Georgia: a very, very Christian state
Georgia’s 10th Congressional District is among the most conservative in the state. Just a year after being elected to fill the unexpired term of the late Rep. Charlie Norwood, freshman Paul Broun faces a challenge Tuesday from State Rep. Barry Fleming. The winner will take the House seat in November.
U.S. Rep. Paul Broun (R-Athens) is questioning the religious convictions of his opponent in the Republican primary for the 10th congressional district seat as the election on Tuesday approaches.
“It’s unfortunate that he doesn’t understand redemption and salvation and a changed life in accepting Jesus as lord and savior,” Broun says of state Rep. Barry Fleming (R-Harlem) in an interview which aired Thursday on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s WACG 90.7 FM in Augusta. “It’s not about religion but about a relationship with Jesus.”
But Fleming is a Christian, and according to his website, is an active member of Harlem Baptist Church. He has served as chairman of the board of deacons there, among other duties, the website says.
“Paul is wrong on that,” Fleming says of Broun’s remarks in an interview scheduled to air on Friday. “My Christian faith is the center of my life and I’ve tried not only to witness to other people in my life but I’ve tried to live a life as an example for others, and I’ll continue to do that.”
Broun, meanwhile, repeatedly accuses Fleming of “bearing false witness,” as he put it, by distorting votes he’s made in Congress, adding that lying violates the Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments. Fleming denies he has lied and invites doubters to check the Congressional Record.
The candidates, who have similar positions on social and fiscal issues, have been distinguishing themselves by questioning each other’s integrity in a negative campaign spiral.
RELATED: The Athens Banner Herald reminds us Broun did it last year too. This year some of Broun’s older transgressions came to light.
Disclaimer – I’m barely even watching that race. It’s just hard to avoid around here...
7 Responses to “Georgia: a very, very Christian state”
Yuck!
It is God's Own Party, after all.
GAG! I can't believe I live here!
Maybe its something in Eighth District water. That's the district that elected Saxby Chambliss to the house, before he unseated Sen. Max Cleland in 2002. Cleland was a multiple amputee, decorated Vietnam War hero and former Dept. of Veterans Affairs chief. Chambliss beat Cleland in large part with a Swiftboat-type TV ad that portrayed Cleland as a weak-willed Osama bin Laden sympathizer. Even Republican Sens. John McCain and Chuck Hagel denounced that scurrilous ad.
Chambliss has made it a point to position himself as a uber hawk in the global war against terrorism, serving on intelligence and defense-related committees. Very impressive, considering that during the Vietnam War he had other priorities and so got five college deferments, topping those off with the jackpot: a medical deferment for an old college football knee injury.
Chambliss' successful attack ad against Cleland's record of military service set the pattern for what was done in 2004.
So, what you say about how Broun is campaigning comes as no surprise. Maybe the real shame is what the voters of Georgia's Eighth District are like, based on whom they're willing to support in elections and what they're willing to fall for in the way of campaigning.
It's called intolerant hypocrisy. Let those without sin cast the first ballot, I mean stone.
Born-again Christians need to go back and re-read the actual Bible/New Testament and not be swayed by Electric-Blue suit wearing snake oil salesman with mega churches and closet perversions. Baah.
Readers should know that Georgia doesn't have the same flavor as the hard core Bible Belt zone running from Oklahoma into the Ozarks toward St. Louis as far as Rolla.
But it's highly Baptist (separate churches without “WHITE” and “COLORED” signs to inform you which kind a given church is; you have to observe who comes and goes) and yes, half of Atlanta(!) is closed on Sunday, they have goofy liquor laws, and yes, there are some dry counties to this day in Georgia.
The Southern accent is delightful to hear and when I lived there it was the transplanted Northeasterners and Midwesterners who were ill-behaved, and I was said to hear radio commercials for schools that would “cure” natives' Southern dialect. There was a distinctive heaviness to the accent below the Fall Line (beyond Macon, into the true Deep South, the coastal plain).
(** SAD ** to hear those stupid radio commercials offering hope to Southerners who had to learn to talk Yankee to get hired on radio and television stations, even in Atlanta)