April 18, 2005
Genes
Our senator’s a heart surgeon. When we found out he’d never even voted in an election for seventeen or so years, we rewarded him by sending him to the U S Senate. In my opinion, our electorate’s judgment is not making us look so hot. Here’s why.
According to a London news service, the latest scientific research has determined that certain genes are responsible for creating religious fanatics. Much to the chagrin of church authorities, scientists are calling them “god genes.” That seems to explain a lot.
The idea appeals to me, probably because I’m hardly a church authority and never have been. Our senator, who was only a chest cutter in his previous carnation, has got the notion somewhere that the president’s judicial nominees are ipso facto “people of faith.” To favor the time-honored filibuster when voting to approve them, he claims, is sheer persecution.
I’ve never heard whether genes are contagious, but it would seem to me that anybody who fools around a lot by cutting on people’s hearts could be at risk. If I remember correctly, it was the prophet Jeremiah who said that that’s where, of all places, one might expect to find something like god genes (Jer 31.33). It’s been rumored that our senator has presidential aspirations. Maybe those genes are contagious after all.