earth for the world's biggest guilt trip.
Jackson's message of "outreach" is a wondrous negative of parity, a
turn-off, again, of epic proportions. The Republican Party will be hard pressed
to keep whatever moderates they have.
Then again, maybe there's a new rash of Christian Right-Wing-itis in the
Republican Party: it just announced a new Tea Party Southern Baptist to
spearhead evangelical outreach:
The Republican National Committee (RNC) has just
announced the hiring of a Tea Party Southern Baptist to strengthen its ties
with the Evangelical community, Chad
Connelly. Connelly, 49, is a motivational speaker and until his resignation
to work for the RNC, was the chairman of the South Carolina Republican
Party....Connelly, who has been described by a local South Carolina paper as "a
chronic liar," and reportedly believes America is a Christian nation, there
is no separation of church and state, and somehow only one person died on the
Mayflower -- "a sailor who cursed and mocked the Pilgrims' efforts" -- will be
the RNC's director of evangelical outreach.
And people like Cindy Jacobs, while not campaigning for public office, is still kept
around as an evangelical mascot for the GOP (via Rick Perry). She certainly
agrees with "Bishop" E.W. on the point of ancestral sin:
"If you are, perhaps you're Mexican and you might have indigenous
blood in you or Mayan blood, those who have Aztec blood in any way, you need to
repent for the sin of animism before you begin to deal with this spirit."
Righteously Arrogant
Overreach
Jackson's self-assessment as the embodiment of faith, family values and
righteous piety is not lost on the rest of America:
The (very conservative) Richmond
Times-Dispatch:
Every time the GOP loses an election,
conservatives argue that the party's mistake was not being conservative enough.
If only Republicans tacked harder to the right, these advocates say, they would
win more elections. Jackson will soon provide that theory with a perfect test
case.
... and Conservative
Black Chick:
Any conservative, who thinks E.W. Jackson winning Virginia's 2013
Republican Lieutenant Governor nomination is a good thing, needs to have his
head examined. A former marine, lawyer and minister, Jackson has made incendiary remarks about
gays, blacks and Democrats, which he said "I do not retract anything that I
said."
This "firebrand" won't help the Republican
ticket of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for Governor and Mark
Obenshain for Attorney General in a state that has become more purple than red
and in which the race for governor remains rancorous and tight. Jackson
referred to gays and lesbians as "sick" and "perverted" people and compared
homosexuality to pedophilia. Defending traditional marriage is one thing
encouraging hate is another.
Or as one comment put it:
Great news! The GOP were running a bit short on lying,
fundamentalist, bat sh*t crazy, no-brain scumbags. Now they're back up to their
quota. Well done.
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