From Jacob Weisberg, in Newsweek, comes the quote of the day on the Bush legacy: "Once the country is rid of Bush, perhaps we can start developing a more nuanced understanding of how his presidency went astray. His was no ordinary failure, and he leaves not just an unholy mess but also some genuine mysteries."
No ordinary failure -- sounds like a book title, but I don't anticipate it as anyone's autobiography.
The past eight years have reminded me many times of why the apocryphal Chinese curse, "may you live in interesting times," is considered a curse. These have been extraordinary times, and perhaps no one leading through these years would have been even an ordinary success.
That is as charitable a thought as I can muster just now.
5 comments:
train wreck comes to mind. . .
yo sistah, freezin her butt off in GA
"His was no ordinary failure, and he leaves not just an unholy mess but also some genuine mysteries."
An "unholy mess"?
What does THAT mean?
I bet it means that we need a savior -- a messiah -- to save us from the "unholy mess" that George Bush left behind.
And that savior -- that messiah -- why, it's Barak Obama! (Or is it Nancy Pelosi? Barney Frank? Harry Reid?)
How many times, duirng the past eight years, did you lead your congregation in a prayer for President Bush?
Did you pray for God to bless him? Will you pray for God to bless President Obama? Did you lead your congregation in any prayers asking God to bless President Bush? Will you lead your congregation in any prayers asking God's blessing on President Obama?
Are your prayers conditional? Do you pray for those who agree with you, and not pray for those whose positions on issues are different from your own?
I wonder. I wonder.
As a member of the congregation, I offer this answer, anon.: we pray regularly, even weekly, for the leaders of this country and of the broader world. We understand that God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, but much greater than any label can encompass. The partisan-prayer that you suggest is antithetical to most members of the Clarendon Presbyterian Church. How about yours?
Our call to worship yesterday was Psalm 146, with its reminder not to put one's trust in princes and rulers. Our prayer came from one of Harry Emerson Fosdick's prayers for the nation. We spoke of the church's responsibility to hold the nation's leaders accountable to the better angel's of their natures. We've tried to do that with respect to President Bush and will try with President Obama, as well.
There's no question that most of us at CPC tend to agree more with Obama than with Bush in terms of policy directions, but we know that our hope is in the Lord, not in any elected official. We say it just that plainly on many Sundays.
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