Anointed By God
H.L. Mencken wrote, “Religion is the final refuge of the scoundrel.” The scoundrel residing at Mar-a-Lago is currently under siege. What better way to expiate past sins than to claim divine calling?
Lauren Bobert, the rootin’ tootin’ gun advocate congresswoman from Colorado spoke at a church last weekend. Possibly anticipating Donnie’s very bad day yesterday, Lauren said, “God called a man who was not a politician to run for office, and I believe he was anointed for that position. He answered that call.” I wonder who she meant.
Lauren wasn’t done. With the Supreme Court pretty much tailoring the Constitution to the desires of the Far Right, Lauren would target separation of church and state next (after gay marriage and contraception, of course). At the same church meeting, she said, “The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it.”
Seriously, Lauren? The church directs the government in Iran and in Afghanistan. See how great that is working out. Have you read the first amendment? God does not want us to smite non-believers in His name, Lauren.
Lauren continued, “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk that’s not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does.”
The first amendment reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” That’s not exactly “the church shall direct the government.” The “stinking letter” that Boebert mentioned is apparently an 1802 missive sent from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association. Jefferson wrote, “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.” The Supreme Court, back when it was apolitical cited Jefferson’s “separation between Church and State” numerous times over the years.
Apparently, Lauren knows better than more than two hundred years of court decisions.
What qualifies Lauren Robert as a constitutional law expert anyway? Certainly not education. Lauren dropped out of high school and worked on oil pipelines until buying a bar in rural Colorado where “staff and customers are encouraged to carry firearms.” She first achieved notoriety by catering (without a license or inspection) a get-together that resulted in eighty people coming down with food poisoning. That will get your name on the local news every time. Suddenly, everyone wanted to go to the “gun bar” and take their chances on coming down with salmonella.
Lauren was elected to Congress in 2020 and aligned herself with the Freedom Caucus and other right wing groups. Freshmen congresspersons are usually anonymous, but Lauren loves her publicity. On January 5, 2022, she refused a bag check after she set off the newly installed Capitol Hill metal detectors, and entered the Capitol. She did the same the next day, refusing to stop for a wand check after she set off the metal detector. Lauren called the metal detectors “just another political stunt by Speaker Pelosi”.
Fox News loves her with stunts like that.
Let’s have a high school drop-out with a background in food poisoning re-write the Constitution and allow the man “anointed by God” become our ayatollah. H.L. Mencken would love Lauren and Donnie.
By Ed Dufton
