Sin. Theologians rely on it. The Bible dwells on it. The news media revels in it. Television adores it. Without it, Hollywood would decay — perhaps expire. Without Sin, country music would lose its earthy appeal. The discomforting truth is human beings are sweet on Sin — it is the one characteristic that separates you from all other living things. You especially relish the Seven Deadly Sins — Wrath, Greed, Lust, Envy, Pride, Gluttony and Sloth. Their active cousins — Stealing, Lying and Cheating — help round out the list to an even 10. Some of you may think Killing belongs on the list, but taking a life is simply the ultimate form of theft. If you think for a fleeting moment that you’re free of Sin, the Preacher confirms that you’re born with it — a term called Original Sin. Sure enough, the moment you were old enough to think and contemplate your genitals, you innocently discovered a couple of wicked deeds. There was no premeditation. Wrongdoing came to you as naturally as learning to crawl, proving a decisive reality — as surely as you draw breath, your DNA runs your own reality show. Genetic determinism governs your mortal appetite. And if you occasionally question the depth of your transgression, the Church persistently removes all doubt — hammering, hammering away at your imperfection. You accept the guilt trip, content in the Preacher’s bold assurance — that all humanity is lying there with you, on the same sullied sheets. No, that just doesn’t wash, Pastor. Random human iniquity — Sin — is child’s play compared to the devastation of an unnamed genetic defect that is reaching epidemic proportions — something you now coin Malignant Egocentricity (ME)*. The Church (and Society) will call ME an affliction, an illness, a product of environmental abuse; and dump it in the great laundry basket of Sin. It is here you part with organized religion, because ME is beyond Sin. It is a pernicious self-centeredness that smashes the moral human compass called Empathy. ME predisposes individuals to make choices and follow a course of behavior that brings sorrow, anguish and ruination to those around them, including those they purportedly love. This behavior is premeditated, systemic and relentless. A husband batters his wife; a son worships drugs; a parent abandons children; a mother murders her only child; a coach sexually abuses boys; an executive robs his clients; a politician violates the public trust; a serial killer snuffs out life. The ME generation has three things in common — self infatuation, self gratification and utter disregard for the hardship and suffering they leave in their wake. When ME walks into a school with Death on his shoulder, humanity looks to society for motives, excuses and blame. From the pundits, you hear words like psychopath, sociopath, child abuse and temporary insanity. From the pulpit, you hear the admonition, “we are all sinners; judge not.” Meanwhile, ME multiplies from generation to generation, one DNA strand to another, as constant as the tide. Possibly a missing link. Or a bad seed. But certainly beyond Sin.

*© 2012

This might be a good time to talk about slavery. Not self imposed slavery, as in addictive behavior; but true slavery, as in legal subjugation. Legal subjugation, as in 1860, when a minority of U.S. citizens owned approximately four million slaves. Although slave owners provided housing, rations and other essentials, they legally extorted the labor of their human property. Fast forward 152 years and you find another version of slavery in America — where the Federal Government confiscates (a big word for “steals”) the labor (and wealth) of millions of Americans. Between 1861 and 1865, some 620,000 Americans, primarily white men, died in the war that allegedly ended slavery. Let’s see, that’s one life per 6.4 slaves. You weren’t there; so you don’t know if each 6.4 slave-unit appreciated the soldier who died. Surely, some did. Surely. In 2012, you haven’t seen or heard that any ancestors of slaves have gathered to honor those who died. Maybe they have and you just haven’t heard about it. You haven’t heard of any memorial ceremony sponsored by the NAACP, except perhaps to honor black Civil War soldiers.  But, then, it can’t be easy to honor white men, dead or alive. Meanwhile, despite the Civil War carnage, slavery has made a vigorous comeback. Only this time the slaveholder is Uncle Sam. In year’s past, Uncle was famous for saying “I Want You” in war recruitment posters. Now he’s changed his tune by saying “I Want Your Money.” At the point of a gun, the Federal Government takes the earnings (and thus the labor) of law-abiding citizens and uses it to feed its ravenous appetite and pass around all manner of goodies. Obviously, millions of individual citizens (and aliens) are grateful to receive stolen property, as are foreign governments, government cronies, government bureaucrats, non-profit organizations and a host of other special interests “on the take.” As a slaveholder, the Federal Government has absolute power. In 1861, over nine million U.S. citizens objected to this power and seceded from the Union, but they were standing on the shaky, immoral ground of slavery. Today, millions of new slaves want to secede from the yoke of Government oppression but there are no armies to come to their rescue. You wonder now what Abraham Lincoln might have to say, if he could witness the outcome of his sacrifice. Today, his words echo sadly:

“. . . we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. . . The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here . . . It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Freedom.  It was, and is, never free.

