Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

March 06, 2007

Edwards: America Selfish, Jesus Would Be "Appalled"

John Edwards invokes the old "What would Jesus do?" question popular among the left:

Edwards, in an interview with the Web site Beliefnet.com, said Jesus would be most upset with the selfishness of Americans and the country's willingness to go to war "when it's not necessary."

Edwards also said he was against teacher-led prayers in public schools, but he added that "allowing time for children to pray for themselves, to themselves, I think is not only OK, I think it's a good thing."

(Note to AP editors: When referring to Jesus, it's customary to capitalize the pronoun "He." But then, that might violate the "no respect" clause for Christianity in the AP Style Guide.)

Is John Edwards trying to suck up to the very people he offended during the short-lived careers of his anti-Christian campaign bloggers? Look, Edwards may consider himself to be a religious man, and that's fine by me. But his party's politics generally run against what conservative Christians believe in, and Edwards has proven himself to be a party line kind of guy (and I'm not talking about the conga line). On abortion issues alone, see how Edwards voted while he was a senator for North Carolina:

*Voted NO on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime. (Mar 2004)
*Voted NO on maintaining ban on Military Base Abortions. (Jun 2000)
*Voted NO on banning partial birth abortions. (Oct 1999)
*Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)
*Expand embryonic stem cell research. (Jun 2004)

Abortion is a huge issue with the conservative Christian community. Saying that kids should be allowed private time during the school day to pray or meditate silently isn't likely to white out that voting record.

And sure, Edwards can go around talking about how selfish Americans are, but from where I sit, he seems to be a bit more selfish than most. This 2004 CNN report says Edwards and his wife gave 8.6% of their income between 1994 and 2004, or about $3.3 million. Now $3.3 million is certainly nothing to sneeze at. I wish I could afford to give that much! But in just one year, Dick Cheney and his wife gave away nearly $7 million to various charities. (Of course, the media jumped all over the fact that he got a refund that year, but what else to expect?) Yet who is considered to be the greedy one and who's the righteous one in the media?

By the way, how's the house coming along, John?