Politicians have been co-opting religion for the sake of garnering votes for as long as there have been politicians and religion. Since politicians are generally not theologians (nor are they generally committed to any “deity” that doesn’t share a name with them), their efforts to use religion for political gain often produce laughable moments. And recently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi produced a laughable moment while speaking to the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities when she cited her favorite Bible verse, which, as it turns out, is not actually in the Bible.
Nancy Pelosi is Roman Catholic, or so she claims. Just yesterday, my Catholic neighbor was bemoaning the biblical illiteracy of many of the parents who send their children to the confirmation class she teaches. Her complaint centered on how supposedly Catholic parents become upset when their children are taught Catholic doctrines. My neighbor concluded her rant with the rhetorical question, “Don’t these parents know the Bible?”
Well, that rhetorical question applies to Speaker Pelosi, too. It’s obvious that she doesn’t know the Bible, and she made that crystal clear in her speech.
After a brief, self-deprecating introduction, Speaker Pelosi launched into the religious pandering portion of her speech. Saying, “I can’t find it in the Bible” even though she claims she keeps “reading and reading,” Pelosi shared her favorite verse with an audience that consisted mainly of Christian college and university presidents and administrators. The verse, which “is supposed to be in Isaiah,” according to the speaker, is, “To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.”
While I appreciate the quote’s sentiment, it’s not a Bible verse. And I would remiss if I didn’t point out that Speaker Nancy Pelosi utterly ignores that sentiment when it comes to God’s creation still living inside their mother’s womb. So, the irony of a professing Roman Catholic not knowing her Bible to the point of insisting a quote not from the Bible is her favorite verse gives way to the irony of a Catholic failing to even adhere to the teaching of her favorite verse-yet-not-a-verse. Sadly, those ironies are the norm in a Democratic Party that believes that religion can be whatever they want it to be as long as it gets them votes.
With her short speech to the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, Speaker Pelosi revealed that she views the Bible as a little more than a tool to gin up support. Hopefully, Christians will see her religious fraud a little more clearly from here on out.
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