Website stirs up some passion

PETER BUFFA

They’re called hot topics, or hot buttons. In politics, they’re

called “third-rail issues.” If you touch them, you’ll die. Be honest.

You know what they are: abortion, gay marriage, separation of church

and state, et cetera and so on and so forth. People take sides over

them. They get passionate about them. They file lawsuits over them.

They even smack each other in the snoot about them now and then. Most

people try to avoid them entirely.

But there is a man in Costa Mesa who has no such qualms. In fact,

he is downright fearless about climbing that long, lonely ladder to

the 10-meter platform and diving headfirst into the pool of

controversy. His name is Steve Gooden, a commercial real estate agent

who describes himself as a conservative Christian and Republican.

Steve wanted to put up a website about the presidential race. No big

deal there. A quick search of “Bush-Kerry campaign” on Yahoo.com

produced 4,340,000 results. That’s a lot.

But Steve’s website is different. Real different. It’s called,

“The Passion of Christ: Who’s Passion is Closer?” Aside from the

grammatical sin in the second phrase, the site is straightforward and

well-designed. At its core is a simple question that is guaranteed to

end up with someone wearing the guacamole if you bring it up at your

next dinner party.

Who is more like Jesus Christ -- George Bush or John Kerry?

Gooden’s site contends that you should vote for the candidate who

scores higher on the survey that his site sets out. “So far, 75% of

the people who have visited the site have voted that Bush’s beliefs

are closer to Jesus’ than Kerry’s,” said Gooden in Saturday’s Daily

Pilot article, “Website likens presidential candidates to Christ.”

Is this just one more opinion survey? It is not. If you click on

the Bush tab or the Kerry tab, you’ll see a checklist of beliefs and

values beneath that candidate’s picture, with this instruction:

“Click on the tab next to the ideas that this candidate believes in.”

The boxes include, among many others, “Pro-family”; “Abstinence”;

“Pro life”; “Seek God for direction”; “Heal the sick.”

What really caught my eye was that Jesus has his own tab, right

next to Bush and Kerry. When you click on the “Jesus” tab, you’ll

find a list of biblical quotations beneath each of the beliefs you’re

being asked to assign to Bush, or Kerry, or both. For instance, under

“Assist the Poor,” there is this, from Matthew 25:40: “Truly I say to

you, in so far as you did it to one of these, the least of my

brothers, you did it to me.”

Few people would confuse Steve Gooden’s website with a scientific

opinion poll. No survey is ever completely objective, and this one

just happens to be a bit more subjective than most, to say nothing of

hugely influenced by your own beliefs.

To be honest, some of the beliefs you’re being asked to assign to

one of the two candidates are a little hard to decipher.

There is a “Do Not Overtax” box on the checklist, which I would

expect George Bush to win going away, but there is also a “Pay Taxes”

box. I’m pretty sure both Bush and Kerry are OK with paying taxes.

There is also a box for “Assist the Widows,” which is a good thing,

although I’m not sure either candidate has staked out much of a

position on that.

Gooden’s website is really the latest iteration of a premise that

got a lot of attention in 2002, when an obscure organization called

the “National Religious Partnership for the Environment” launched a

national campaign to discourage people from driving SUVs by asking

this question: “What kind of car would Jesus drive?” It may have been

absurd, but the question caught the nation’s fancy, a lot, and popped

up everywhere, from the Wall Street Journal to “The Tonight Show.” Of

the hundreds of answers that were offered for what kind of car Jesus

would drive, I thought the bell-ringer was “a Christ-ler.”

According to Mark Petracca, one of the top Italian-American

political scientists, with an office in the Social Sciences Plaza at

UCI, Gooden’s premise is “ ... not totally crazy. Bush himself, when

asked who he considers the most important historical figure was

during the last presidential debate said Jesus Christ.”

But it is a good example of how times, and races, have changed,

according to Petracca, who referred to John F. Kennedy’s presidential

race, in which he had to distance himself repeatedly from his

Catholic faith to quell fears that as the first Catholic president,

he might defer to Rome instead of the Constitution.

“Now, 44 years later, it’s legitimate,” Petracca said. “Both

candidates openly talk about matters relating to faith.”

If you want to see Steve Gooden’s site for yourself, grab your

mouse and head to https://www.thepassion

ofbush.com. As interesting as Gooden’s premise may be, I couldn’t

help but notice the age-old problem of trying to interpret biblical

references and apply them to present-day life, like this quotation

under the “Marriage” category, from Exodus 20:17: “You shall not

covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s

wife, or his male slave, or his slave-girl, or his ox, or his ass, or

anything which belongs to your neighbor.”

Anyone think I’m going to touch that? See paragraph one, above:

“third-rail issues.”

I gotta go.

* PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs

Sundays. He may be reached by e-mail at ptrb4@aol.com.