Why Gordon Brown lost the election

That’s easy: because he doesn’t even know that Micah is not “in the Gospel,” but is part of what would have been called the Old Testament by his father, a Presbyterian minister. Details here. HT: Kristin Swenson. Howard Dean made a similar mistake when, in answer to the question, what was his favorite book in the New Testament, he answered, “Job” (see this report; at least Dean corrected himself later). There is a pattern here. Biblical illiteracy leads to electoral defeat. 

Comments

[Vincent Murphy]

To be fair, he said in the Gospel, not in the gospels. There is certainly Gospel within the Old Testament, although it often remains hidden until illuminated by the words and work of Christ in the New Testament.

[Pat McCullough]

There is also the matter of those who attribute false rumors of biblical illiteracy to politicians (especially Democrats) in order to discredit them. Like the one about John 16:3 being the favorite verse of [fill in the name of your least favorite politician]. I was volunteering at a homeless shelter once and the lady supervising me told me this false rumor about John Kerry, as I tried to bite my lip, and she said, "And you know what that verse says? 'And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me.' God has a sense of humor!" Ugh.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_kerry_john_3_16.htm

[JohnFH]

That's a pretty ingenious defense of Brown's error, Vincent.

I'm guessing or at least hoping that Brown was just tired and ill-prepared when he said what he did.

[Looney]

Just for curiosity, is there any evidence for the opposite pattern: Biblical literacy leads to electoral success?

[JohnFH]

Hi Patrick,

You're a better man than I. I would not have bit my lip as you did. I would have replied along the following lines. "That's pretty bad. But did you hear what George Bush's favorite verse is? Joel 3:10. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weakling say, 'I am a warrior.' Now that's scary."

Given how many people in the United States take their Bible seriously, it might behoove Democrats and Republicans alike to be biblically literate.

It would take only a few minutes of reading a day for a Democratic politician to leave the average Republican politician in the dust when it comes to quoting the Bible appositely.

Unfortunately, it is true that John Kerry, though he is a man of tremendous wealth, is famous for having given little or nothing to charity. Aside from the fact that Democrat friends from his state found it difficult to say anything really nice about him, that raised red flags for me when he was running for President.

Perhaps Kerry thinks that the state and the law are the means by which he gives to the poor. I have known some liberals who think along those lines. But if that is so, he is bound to want to get the state and the law to try to accomplish things it can never accomplish.

I am not making an argument against Democrats. As far as I can see, they are a necessary evil, just like the Republicans. I am offering well-intentioned advice.

[JohnFH]

Looney,

Good one. This is fun, isn't it? Last time around, it was John McCain and Barack Obama. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the Bible is not something McCain feels comfortable quoting. If he knows his Bible, he is keeping that to himself. Obama, on the other hand, as one might expect from an adult convert to the Christian faith, is not averse to bringing in not only scripture but theology into his speeches. His speech at Notre Dame was remarkable in that sense; so was his Nobel Peace prize speech.

If I could show that GW Bush knew his Bible better than Gore or Kerry, would that be enough to constitute a pattern? I have to admit - I'm not speaking about his performance as President, which I would give very mixed reviews - I found his comment that Jesus was his favorite philosopher very endearing. But I consider it grave misconduct on the part of our press that no one asked the obvious follow-up question: in 50 words or less, what does Jesus' philosophy teach us?

[G. Kyle Essary]

Joe Carter has a good article on biblical illiteracy that was posted at the CARDUS Comment website today: http://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/1986/

[Looney]

John I was thinking about Matthew 4 as I was writing my first comment: Satan quoting scripture and offering electoral success!

[JohnFH]

Thanks, Kyle, for a great link.

I see your point, Looney, but I can't get over the fact that even those members of Congress who pushed the hardest to allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public could not, upon questioning, rattle them off.

[Angus]

Hi John,

I suppose that those congress members required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public IN ORDER to be able to rattle them off when questioned in public...

[JohnFH]

I'm sure you're right, Angus.