God Punishes You, but Only Tests Me
I recently read that some far-right writers are making the claim that Sen. John McCain’s brain tumor is the justice of God on the Senator for not backing the President. Ok. For a moment, let’s take the politics out of that barbaric statement. Is it theologically true ? To answer that, we have to consider the nature of the claim. As one person wrote, “I’m pretty sure that God is punishing him.” Why? “God made it pretty clear that he supports the New Right now.” Of course, how one proves that God is on the side of the New Right is the challenge. What most of these claims say, the ones that aren’t so offensive that they stagger the mind, is that God has chosen the President as God’s agent of change, which, in the Bible, is usually described as one who is ‘anointed’ or, in translation, ‘messiah.’ That’s a huge claim for any group to make about a President. It has been made on behalf of a few presidents here and there, but never made by any president to my knowledge.