ANGLE BEARS FALSE WITNESS…. For those who marvel at Sharron Angle’s extremism, it’s tough to pick out the nuttiest example from her greatest-hits collection. One of my personal favorites was the time she said Democratic policies violated the Bible’s First Commandment.
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl asked the Nevada Senate candidate about the argument.
Angle sought to clarify some of her more controversial statements, such has her saying that Democratic policies are “in violation of the First Commandment.”
“I said that? No I didn’t say that,” Angle told Karl.
Actually, she did. Though the wording of the First Commandment can vary a bit, it generally says, “I am the Lord your God,” and “thou shalt have no other gods besides Me.” It’s a pretty straightforward commandment, warning against worship of false gods and idolatry.
Angle told a radio talk-show a few months ago, “[T]hese programs that you mentioned — that Obama has going with Reid and Pelosi pushing them forward — are all entitlement programs built to make government our God. And that’s really what’s happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We’re supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government.”
The Republican Senate hopeful added that her campaign is part of “a war of ideology, a war of thoughts and of faith.” Angle insisted she needs “warriors to stand beside me.”
There’s not a lot of wiggle room here.
In the ABC interview, Angle went on to say her remarks were part of “a discussion I was having with CBN. We were talking in very Christian terms. That’s what Christian broadcast is — that’s their focus — so you speak the language of the folks that you’re communicating with.”
As a factual matter, she was talking to a Christian radio show, not CBN. But either way, when candidates for major public offices make comments in interviews, that counts. Whether politicians are talking to religious broadcasters or secular outlets is irrelevant if the politician is saying something crazy.
Indeed, Angle went on to tell ABC what she really meant: “[W]e have allowed government in many ways to take the place of God.”
This is just so bizarre. In the American tradition, we formed a secular union to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
Does Angle think this was a mistake, and we’d be better off with some kind of theocracy?
Postscript: The Reid campaign, meanwhile, goes through the ABC interview and finds at least three instances in which Angle blatantly lied. I seem to recall something in the Decalogue about bearing false witness….
