I just got a call from Newt Gingrich. Well, not exactly from Newt. First there was this woman with a charming southern voice who asked if I would stay on the line to listen to Newt’s recorded message, then there was another woman with an even more charming southern voice who asked if I heard it OK and would I like to support the Gingrich Ten Point Plan for restoring America’s good fortune. Just as they had garnered over a million signatures for his famous Drill Here Drill Now campaign, they hope to do the same by opposing the bailout, eliminating the estate and capital gains taxes, establishing a flat income tax, eliminating the IRS and one or two other things that add up to ten.
I opined that the Drill Here Drill Now campaign was one of Newt’s dumber ideas but had to admit he had topped it with this new plan that surpassed any adjective I could think of beyond dumb that would be suitable language for clergy. I’m not sure why, but the woman with the charming voice hung up on me. I guess she didn’t want to talk policy.
I might have suggested that Mr. Gingrich take a look at one of the readings for the coming Sunday:
Ezek. 34:11 For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12 As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
Ezek. 34:17 As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats: 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture? When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet? 19 And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have fouled with your feet?
Ezek. 34:20 Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, 22 I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
What do you think? Could Newt craft a better ten point plan? Maybe one that would follow along with something God had in mind?
Oh, you must be wrong about the \”hang up\” that you received. What Southern girl would think of scratching your name off of the Newt supporters list without hearing more of your good ideas…..oh, yeah, it was just a bad connection!
The long extended metaphor of the sheep in Ezekiel seems very a propos of Professor Gingrich\’s Ten Point Plan. I cannot help, when reading the Ten Point Plan, of thinking of what Talleyrand said about the restored Bourbons after the fall of Napoleon, \”They have learned nothing, and they have forgotten nothing\”!