MAYFIELD, Ky. -- Here is a current events quiz. According to GOP holy warriors, you can't be a Christian and a
A. Democrat.
B. liberal.
C. union member.
D. all of the above.

Anybody who made phone calls, passed out handbills, knocked on doors or otherwise wore out shoe leather for John Kerry in the Bluegrass State -- and probable elsewhere -- doubtless had at least one close encounter of the worst kind with some of Dubya's disciples who act like "GOP" stands for "God's Own Party."

If you did, you know the answer is D.

I'm a D and a Presbyterian. I was for Kerry. So were my union buddies, who are A's, if not all B's.

The Good Book says Jesus told us to turn the other cheek. But it's hard not to get riled when somebody questions your faith based on your politics.

Don't get mad, says Chris Sanders. Get Biblical. Sanders is executive assistant to United Food and Commercial Workers Local 227 President Gary Best, and the Louisville-based union's general counsel. He is also an ordained Southern Baptist deacon.

"Look in Luke 4," suggested Sanders, a former state AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer. "Jesus returns home to Nazareth, reads from Isaiah, and says, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor... to set at liberty those who are oppressed.'"

We Presbyterians -- the Frozen Chosen -- don't do "amens" like our Baptist brothers and sisters. But we are ecumenical, so I'll add an "amen" to what Sanders said.

He isn't for a minute arguing that one can't be a Christian and a Republican (or a conservative or non-union). I'm not either. Sanders says the Bible teaches that the Almighty loves us all. I learned that in Presbyterian Sunday School, too.

Nonetheless, some Christian conservatives preach a "Jesus loves me, but He can't stand you" theology. (If you don't know "Jesus Loves Me But He Can't Stand You" by the Austin Lounge Lizards, take a look at it.) Anyway, the "Christian values" of the GOP's God-Wants-Us-To-Win crowd include giving rich people big tax breaks, shredding the government's social safety net for the poor, supporting right-to-work laws, gutting worker safety and health and environmental protection regulations and, of late, privatizing Social Security.

Sadly, the party of Lincoln and Liberty -- and Kentucky's own Sen. John Sherman Cooper -- has largely become the conservative white man's party (like the Dixie Democrats of old). Liberal, even moderate, Republicans have almost gone the way of the dinosaurs. In today's GOP, the welcome mat is out for Social Darwinists, union-busters, homophobes, jingoists, neo-Confederate crazies and religious bigots. (Southern Zell Millerite, Republican wannabe Blue Dog Democrats, including some Kentucky pups, yip that the party of FDR and the New Deal ought to turn right, too.)

Anyway, Christ preached love over hate, peace over war, charity over greed and brotherhood and sisterhood over prejudice and exclusion. He gave us the Golden Rule.

Christ was no fan of the Pharisees, who amounted to the Religious Right of His day. The Pharisees, like the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family and their ilk, cozied with the rich and powerful.

America has embraced the culture of the Pharisees, according to Father John Dear. "Instead of practicing an authentic spirituality of compassion, nonviolence, love and peace, we as a collective people have become self-righteous, arrogant, powerful, murderous hypocrites who dominate and kill others in the name of God," he said.

Dear is a New Mexico Jesuit priest and an author. Like the Biblical prophets, he doesn't pull punches.

Like the Pharisees, "we side with the rulers, the bankers, and the corporate millionaires and billionaires," he added. "We run the Pentagon, bless the...[war in Iraq], support executions, make nuclear weapons and seek global domination for America as if that was what the nonviolent Jesus wants. And we dismiss anyone who disagrees with us."

I can feel another ecumenical "amen" coming on.

"In the past, empires persecuted religious groups and threatened them into passivity and silence," Dear said. "Now these so-called Christians run the American empire, and teach a subtle spirituality of empire to back up their power in the name of God....The empire is working hard these days to tell the nation--and the churches--what is moral and immoral, sinful and holy."

Dear said it is time for Christians to stop being Pharisees and start following "the dangerous, nonviolent, troublemaking Jesus." He concluded with the reminder that "....Jesus commands that we love one another, love our neighbors, seek justice, forgive those who hurt us, pray for our persecutors, and be as compassionate as God."

Amen!

-- Berry Craig is a professor of history at the West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah, and a longtime union activist. He and his wife, Melinda, are members of the Witherspoon Society