God supports delay in Schiavo case?

According to Tom Delay, God was looking down at America -- at what Delay and the Christian conservatives were enduring from liberals, at Delay’s ethics problems, at just the overall direction the country was heading -- and God decided to intervene.

God also knew that down in Florida a woman named Terri Schiavo was at the center of a family feud between her husband and her parents. Schiavo was diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state by doctors who had treated her and as merely disabled by doctors who rented the video.

Terri’s husband, Michael, says that Terri told him that she never wanted to live like that. Terri’s parents say it doesn’t matter. And so they fought -- for years.

God, looking at the family fighting in Florida and Delay’s maladies in Washington, had the perfect answer.

“One thing that God brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America” Delay told a group of Christian conservatives March 18.

What specifically? “Attacks against the conservative movement, against me and against others,” Delay continued.

And so God brought Terri Schiavo to Delay, and the congressman and his colleagues took it from there. They created a new law so that the federal government could intervene. They summoned the president from his beloved ranch in Crawford, Texas, to sign the law in his jammies.

They second guessed the doctors. They questioned Michael Schiavo’s motives. They turned the attention of all three branches of government, at the federal and state levels, on saving Terri.

It all seemed to be working. They had elevated the Schiavo case. Everybody was talking about Terri. Nobody was talking about the nasty ethics charges.

But the conversation still didn’t go Delay’s way. The public supported Terri Schiavo’s brother by 63 to 28 percent. What’s more, 70 percent opposed the federal government’s intervention. Even Republican voters disagreed with their party, by a 58 to 39 percent margin, and evangelicals disagreed by a 50 to 44 percent margin.

It seems Americans felt Delay’s actions were based more on selfishness and than compassion or caring. A CBS News poll found that 13 percent of Americans think Congress intervened out of concern for Schiavo, while 74 percent think it was all about politics.

Perhaps Delay was right. Terri Schiavo “helped elevate the visibility of what is going on in America.” Just like Delay said. Just like God wanted.

“We shouldn't worry so much about whether God is on our side as about whether we're on His.”

-Ronald Reagan