One candidate presents himself as a religious man, but creates ads that are lies, isn’t concerned about the poor, makes $10,000 bets in the middle of a debate, runs a very ugly, negative campaign in Florida, and repeatedly says he misspoke-things that he actually meant and came through his mask.Īnother contender, claiming to be a reformed religious person, forgiven for his sins, revealed how arrogant, grandiose, and dishonest he is, not to mention unfaithful to two wives.Ī third candidate, a state governor of, actively used his religious beliefs both as a basis for his policy and in his campaign ads and debates but in his eyes his religious beliefs provide justification for imposing his will and his religion’s will upon the state and the nation. Ray, who misused the Native American sweat lodge, causing several people to die, then fleeing the scene).īut it is a rare thing in a presidential election for candidates to tout their religious connection and the next day, or even the next sentence, to expose their mean-spirited, destructive side. Numerous government leaders, corporate executives, and others have been exposed or have exposed themselves for their abuses of power: some sexual (Anthony Weiner) some financial (Bernie Madoff) some legal (Idaho Senate Republican Caucus Chairman John McGee, arrested June 2011 for DUI and vehicle theft) some ethical (Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray) and some spiritual (among evangelical leaders, Richard Roberts, son of Oral Roberts, arrested January 2012 for DUI among yogic leaders, Gurudev of Kripalu, who required celibacy of unmarried students while at the same time having sexual relations with some of his students and among New Age leader, James A. Lately many masks have been falling off-and the abuses of power and other dangers beneath the masks have been revealed. It may slip through the mask in words we mean, but didn’t mean to say in actions we’d like to take, but didn’t mean to act out in actions we don’t take, but want to. In the meantime, our buried mean-spiritedness does have an effect on us and those around us, if only unconsciously.Įventually, though, what we’ve hidden beneath our mask does manage to find its way into the open. And we hold onto our mask for dear life, defending against discovery. So, instead, we create a mask self to hide our destructive self. Many of us know not to act it out, for fear that we will be punished, made bad, abandoned. It may even start out as simple anger, but anger that gets buried or distorted and twisted into something destructive. How does this occur? Children responding to trauma or abuse experience mean-spiritedness and destructiveness. We don’t get to find out if that person really is religious, kind, caring, or not. But what lies within these candidates beneath their religious presentation? Often in life we don’t get to see what lies beneath a person’s “good self” presentation, also called a mask. This years 2012 contenders in the GOP election process are presenting themselves as devoutly religious people.
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