Fair-weather Christians and candidates

A little off the top

Ethan Smith/Lake County Leader

Much has been written about whether this country is ready to elect a person of color, or a woman, for president, but as the candidates continue to gear up for 2008, I still find their professed religious beliefs to be as interesting a topic as ever.

Our country's relationship with religion and God has changed over the years. Whereas 200 years ago there were definitely people who didn't go to church, they were probably very much the minority. Fast forward to the 21st century, and you are just as likely to find your neighbors sleeping in as getting up and going to church on Sunday morning (or Saturday night, or whenever).

While I feel our nation is less and less religious with each generation — in whatever shape or form that takes — it's amusing to me that in order to get elected president, you pretty much need to be religious, or perhaps more importantly, pretend that you are.

While we as a nation continue to grow farther from God, you still need Him to get elected.

Last month, several Democratic candidates took the time to discuss their faith and answer questions at a "liberal evangelical forum" as the Washington Post called it (isn't that an oxymoron?).

I was impressed that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards would be willing to answer pointed questions about their religious beliefs, but once again, I got the feeling that they were telling us what we wanted to hear, not how they really feel. You can't really blame them — you'd never get elected in this country if you actually confessed to being lukewarm about God.

After all, when the chips are down, non-religious people will usually pull God out of a hat when it's convenient. Have you ever gone to church the week before Easter, and then compared attendance on Easter Sunday?

Growing up, I used to call them "fair-weather Christians." Another favorite term is "two timers." I grew up in a household where my parents made me go to church every week, which, no doubt, was good for me, but it always offended me when the pews would be overflowing on Easter and Christmas, but only 70 percent full the other 11 and a half months out of the year.

Who were they kidding? I thought to myself. Why do you bother going through the motions on the two most religious holidays of the year, when you could care less the other 50 weeks?

The answer is that fair-weather Christians, like presidential candidates, still feel the stigma associated with being agnostic or apathetic about God and religion. While society continues to move farther from God, more than 80 percent of people routinely tell survey folks that they believe in God and have some type of faith.

However, you sure as heck won't see 80 percent of people attending some type of church or synagogue, or just practicing a religion every week. So, what does that tell us? It tells us that people have a very difficult time telling a total stranger over the phone that frankly, they don't really give God much thought, except when they have to attend a funeral, or Aunt Mildred asks you to bow your head so she can say grace at Thanksgiving.

All of which explains why Hillary Clinton is willing to stand up in front of hundreds of people and tell them that not only does she pray everyday, but that her faith helped her get through Bill's cheatin' heart.

"I'm not sure I would have gotten through it without my faith," she said of his sleeping around. "I've had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right, regardless of what the world thought."

Hillary Clinton has faith? I suppose it's possible, but why do I get the feeling she has more in common with the fair-weather Christians than the people who actually go every week? Sure, she probably keeps a Bible around the house for the same reason I keep a bottle of shampoo handy — you never know when company might stop by.

If you think I'm picking on Hillary, I'm not really trying to. I actually agree with her politically on a lot of things, more than probably most of you reading this. ("I knew it. I knew that editor was a damn liberal. It just goes to show you that the media is full of liberal bias.")

I just wish candidates would be 100 percent honest, walk up to the mic, and say "Yeah, actually … um, I just went to church on Easter and Christmas."

Talk about a show-stopper.

Our country probably isn't ready to elect someone who is apathetic about religion, anymore than we are ready to elect a black guy or a woman or a single person, but heck, they'd get my vote for at least being honest. But until then, we'll probably have to elect fair-weather Christians.

Can you blame the candidates? They're just telling us what we want to hear.

Ratatouille's another Brad Bird winner

Among Other Things

Paul Fugleberg

If you liked The Incredibles and The Iron Giant, you'll love Brad Bird's latest animated movie, Ratatouille, now playing at the Showboat Cinema in Polson.

Bird, a Kalispell native who spent summers in Polson when growing up, has come up with another box office winner.

While The Incredibles followed a more lifelike plot involving such things as retirement, family relationships, superhero aging, and the fight against crime, Ratatouille has a more imaginative, innovative plot — Remy, a common rat aspires to become a famous Parisian chef, and does so through Linguini, an inept, awkward youngster with a really poor self-image problem.

Add to the characters a sinister kitchen manager, a snobbish food critic, a perfectionist soup chef, a conspiring successsor to Auguste Gusteau, who founded the business, assistant cooks, waiters, a health inspector, and Remy's extended family of rats — hundreds of 'em.

How to wrap all those factors into some type of coherent plot takes a true genius. Enter Brad Bird and his imagination, artistic and skillful touch.

He succeeds in putting together a thoroughly enjoyable, humorous, family story that kids of all ages will enjoy. On a scale of one to 10, I'll give Ratatouile a solid 12.