Loving the Word with the MudPreacher

Back in ancient Biblical times, Babylon (Iraq today) was a major world power. The Jews of Judah refused to see Babylon’s danger, aided by the lies of the Chief Priest Pashur, who prophesied to the people that everything would work out, and Judah (Israel today) would be victorious against them.

The prophet Jeremiah was raised up by God to reveal the lies of Pashur, who reacted violently, having Jeremiah beaten and imprisoned in stocks. When Pashur came to release Jeremiah, Jeremiah told him that his name had been changed by God. God now called him “Danger-Everywhere” because of his refusal to ignore the dangers of Babylon and in fact lie about them. Jeremiah proclaimed Pashur a danger to himself and everyone around him. All of his friends would be killed in battle while he watched. Babylon would plunder Judah and do whatever they liked with them. Jeremiah warned Pashur that he and his family would be taken into exile, exile in Babylon. He and all his “cronies” to whom he preached his lies. Here is the Biblical account as the Message Bible interprets:

Jeremiah 20:1-6 (MSG) The priest Pashur son of Immer was the senior priest in God’s Temple. He heard Jeremiah preach this sermon. He whipped Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate of God’s Temple. The next day Pashur came and let him go. Jeremiah told him, “God has a new name for you: not Pashur but Danger-Everywhere, because God says, ‘You’re a danger to yourself and everyone around you. All your friends are going to get killed in battle while you stand there and watch. What’s more, I’m turning all of Judah over to the king of Babylon to do whatever he likes with them—haul them off into exile, kill them at whim. Everything worth anything in this city, property and possessions along with everything in the royal treasury—I’m handing it all over to the enemy. They’ll rummage through it and take what they want back to Babylon. ” ‘And you, Pashur, you and everyone in your family will be taken prisoner into exile—that’s right, exile in Babylon. You’ll die and be buried there, you and all your cronies to whom you preached your lies.’ “

All of a sudden a book bursts forth on the American political scene which makes the Bush administration and George Bush himself seem like Pashur, or should we say “Danger-Everywhere”? Here are some pointed excerpts from the book by former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan:

Most of our elected leaders in Washington, Republicans and Democrats alike, are good, decent people. Yet too many of them today have made a practice of shunning truth and the high level of openness and forthrightness required to discover it. Most of it is not willful or conscious. Rather, it is part of the modern Washington game that has become the accepted norm.

As I explain in this book, Washington has become the home of the permanent campaign, a game of endless politicking based on the manipulation of shades of truth, partial truths, twisting of the truth, and spin. Governing has become an appendage of politics rather than the other way around, with electoral victory and the control of power as the sole measures of success. That means shaping the narrative before it shapes you. Candor and honesty are pushed to the side in the battle to win the latest news cycle… The press amplifies the talking points of one or both parties in its coverage, thereby spreading distortions, half-truths, and occasionally outright lies in an effort to seize the limelight and have something or someone to pick on.

Most objective observers today would say that in 2003 there was no urgent need to address the threat posed by Saddam with a large-scale invasion, and therefore the war was not necessary. But this is a question President Bush seems not to want to grapple with.

I still like and admire George W. Bush. I consider him a fundamentally decent person, and I do not believe he or his White House deliberately or consciously sought to deceive the American people. But he and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war. Had a high level of openness and forthrightness been embraced from the outset of his administration, I believe President Bush’s public standing would be stronger today. His approval ratings have remained at historic lows for so long because both qualities have been lacking to this day. In this regard, he was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security.

All the president can do today is hope that his vision of Iraq will ultimately come true, putting the Middle East on a new path and vindicating his decision to go to war. I would welcome such a development as good for America, good for Iraq, and good for the world. Bush knows that posterity has a way of rewarding success over candor and honesty. But as history moves to render its judgment in the coming years and decades, we can’t gloss over the hard truths this book has sought to address and the lessons we can learn from understanding them better. Allowing the permanent campaign culture to remain in control may not take us into another unnecessary war, but it will continue to limit the opportunity for careful deliberation, bipartisan compromise, and meaningful solutions to the major problems all Americans want to see solved. Adapted from the book WHAT HAPPENED: INSIDE THE BUSH WHITE HOUSE AND WASHINGTON’S CULTURE OF DECEPTION by Scott McClellan. Copyright 2008 by Scott McClellan.

The excerpts plus additional revelations in the newswire this morning indicate that President Bush along with his advisor’s deliberately “sold” America on the invasion of Iraq because of their own political agenda. They deliberately ignored reality and spread half-truth’s to achieve their end.

The Bush administration has been quick to label McClellan as a “disgruntled” former employee. If it was back in Bible times, he would have been beaten and placed in stocks for public humiliation.

I am a Republican and voted for George W Bush, but our leaders have a responsibility to be honest and forthright. If the book excerpts are an honest reflection of the contents, this book should be very disturbing to the American people. Jeremiah has come forth and revealed George Bush as Pashur and is calling him “Danger-Everywhere”.

Perhaps we should realize that George Bush has become a danger to himself, his Country and God-fearing American’s everywhere. This war in Babylon (Iraq) has the potential of consuming the assets of America including our young men and women. It is folly and shame that it should have been predicated upon the lies of a Pashur.