Pope John Paul II: God is not dead (Joe Scarborough)

• April 9, 2005 | 10:20 p.m. ET

Pope John Paul II: God is not dead (Joe Scarborough)

The world said goodbye today to a man already being hailed as John Paul the Great.The number of mourners at the funeral were epic. Many said it was the largest funeral in world history.

Across the world, a staggering two billion Christians watched as the greatest religious figure of our time was laid to rest.

And while millions were filling the streets of the Eternal City, some elites in Western newsrooms, on college campuses, and in Hollywood boardrooms were seething with contempt for the affection shown to this man of God.

Before he was even buried, a former Washington Post reporter blasted John Paul as "the Bully Pope," attacking him for being undemocratic, chavenistic, dogmatically dictatorial, and a man whose Christ-centered theology was "garbage."

Others, like Vanity Fair's Christopher Hitchens, went so far as to accuse the Pope of being the primary cause for the spread of Aids throughout Africa, the genocide in Rwanda, and the enslavement of millions across the Middle East.

The no-condoms-equals-Aids charge suggests that an African male who goes through scores of sexual partners each year is somehow shamed into refraining from wearing a condom because of the Holy See's teachings.

The argument is laughable.

But then again, no one ever suggested that these church-hating elites ever employed reason when launching polemics against Jesus Christ and his followers.

Understanding why these isolated creatures hate Jesus Christ's teachings so much is more important than ever because every few weeks it seems we are confronted with a national debate concerning Christianity and its impact on U.S. policy.

Terri Schiavo.

The mere name still elicits heated debates regarding life, death, law, politics, and domestic policy. But at its core, the Schiavo case launched a cultural war over two competing world views.

Christians found themselves pitted against America's cultural elites, who spent weeks blasting "right wing religious zealots" as the singular cause of the Schiavo controversy.

As with the Pope's passing, the public record is packed with thousands of instances of elites bashing conservative Christians for their power in forcing the President and Congress to do whatever it took to save the suffering woman's life. (Hitchens dismissed her as a "lifeless cadaver.)

George W. Bush's elevation to the presidency through the power of the evangelical vote is the main reason why the cultural and religious wars Patrick Buchanan predicted at the 1992 Republican National Convention have finally erupted in full view of the American public.

Historian Gary Wills compared the evangelical's support of George W. Bush to Islamic extremists' support of terror to promote their political goals. Wills breathlessly predicted that Christians' ascendency in American politics would lead to a radicalized, theocratic state that would have more in common with the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden than with our allies in Europe.

Pulitzer winner Maureen Dowd used her space in the New York Times to predict the coming of "the next dark ages" where religious superstition and religious bigotry will replace science and reason.

Whether the debate centers around a Presidential election, the right to die movement, the gay agenda, prayer in school, or simply letting our children recite the Pledge of Alligence, the teachings of Jesus Christ always seems to thwart the agenda of America's left wing elites.

Forget what you heard in the 1960s.

God is not dead.

In fact, he is very much alive and beating liberal elites on one political issue after another.

Maybe that is why so many of them hate the Prince of Peace.

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