Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Marco Rubio's goal is apparently "eternity"

The bizarro religious advertising of Marco Rubio has to be seen to be believed, at least for those of us living outside the United States, and not accustomed to this kind of excessive religiosity in our politics.
Rubio is a Cuban-American mainstream conservative politician. He is currently lying in third place in the Republican primaries, and is considered a relatively sensible and moderate candidate (by Republican standards). If Trump and Cruz's campaigns implode, which is far from unlikely, he could be left as the official GOP candidate for the US presidency. He could even become the next President.
Rubio was brought up Catholic, became a Mormon for a while, and then a devotee of the Southern Baptist and vehemently anti-gay marriage "superchurch" known as the Christ Fellowship. Apparently, he now considers himself both a Catholic and a Christ Fellowship adherent (read into that what you will).
Like the other Republican presidential candidates, he is expected to wear his religion on his sleeve in an attempt to appeal to the fundamentalist Christian base of the Republican party. Hence this 30-second video.
Setting aside the cloying, sickly sweet impression the video leaves, some of the stuff he says is really quite alarming. It includes phrases like: "Our goal is eternity, the ability to live alongside our creator for all time", "The purpose of our life is to cooperate with God’s plan", and "I try to allow that to influence me in everything that I do".
This may be fine for a Sunday morning minister speaking from the pulpit, I suppose. But are they appropriate for a politician who purports to represent real people in this world? Are these really the thought processes we look for in the so-called leader of the so-called free world? I think not.

No comments: