Blaming God vs the government

I will admit that, other than admiring Obama’s speech on race immediately after the Jeremiah Wright nonsense surfaced, I have not followed the so-called controversy, nor have I actually seen Wright as he has dug the hole deeper and deeper on CNN. However, in the wake of Barak Obama’s near-victory in Indiana and blowout in N. Carolina, I thought it was interesting to see this observation from http://scienceavenger.blogspot.com:

The reason the Wright endorsement is a problem for Obama, but the Hagee endorsement isn't a problem for McCain, is because Americans have a great tolerance of lunacy coming from ministers, so long as it is a particular brand of lunacy. Hagee's just happens to the acceptable variety, and Wright's isn't. What's the difference? Wright left out the intermediary: God. He forgot the Golden Rule of American society: statements with "God" in them should be tolerated. 



Fact is, you can pretty much get away with saying anything as long as you blame it on Jesus. Thanking Jesus for winning a boxing match never ever gets the "You think Jesus would help you beat the shit out of someone else" retort it deserves. Praising the same God who apparently decided to destroy your town with a tornado for deciding not to kill YOUR child today is seen as somehow loving and sweet. So why not Hagee's claim that Yahweh hates fags and New Orleans, or Robertson's claim that God hates the ACLU. Those claims are certainly not MORE deranged than thinking the creator of the universe helped your kick hook inside the uprights for the game-winning fieldgoal. 



Wright made the mistake of attacking the United States directly, accusing it of being responsible for 9/11, and really, in a basic, animalistic evaluation of the facts, it's the most reasonable (or least loony if you like) thing he said. But you don't do that in our society, not without giving the gods the blame. Nor do you claim government scientists created AIDS to commit genocide. That's the real demented thing about all of this. God is supposed to be so benevolent and perfect, whereas the US government has a host of flaws and sins on its record. Yet it is deemed OK, by the most pious and anti-government among us, to blame God for people dying, but not the US government.