You promised yourself you wouldn’t do a postmortem. To what end? The all-knowing pundits — from former WH operatives to exalted journalists to shrill TV girlies — already dissected the election corpse and uncovered any number of incurable diseases. The milk is decidely spilt — and curdled. Just let it go. The deed is done. Bury the dead. Yes, indeed, but long ago you incessantly predicted the carnage and now, tearfully, you deserve to indulge your “rightness.” Mitt was bound to lose,  not because he moved too far to the Right, not because of demographics, not because women wanted their contraception and Roe vs Wade protection at taxpayer expense, not because he threatened the Gangs . . er .. the Unions, not because the majority of young voters are ignorant (which they are), not because blacks are racist (which they are), not because Hispanics wanted free stuff (which they do) and not because network TV is morally and ethically corrupt (which it is). Mitt lost because:

He and his advisers, in their collective gut, thought they couldn’t lose. The American people, at crunch time, would never, ever, re-elect an abject failure, a pompous, unmitigated liar and transparent Socialist  — someone so clearly resentful and bitter toward American exceptionalism. They wouldn’t. Wrong. Dead wrong.

His message was always off target. He was persuaded that “it’s only the economy, stupid.” Yes, everybody knew the problems; they didn’t need to be told and told and told. He droned on about unemployment, the deficits, food stamps and other economic statistics. If you have cancer, no one needs to tell you over and over  that you have it. You know it.

He didn’t acknowledge that the economy was only a symptom of a more perilous threat. He refused to look evil in the face and name it, not daring to upset his darling demographic — the Almighty Independent. He refused to fight an ideological war because ideology is a dirty word. As his opponent raped the Constitution, he — as an American citizen — exhibited not the slightest outrage. He did not defend America.

He attempted to reach into the minds of voters and utterly avoided their hearts. A fine human being through and through, he ironically ignored humanity. The people desperately were looking for a warrior — The Gladiator — to step into the arena and call out Commodus. Somehow, Mitt didn’t understand that many great warriors are also great men.

He allowed evil deeds to stand unchallenged. So fearful of drawing blood and alienating moderate voters, he walked on eggshells and played “prevent defense,” thinking the election was his, IF he didn’t slip. The Benghazi debate moment was his opportunity, following BHO’s “offended” speech regarding his actions after the tragedy. Mitt needed to throw off his political hat, and say: “Excuse me, Mr. President, but as an American citizen, I’m offended you would come out on this stage and hand me and the American people this line of sanctimonious BS. I’m speaking to you now as a citizen, and I’m outraged that you flew off to a political fundraising party the very day after terrorists murdered Americans on American soil. You’re the Commander In Chief– your most important job. How do you justify that? Justify that to the families of those who were murdered.” He didn’t dare then and he didn’t, on numerous other occasions, dare bloody the Obama nose.

He didn’t speak to the Obama constituency with a compelling message. He gave up on them. Meanwhile, he couldn’t or wouldn’t truly energize the conservative base, thinking he had them enthusiastically in the bag, only to see them stay home or cast a million votes for the Libertarian.

But the pundits will prattle on now that no one could have bested the Democrat machine and the demographic takers who were fearful of losing their goodies. As many predicted, several of the truly conservative candidates would have at least gone to war and raised the level of debate to call out the culprits, suspects and criminals. Romney is a good man. You  heard through the grapevine that, behind the scenes, he is as tough as nails — “he didn’t get where he is by being a sissy” — well, too bad he didn’t bring an heroic boldness to the public stage. The stage is pristine clean. Not a drop of blood.