During a recent Washington, DC, conference dedicated to the “War on Christians,” pastor Rick Scarborough — author of Liberalism Kills Kids — labeled Tom DeLay a martyr to his faith. “I believe the most damaging thing that Tom DeLay has done in his life is take his faith seriously into public office, which made him a target for all those who despise the cause of Christ,” Scarborough said, according to the Washington Post.
Well, that’s one possibility. But what if there’s a different religious twist to DeLay’s predicament? What if the former Republican-majority leader’s mounting legal woes — which culminated in the announcement, earlier this week, that he won’t seek re-election to the US House this fall — show he’s actually on God’s bad side?
Think about it. As DeLay knows full well, sometimes the Big Guy has to stick it to the wayward. After the tsunami in Southeast Asia, DeLay, at a congressional prayer breakfast, offered a quote from Matthew that implied that the victims’ non-Christianity was to blame: “[E]veryone who listens to these words of mine, but does not act on them, will be like a fool who built his house on sand: the rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew, and buffeted the house, and it collapsed and was completely ruined.” Maybe that’s what happened here. Maybe God looked down on DeLay and thought, “You know, this guy is vindictive; he’s corrupt; he’s drunk with power. Let’s get to the just desserts, already.”
After all, there’s plenty of biblical grounds for divine wrath. Think of DeLay’s indictments for conspiracy and money-laundering, and then read Matthew 23:25: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity.” Ponder DeLay consolidating Republican control of Congress with a potentially illegal Texas redistricting plan, and then read Ezekiel 25:17: “Because the Philistines acted revengefully and took vengeance with malice of heart to destroy in never-ending enmity.... I will execute great vengeance upon them with wrathful chastisements.” Finally, consider DeLay’s support for tax cuts that help the wealthiest while leaving the poor vulnerable, and then read Psalm 146:9: “The LORD watches over the sojourners, he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.”
Just desserts, indeed.
