President Bush,
You call yourself a Christian and that fact should influence your presidency. It doesn't seem to.
Jesus in Matthew 25 says that nations should help the needy. He says nothing about the military or going to war. The minimum wage has not been raised in 9 years. You instead provide tax breaks for the rich, your friends.
"Owe no man anything," wrote the Apostle Paul. Your administration has driven the national debt into the trillions, record numbers. It's hypocrisy to call yourself a conservative when it comes to national finances. And a future president and a future generation will have to pay for the debt you've racked up for us citizens.
You didn't sign the Kyoto protocol on global warming, which the vast majority of scientists agree is an alarming reality. The arctic ice caps melt. Polar bears drown. Weather patterns change.
Jesus, the creator, watches as your administration rolls back environmental safeguards to benefit polluting, fouling industries. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer, has chronicled in frightening detail those rollbacks, which are at odds with American citizens' wishes — and their health.
God says he will destroy those who destroy his earth. I hope he does just that. He knows where you all live. Those board members, legislators and industry leaders who knowingly approve of the fouling of the earth and air (with resulting cancer and other diseases for those unlucky enough to live in the vicinity of polluting industry plants) ought to have those diseases put on them. That would be appropriate justice.
You've created more terrorists (and created justified hatred of America) in Iraq with this stupid war, which we should never have fought. Instead of loving your enemies and doing good to them as Jesus said, your policy was to kill over 30,000 Iraqis who had nothing to do with 9/11! You and your "neocons" who mostly never had to fight in a war sent thousands of American young men and women to die and be permanently maimed for life, while you're safe in Washington, D.C. What cowards! Widows grieve for lost loves who will never again know their embrace in this life.
Tithing is a biblical principle which nations ought to follow: generosity to those in need who can't pay us back. But the U.S. government gives less than 1 percent in foreign aid. No one even hears of the Peace Corps anymore.
This nation has a G.O.D. — Good Old Defense — the mighty military of which so many Americans are so proud. But God hates pride. I wish he would send nature herself against that military (hardware, not people) which has destroyed nature (Agent Orange, napalm, bombs) and nature's children, killing the innocent.
Your administration tried to pass an anti-gay/lesbian marriage amendment, discriminating against God's precious children, whom he loves as much as heterosexuals. I've read about a lesbian Christian (at a Christian lesbian Web site) who struggled with her sexuality, until God showed her that it's okay with him, and discouraged her from being promiscuous.
The Republican Party has wrapped itself in the cloak of Christianity to gain politically, an insult to the Spirit of Jesus Christ and all he stands for. As I've described, in almost every area, you and your administration have done the diametrical opposite of his teachings. It would be fitting if he caused the Republican Party to cease to exist forever, due to the flaming hypocrisy.
God bless America? I don't believe he'll do that when its government flagrantly violates his ways.
And despite so many people in government, science, and the public who have tried to voice intelligent dissent to your wrongheaded policies, you are too stubborn to change. My prayer is that the one who searches the hearts and minds of all people will deal with you and your administration swiftly.
P.S. Asking other nations not to build nukes while the United States has a huge stockpile is not "leading" the world — it's hypocrisy.
Harlan Simantel is a Portland cartoonist, writer and commentator.
