Separation of Church and State?

Unless you're a complete moron you are aware that we now have a new President-elect. The first black man to ever be elected to the most powerful office in the world, a true sign that this country may not be as much of a waste of stolen land as I was beginning to fear. Or it may just be a sign of desperation.

Days before the election I received an email from a family member with the subject line of "Who Jesus would vote for." Here are a few excerpts from the email:

Jesus is against welfare (the church should provide for people's needs).
2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

Jesus would not vote for anyone who has interests in other religions besides Christianity.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is not tolerant of the homosexual lifestyle.
Romans 1:27-28 And in the same way the men gave up the natural use of the woman and were burning in their desire for one another, men doing shame with men, and getting in their bodies the right reward of their evil-doing. And because they had not the mind to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them up to an evil mind, to do those things which are not right...

Jesus would not vote according to his "pocketbook."
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

For some Christians this email would be a very powerful message. They might believe that their vote should indeed reflect these statements and the supporting evidence. But as a scholar-in-training of communications, I am reminded of the meaning of all words and sentences with relation to their context. Take the political campaign for example. Both candidates took snippets of their opponents' statements, took them out of context of what may have truly been said, and then "spun" them to create a meaning to serve their own purpose. Have a view of the video of McCain below for a quick example. Essentially, words, and often times a full sentence, have no true meaning outside of the context in which they originated.

My point is that, given enough time and motivation, I could pull up enough quotes from the Bible to make one hell of a campaign for Barack Obama if I chose. It would be a simple matter to find a couple of sentences that, possibly taken out of their context, would prove without a shadow of a doubt Jesus's support of homosexuality. And, unless my Sunday School teachers were lying to me year after year, and if memory serves, Jesus was the first true Socialist. Did he not ask for those of wealth to distribute that wealth among the poor? Are not the meek destined to inherit the Earth? And are these not ideas that violate any Republican's ideas of fiscal policy? And, yet, are not the great majority of Republicans quite typically the more conservative of Christians? I'd like to pose to them a question:  What would Jesus do?

When Bush was elected into his second term of office, I remember someone very close to me saying that it was God's will. This was said very much in a celebratory manner, not in the way one might make this statement if you were to lose a family member. This was a praise and an offer of thanks for God working his way in our lives. And I remember my incredulity. To me, if we are speaking in a religious context, I would have given this credit to the folly of Man.  Did God not give us a choice between Good and Evil?  Does not God allow suffering? Does not God allow murder? Does not God allow recessions? Could this, then, not be more of the same? But since then, I've considered another option.  I've come to view the big picture, what might be God's scheme. And, true to form (this is God we're talking about here) it's quite ingenious. Here it is:

When did any of us think that we could expect to see an African American elected as President? Four years ago, what would have been the chances of such an event actually occurring? What exactly would it take to get the majority of Americans to not just see beyond color, but to see beyond a Muslim name in the aftermath of 9/11 and Iraq? Enter G. W. Bush. Enter 8 years of the most inadequate President ever to set foot in the Oval Office. Enter the necessary cancer of our great country to make us all desperate enough to do what many of us would never have dreamed possible. And so God set the stage of a desperate America, praying for change.  Enter then Barack Obama.  And this is God's plan.  This is why God allowed our country to go to shit.  And now I am a believer.