http://randi.org/jr/2006-07/070706could.html#i1
COULD IT BE..SATAN?
Adding to the dismay with which we watch superstition, mythology,
science-ba****ng, and "faith-based"
decisions moving in on us from Wa****ngton, came this latest affront to
reason. Politician John
Jacob, who describes himself as a "Reagan Conservative," made the decision
to run for Congress
against Representative Chris Cannon, who sought a fifth term in that
position. John, however, had a
weapon that Cannon might have found hard to survive: he appealed to voters
for sup****t based on the
way The Evil One - we're talking Satan here, constituents! - has directly
used supernatural powers
to defeat him! Said Jacob:
There's another force that wants to keep us from going to Wa****ngton, D.C.
It's the Devil is what it
is. I don't want you to print that, but it feels like that's what it is.
You didn't want the media to print that comment, John? Get real! Of course
they hustled that
delicious item into every spot they could find! They exulted when you said
that since you decided to
run for Congress, Satan has messed up your business deals, preventing you
from putting as much money
into the race as you'd hoped to. (As it was, Jacob could only get
$400,000+ together to oil the
skids.) You complained that deals you had lined up were delayed, freezing
money you needed to
finance your race. And obviously, to you, Beelzebub was behind it all. And
you wonder, John, why
your comments got into print?
The final count showed Satan well ahead: 56% for Cannon, 44% for the
beleaguered Jacob. And he never
had any doubt about the reason. Asked if he actually believed that the
deciding element was Satan,
Jacob said he was just unable to come up with any other possible
explanation:
I don't know who else it would be if it wasn't him. Now when that gets out
in the paper, I'm going
to be one of the screw-loose people. There's no question I've had
experiences that I think there's
an outside force. We have a country that was created by our Heavenly
Father and it was a country
that had a Constitution and everyone who came to America had strong faith.
If that can be destroyed
that would be the adversity. Whether you want to call that Satan or
whoever you want to call it, I
believe in the last eight months I've experienced that.
Both Cannon and Jacob are members of the Church of Latter Day Saints, so
neither one would have any
problem blaming Beelzebub for misfortunes. In that case, I think, Cannon's
success is not all that
reassuring. But I have to wonder what ever happened to the strange
old-fa****oned ideas that perhaps
business deals just go wrong, and that an in***bent politician is hard to
dislodge?
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