Friday, October 10, 2008

Words of wisdom for the campaign trail

This editorial from the Houston Chronicle struck me when I read it this morning:

Campaigning going too far

I am sick and tired of this election, which is not dealing with the real issues that affect all of us. I watched in horror these last few days as Sarah Palin, the vice-presidential nominee, stirred up racial hatred, getting responses such as "off with his head" and "kill him." To what point? Does the Republican Party want Barack Obama assassinated? Is this what John McCain represents? How can anyone possibly not be upset with this type of campaigning?

SUE MCFARLAND
Houston

As I was reading through the last page of the Sentences of Sextus this morning to post an apocryphote of the day, one of Sextus' proverbs (393) from the second century made me remember McFarland's editorial and so I decided to post it. Sextus' proverb is something for us to keep in mind during this last month of the campaign when last ditch efforts of highly skilled campaign spin-doctors try to stir up deep fears and hatreds to keep us from thinking straight.
Guard yourself from lying. (Because when you lie) there is a deceiver and the deceived.

4 comments:

R.Eagle said...

Don't think the editorial link is working, Dr. D.

And so true about the nature of deception. It's disgusting what McCain/Palin are doing!

pf said...

But of course that is the natural extension of thinking about your political opponents as proponents of a culture of "death and depravity." Is it not justified and logical to use or contemplate violence to stop someone who is trying to impose death and depravity on the country?

Roadscholar said...

Many people do not recognize these inflammatory and hatred-based statements as lies, but rather, thinking that way in their heart themselves, they hear it as the truth. In my opinion, Jesus was speaking of them when he said, “You belong to your father, the devil. . . . When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar. . . . He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear [the Truth] is that you do not belong to God.” (John 8:44,47) In this same vein, we also have "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar." (1 John 4:20) So I would like to say to all you hypocrites: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." (James 1:22)

Bob MacDonald said...

the editorial link is missing an H at the beginning