Replies to post #9910 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[sarai]

"THERE IS POWER IN THE BLOOD"???....

There are things about Bush that should concern those who value the freedoms that this secular nation affords.... Included in the State of the Union was a reference to a popular Evangelical/Born Again hymn:

"THERE IS POWER IN THE BLOOD'

Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you over evil a victory win?
There's wonderful power in the blood.


There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.


Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Come for a cleansing to Calvary's tide;
There's wonderful power in the blood.


There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.


Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Sin stains are lost in its life giving flow.
There's wonderful power in the blood.


There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.


Would you do service for Jesus your King?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you live daily His praises to sing?
There's wonderful power in the blood.


There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.



Words & Music by Lewis E. Jones, 1899

Jones wrote this song at a camp meeting at Mountain Lake Park, Maryland.


February 07, 2003
Wonder-working power
Tom Tomorrow (who generally annoys me, although I like his clip-art cartoon style) listened to the State of the Union address (I didn’t), and noted this allusion in the speech: “…an alert reader caught this line in the State of the Union address: ‘Yet there’s power, wonder-working power, in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people.’ As it turns out, the ‘power, wonder-working power’ bit is a reference to an old hymn, ‘There is Power in the Blood of the Lamb.’” He goes on to quote the lyrics of the hymn, which I will deliver in part here:

There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
It may seem that Bush is calling on the symbolism of “old-time religion” as it developed in the bedrock of this country in the last hundred and fifty years, to bolster his image. It is possible, but I’m not sure he’s that subtle. For him, the language of Christianity is a natural extension to his politics; I think that he considers himself a believer, but we can never be sure if the things he says are a natural outgrowth of a consuming relationship with God — which would be all right with me, within limits — or if this is the cynical PR of the consummate politician. I would say that if my second hypothesis were true, it would put to rest permanently the idea that Bush is slow or stupid — if he manipulated Christians in his constituency by the occasional allusion, evidenced by this phrase, then he is a politician right up there with his predecessor Bill Clinton, and no more a Texas bumpkin than Clinton was an Arkansas hayseed.

But both scenarios are scary to me: if Bush is using the language of evangelicalism because it comes naturally to him, then it puts him squarely in the camp of religious conservatives, and many of those have an apocalyptic view of the future, as we have noted before. People with their finger on the button — two decades ago “the button” was nuclear war with the Soviet Union, in this decade it is global conflict in the Middle East, beyond just war with Iraq — should not necessarily be focused on the fact that catastrophe is a necessary precursor to the Second Coming of Christ, because then we wonder if maybe they are just trying to push events along on their own eschatological timeline. But again, this is putting Bush down a little, suggesting that he can’t compartmentalize his religious beliefs and his duties as Chief Executive of the most powerful nation in the world.

On the other hand, he did use a traditional hymnodic phrase to describe the “goodness, idealism, and faith of the American people.” I think I’m disturbed, either way.

Posted by Charles Sebold at 07:58 AM / TrackBack / Current Events

http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:JRTxubgg7hYC:www.livingtorah.org/journal/archives/cat_current_e...

I am inclined to see Bush as a threat to "our way of life," our peace and our Constitution....I hope I am wrong!!....
Isn't the rise of religious extremism now and interesting phenomenon?......

[Aquarius]

Yes; GREAT POST; there are so many well considered and relevant points.

But, why not consider Bush's deplorable inability
to seperate the goal of disarming Sadam, from
the goal of deposing him? True psychosis, right?

What you really want, is to go in, and disarm Sadam,
but leave Sadam under full control of Iraq, do I have it
right? America can disarm, whatever the cost; but
under no circumstances, interfere with the incumbency?

Brilliant deduction, just like 40% pop. here in the US.

Not to mention, the elite News Media has equal perspicacity!

Great work!
Aquarius

[Zeev Hed]

The conclusion that Bush is "certifiable crazy" does not flow from that article at all. I would say that anyone would laud a goal of having freedom endowed to all people of the planet (whether this is a God given "right" or a simple a natural Human right). Rational people may differ on how to get to that lofty goal. If Bush was certifiable, he surely would impose the "right of freedom" on North Korean first, because it has been shown that Koreans in general know how to live in freedom without excess strife (Chinese have some the same gifts in Taiwan and Honk Kong, so target Red China...), while it must still be shown that a single Arabic state was really able to endow its population with these rights to freedom. Rational (rather than crazy) people may differ on how to achieve such lofty goals, the fact that Bush is not rushing to freedomize (democratize) North Korea, but he is rushing to do the same to Iraq, shows that he is quite pragmatic and not crazy, he believes that the Iraqi democratization task is achievable "here and now", while the North Korean democratization process may require few intermediate steps. While I disagree with the premise that it is our job to democratize Iraq, I surely must conclude that Bush is far from crazy in that he chose as a democratization task a feasible rather than an impossible target for democratization, and if successful, that might even spread to other Arab nations in the region.

Zeev