Less Prayer .. .More Thought

I see that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs praised Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld by saying that he "leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country."

At approximately what point in our history did prayer, or other divine communications, become a proxy for actual thought? Exactly when did we start to think it was a good idea to think that god speaks to our leaders and that their actions are somehow divinely inspired? When did we decide that being a man who claims to talk to god is better than just being a man who is smart about things?

Rumsfeld's tenure has been, quite literally, a bloody mess. He failed to take action in the face of a looming threat from Al Queda and he has turned the country of Iraq into a den of chaos strewn with corpses. He has repeatedly violated international law and even the most basic concepts of human rights. Don't tell me this guy talks to god. With a resume like this, this guy is having a one way conversation with the chandelier.

It is one thing when you use your idea of god to condemn the conduct of others in the pious manner that has marked the last six years. It is one thing when you use god as a Precinct Captain to get out your vote. But it is a new low when god becomes but your all purpose excuse for everything.