Bush Preached to About Material Wealth

[Nambe]

White House - AP

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine - A clergyman implored his affluent congregation, including President Bush's family, to jettison their material possessions, gently mocking George H.W. Bush's struggles on the golf course to drive home his point.

The Very Rev. Martin Luther Agnew preached Sunday to a packed Episcopal church just down the road from the Bush family's seaside estate. Its oceanfront parking lot was filled with luxury cars made by Jaguar, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo, testament to the wealth of the summer visitors at this southeast Maine resort. ..

Agnew, a guest minister from Louisiana whose summer assignment ended Sunday, swung a golf club to get his message across to the vacationing congregation.

The sermon culminated with a joke about the first President Bush's battle to chip a golf ball out of an anthill. Swinging the club in a mock re-enactment, Agnew said Bush had swung twice and whiffed completely, wiping out hundreds of ants.

The ants got together and agreed: "If we're going to live, we better get on the ball!"

The former president sat stone-faced through this parable, even as his family, including the current President Bush, looked at him and smiled. ..
Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[Myrina]

1. How sweeeeeet !!

Too bad the rich, insulated arseholes in the congregation are too arrogant to realize that he Good Reverend was referring to ALL of them !!!

[wicket]

2. Amen to that!

[amber dog democrat]

3. " Yet even they expect to go to heaven at last"

HD Thoreau.

[Dirty Hippie]

4. Where was Columba?

I swear she is never around. It was her son's wedding!

There is something very odd about her relationship with the Bush family including her "husband" Jebbie.

[DemBones DemBones]

21. Marvin and Neil were there, too, but their wives weren't mentioned,

either. "First Lady Laura Bush" was the only wife mentioned.

But if Columba avoids the in-laws, she has good taste!

[qanda]

5. The former president sat stone-faced through this parable

I guess he wasn't amused.

[louis-t]

11. Of course he wasn't amused...

right-wing, fascist, elitist, divisive, arrogant, self-righteous, neo-con, neo-Christian, evil incarnate slimeballs have no sense of humor.

[qanda]

14. That was a mouthful...

Of truth!

[bloom]

24. I imagine he is able to laugh at others...n/t

[BR_Parkway]

25. Well, there's the first budget cut in Faith Based Initatives

maybe if enough other preachers piss him off, we'll get out of the taxpayer funding of "spreading the word" altogether - of course, it would still have nothing to do with seperation of church and state.

[qanda]

6. Why wasn't this wedding in Texas or Florida?

I thought they were southerners... :shrug:

[MaineDem]

7. Oh man, this is funny!

I can see the old stone-face! Or was that Babs? I bet she wasn't pleased either.

And what a name for a preacher: Very Rev. Martin Luther Agnew!

BTW, I thought Columba was Catholic. Her children apparently aren't.

[louis-t]

13. Yeah, I had to look twice at that too..

THERE'S a juxtaposition of opposites for you.

[cliss]

16. You're right. Everything about this family

needs a second look. And everytime you look, you get surprises. I agree: what a name, Martin Luther AGNEW. Weird.

Everything about this family is surreal.

[DemBones DemBones]

22. Columba and Jeb are Catholic so I'm sure their children

are -- or were raised to be -- Catholic, too.

[MaineDem]

27. That's what I figured

But the wedding was in a Protestant church.

Just wondering.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Hope we don't learn Rev. Agnew has been found floating in the sea. n/t

[JuniperLea]

9. is little googen losing his grip

on the religious right?? hehe! smackdown!

[Wright Patman]

10. Episcopalians aren't even considered

Christians by most of *'s rabid base of fundies and evangelicals down South.

Baptists call 'em "Whiskeypalians." Or, I suppose it would be spelled "Whiskypalians" for the Scotch drinkers.

[DeepModem Mom]

26. Indeed -- we Episcopalians are not generally part of the...

"religious right," thank God (so to speak). The elder Bushes, are, of course, still Episcopalians; Georgie became a Methodist, like Laura, but has been denounced by that denomination for his policies, I believe.

[LynneSin]

12. I doubt Bush's bible has that verse about the Camel & the Needle

You know - the one where it's easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven.

[carols]

20. Unka Dick and company probably distributed the redacted version...

to all his faux Christian cronies. It's called the King George version.
Carol

[justjones]

15. I'm a little slow. Can someone explain the irony in the Rev's statements?

Please. :shrug:

[fortyfeetunder]

18. Bush's policies

wiping out ants -- victims of (select any one, outsourcing, health care, unemployment, war)...KWIM?

[lumberingbear]

17. Wish he had said...

"Now watch this drive!!!"

[quaoar]

19. They were probably uncomfortable

Because many regular churchgoers believe that Jesus was only speaking allegorically when he talked about all that helping the poor stuff. He didn't actually want them to give their Lexus to the food bank.

[mike1963]

23. The list of cars...

"Its oceanfront parking lot was filled with luxury cars made by Jaguar, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo, testament to the wealth of the summer visitors at this southeast Maine resort. .."

Gee, I seem to remember something about "latte-drinking, Volvo-driving libruls..." in a TV commercial in a faraway time and galaxy...

No American made cars, huh? How ...uh, interesting.

[TXDemGal]

28. It is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle

than for a Bush to get into the kingdom of heaven.

[ItsMyParty]

29. I knew I guy like Bush

He loved to make jokes about others (you know, like Bush and his giving people "pet names") but he could not take even the mildest ribbing, joking or put down aimed at him. He carried anything like that around in him for years and he always tried to "get the bastard" who kidded him. I'm sure the Bush's can remove this pastor at their will.

[PurityOfEssence]

30. So, I guess they didn't pass the plate, huh?

Something tells me they did.

[CBHagman]

31. The Answer to MY Prayers, at Least.

Let the rebuke-a-thon begin!

After all, the duties of the faithful include comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. When I read Sojouners magazine, I feel nourished, but I'm also left squirming about those things I need to change in my life. May Bush experience that.

And it looks as though Rev. Agnew is continuing what the Vatican started. George W. Bush, this is your conscience calling.

And notice how Bush finds it easy to humiliate people with his jokes but isn't a good sport when the tables are turned on him. Hm...