Rush Limbaugh, William Ayers, and Jesus...

I was in the car the other day and was listening to talk radio for a bit. Now I must confess that I find talk radio to be interesting and listening in the car seems to help the time pass. I heard the tail end of the Rush Limbaugh Show and then it transitioned to the Sean Hannity Show. Now, I recognize that some folks listen to these programs and consider them to be “news” programs on the radio. The truth is that they are really just entertainment programs, driven by ratings and paid for by advertising dollars. As it stands, they seem to be doing pretty well. Rush is one of the highest paid entertainers on the radio, who recently signed a contract for $400 million dollars. Not bad for a guy with only a high school diploma. Interestingly enough, I recently learned that Sean Hannity and Karl Rove, both prominent political personalities are also college dropouts. All of us that went to college must be a bunch of suckers…but I digress.

So, I was listening to the radio. The topic of course was politics and specifically the presidential election. As one who listens to these programs from time to time, it has been interesting to watch the metamorphosis of the discussion from primaries to general election. Both Rush and Hannity were extremely critical and outright against McCain in the primaries, but since his nomination both have supported him and focused their attack on the democratic nominee. The topic of the afternoon was on the associations that the democratic nominee has had in his past. In particular one individual was mentioned, William Ayers, a professor of education and senior university scholar at the University of Chicago. In the 60’s Ayers was involved in a radical anti-war group who bombed the pentagon in 1972. (I’d be interested to find out how one goes from an anti-war radical who is participating in such atrocities to becoming a distinguished professor at one of our nation’s most prestigious universities…I mean it’s got to be a fascinating story)…anyway….

The point was being made that Obama has been in Mr. Ayers home, has served on charity boards with him, and has associations with other persons of questionable behavior or reputation, thus calling into question his character as a presidential candidate. This got me to thinking…do our associations with others and persons we choose to spend time with define who we are? Also, when we consider this from a biblical world view does this change anything? Who did Jesus associate with? Whose homes did he visit? Who are we called to associate with as the Body of Christ?

It’s just something I was thinking about. And that’s my post for today.