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restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations
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Schwarzenegger: Bad Actor, Worse Governor
It’s the most difficult [decision] I’ve made in my entire life, except the one I made in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax. - Arnold Schwarzenegger announcing his gubernatorial candidacy on The Tonight Show.
I used to think that the best joke about Arnold Schwarzenegger was David Letterman’s late-night quip. He said the number one Arnold Schwarzenegger Campaign Promise was to “Speak directly to voters in clear, honest, broken English.” I’ve changed my mind, however, since reading the latest flurry of support for Schwarzenegger coming from conservative Republicans, many of whom are evangelical Christians.
That the question of whether evangelical Christians should vote for Schwarzenegger can even be raised shows how willing evangelicals are to compromise their principles when it comes to political elections. This is the philosophy that says Christian values don’t really matter in the political system. “Sure, Schwarzenegger is not as conservative as we’d like, but he’s a Republican—and that’s gotta be better than having a Democrat as governor!” Indeed, Schwarzenegger can and likely will win the recall election due largely to Republican voters who place pragmatism over principle.
For
what it’s worth, my message to evangelical voters in California is this.
If you want to choose as your next governor
a pro-abortion,
pro-homosexual, and anti-Second Amendment candidate, go right ahead. If
you want to vote for a man who in a 1977 interview admitted taking
part in group sex, have at it. If you want to confuse economic success
(which Schwarzenegger
certainly has achieved) with knowledge of the Constitution and
biblical law, you are certainly free to do so. Just forget that the man
you’re voting for has killed more than 300 people on screen, or that he
has posed for nude photos, or that he supports gun control, or that he
once compared weight-lifting with sex, or that he would allow women to
continue killing their babies. After all, a Republican governor is
needed in California, I dare say!
On the other hand, if you want a candidate who will restore morality, ethics, and common sense to public service, you’ll have to look elsewhere. If you seek a politician who will return our Constitution to its proper place in our Republic, you’ll have to look elsewhere. If you believe in an individual’s Constitutional right to keep and bear arms, you’ll have to look elsewhere. If you believe that a doctor, when treating a pregnant woman, has two patients—the mother and the unborn baby—you’ll have to look elsewhere. And in this case, “looking elsewhere” may mean not voting at all if that means compromising your Christian values.
Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, has stated that Arnold Schwarzenegger would create a “moral vacuum” in Sacramento if he became California’s governor. “As Governor, Mr. Schwarzenegger would be a darker villain than any he has faced in his movies. And when it comes to the moral issues that Californians really care about—he gives us inaction not action.” In other words, bad actor, worse governor.
Why evangelicals should still need proof that the Republican Party has sold its soul for election-day pottage is beyond me. But if you’re one who still holds to the lesser-of-two-evils philosophy, take a good hard look at the California recall election—and the support the Terminator is getting from “conservative” Christians.
September 9, 2003
David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.