"By their fruit you will recognize them"

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

~ Matthew 7:15,16

This scripture is from a wonderfully rich teaching of Jesus Christ recorded in the book of Matthew. For those of us in the Christian Faith, Matthew 5-7 are about as foundational to our Faith as any teaching in the bible.

When people ask me why I'm not a Republican, especially given my Evangelical, somewhat conservative beliefs, I always explain to people that I'm a "fruit inspector". That means, I examine the "fruit" of someone's actions and discern whether what they have done or said has produced something positive or negative. I particulary look closely at the fruit of fellow believers since Christ's teachings in those early days were directed at believers and those that followed Christ closely. They weren't directed at unbelievers. Since Republican's market themselves as "God's Party", citing their open support of biblical values such as embracing a culture of life and definitions of traditional marriage, I get out my microscope.

When it comes to my inspection of the fruit of Republican's, I don't find a shortage of examples of "suspect" fruit. Let's take the Tea Parties for example. The seeds for this movement were planted back during the 2008 Presidential Campaign. You remember, don't you? When Ms. Sarah "pit bull with lipstick" Palin decided that she would ever so slyly plant the seed that Barack Obama was "different"? It was at an October 4th, 2008 rally when she said that Barack Obama "is not a man who sees America as you see it." Fast forward to today and you get pictures like the one posted above, a whole "birther movement" for folks who can't accept that President Obama was born in the United States", and, finally, a groundswell of vitriolic hate speech that's welcomed and encouraged by a group now called Tea Partiers.

While some Republicans are trying to discover some way to distance themselves from this fringe group, I believe that it's safe to say that the Tea Party movement is hand-in-hand aligned with the Republican Party. While Republican's like to say that Tea Party activists are really "Independents", a new Quinnipiac Poll says that 74% of Tea Party Voters vote Republican. (I personally think most of the 26% that said they don't vote Republican are being less than truthful, but that's just me!).

And you only need to look at the Tea Partiers behavior since they bursted on the scene last summer (hat tip to CNN) to see just how ripe this fruit has become:

In Louisville, Kentucky, two young men in camouflage fatigues roamed the crowd trying to recruit new members for their militia called the Ohio Valley Freedom Fighters. They bear signs reading "AK-47s: today's pitchfork" and "Quit worrying. Start your militia training today."

In Jackson, Michigan, a young man didn't need a sign. He was carrying the real thing: A loaded AK-47 assault rifle and two loaded handguns. "I don't want a revolution. I don't want a civil war," he said. "But it is a possibility. It's there as an option, as a last resort."

Some fruit, huh? I think Matthew 7:17-18 says it best:

Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

I think that settles that.