From AltNet:
Speaking to a large crowd Monday at Montgomery's Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church — where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached — Bentley said that "if you're a Christian and you're saved ... it makes you and me brother and sister," according to a report in the Birmingham News.
"Now I will have to say that, if we don't have the same daddy, we're not brothers and sisters," he added, according to the paper. "So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother."
Don't have much time to post a full response to the above quote by Gov. Bentley, but my first reaction is that his remark was inappropriate. I won't get into whether or not he's correct according to scripture, and I understand that it was MLK, Jr. Day, he was speaking in a church, and he's not the youngest man in the world. But I feel fairly sure that's not something Martin Luther King, Jr. would have said, or given an "Amen" to. He was an INclusionist, not an EXclusionist. Bentley might as well have said, "You people here who are like me are fine by me. Now, you other folks, when you get some good sense into you and start thinking and doing as I do, THEN we can talk, and you might be my equal."
ReplyDeleteOh, Governor... Makes you wonder if politicians back in the day said as many stupid things in public as they do know. Something tells me they probably spent a lot more time thinking than running their mouths than we do today. Or, maybe it's just a matter of media differences. These days, as soon as you say something stupid, it's been posted to the Net before you finish your remarks. You'll have a million You Tube hits before you get home and hear about it. So, people, PLEASE, stop and think before your lips start moving or your fingers get to typing off the top of your head. It might very well save your career.
I believe the governor has since apologized to (at least) one rabbi, but honestly, it bothers me that an elected official is thinking in these terms. It reminds me of the politician (I want to say it was Brownback) who maintained he had only one constituent -- God.
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