No less than four of the Republican candidates for their party’s nomination to the Presidency of the United States claim they were called by God to run for the job.
Four! Perry, Santorum, Bachmann and Cain have all claimed God as their ultimate political consultant.
Fred Clark at Slacktivist says:
Several explanations suggest themselves for how four candidates for the same office came to believe they were called by God to do so. It’s possible that at least three of them are mistaken. Or this may be evidence that those of us who are monotheists are mistaken and all four candidates really were called, just by four different Gods. Or perhaps God simply subscribes to a management theory that values fostering competition.
One wonders how God divided this up. “Okay, Yahweh, you’ve got Cain. Jehovah, who do you want? Elohim, Adonai, how about you two?”
Why restrict it to the Judaeo-Christian Gods? Don’t you wonder who Shiva might nominate? Or Kali?
I say this as a devout agnostic: God seems rather confused.
I stuck with those four because none of the candidates have the kind of open-mindedness it would require to even acknowledge those other religions are valid.