Here we are again… much too soon I am afraid.

Dennis Marcellino, author and political advocate as well as Christian has taken to the web to give the impression that there is only one way to understand the Bible.  On the website “Conservative Byte” Marcellino postulates that if a Christian votes for a Democrat and then  dies that person is destined for the fiery pits of hell.

Don’t believe me?  Read the article here (don’t worry its short… just like his argument.)

Obviously Marcellino did not read my article concerning religion and politics, Mr. Marcellino if you are reading this welcome to my blog and secondly click here and be sure to leave a comment.

But that is besides the point.

Even the newest of Christian converts would tell you that the words “Republican” and “Democrat” are not in the Bible anywhere so I do not know where Marcellino gets off telling the Christian faithful that voting for a Democrat would result in a one way pass to Hell.

IS THAT THE UNFORGIVABLE SIN?!?!?!

To figure it out… let’s breakdown this 282 word article…

First, Marcellino is polite enough to tell us that “This is not meant to be emotional or inflammatory…”  Thanks!  But then he continues and says “it is simply stating a fact and to warn.”  D’Oh!  So this is his job… telling people via the internet that they are on a one way course to hell for your political beliefs.

Next he comes roaring out of the gate tells his readership that the Bible does in fact support his ideas (surprise, surprise)… if you know where to look.  He then offers this as warning to “blacks” (not African-Americans… blacks) and Hispanics (which he doesn’t capitalize in his article) but as he claims these two groups primarily vote for the Democratic party.  So by say this is he affirming that most people who are Caucasian, Asian American, Native American and any other race are most definitely Republican voting.  But these two groups of people are not just voting for Democrats for the sake of agreeing with their platform, Marcellino makes the claim that they are voting “lock step” with the Democratic Party… meaning they just vote that way because they have always voted that way. Hmmm…

Next, Marcellino gets into the Bible meat of his claim.  He quotes 2 Thes. which reads, ““Then everyone who did not believe the truth, but was delighted with what God disapproves of, will be condemned.”  He claims that people express their own delight is who they punch their ballot for.  Then he quotes Romans 1:32 which basically states that the righteous of God (I guess he means Republicans?) should not stand for “such things” nor should they approve of them.

Now in a fine bit of exegesis, Marcellino claims that the rest of Romans 1 claims that when Paul was referring to “such things” he was referring to “homosexuality, lesbianism, strife, deceit, slander [political sound bites], gossips, idol worshippers, God-haters, atheists” which he claims are “all primarily attributes of liberals.”

Mr. Marcellino, proof text much?  I mean you are condemning nearly half of the US population to hell because of their political beliefs and you base it on 50 words or less than 1% of the entire Bible or only 18% of your entire article?

Are people who are not Christians flocking to churches around the country to repent especially if they voted for the President in 2008 and weren’t sorry for it?  Are the number of Christians who are also Democrats declining across the nation less then five months from the Presidental election?  Umm… no.

Marcellino is completely off the mark on this one.

Not only does he distort the Bible for his own political agenda, he himself does not have clean hands in this matter.  During his examination of Romans 1 he gave a quite lengthy list of “attrobutes” of liberals… dare I say that he was judging them?  Something that Christ warned against…right?

This is not an effective evangelism tool and as a Christian minister it makes me shake my head and reminds me to be careful what you read on the internet, not everything is true.

Christians will continue to have the perception that they are closed minded, literalist ‘hell bent’ on sending people to hell for their minor transgressions.  Let’s leave out the grace, let’s leave out the love, let’s leave out the acceptance.  But let’s do add a list of things you are doing wrong and a list of people to vote for.  In Marcellino’s mind, its the ones with the “R” by their name.

In Christ,

Rev. Evan