Brothers and Sisters?

The newly elected governor of Alabama, Republican Robert Bentley gave a speech this weekend at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. once served as pastor. Me thinks he picked the wrong profession.

MONTGOMERY -- Gov.-elect Robert Bentley in a speech at a Baptist church this afternoon said he plans to be the governor of all Alabamians and be color-blind, but he also said people who aren't ''saved" Christians aren't his brothers and sisters.

“I was elected as a Republican candidate. But once I became governor ... I became the governor of all the people. I intend to live up to that. I am color blind," Bentley said in a short speech given about an hour after he took the oath of office as governor.

Then Bentley, who for years has been a deacon at First Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, gave what sounded like an altar call.

"There may be some people here today who do not have living within them the Holy Spirit," Bentley said. ''But if you have been adopted in God's family like I have, and like you have if you're a Christian and if you're saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister."

Bentley added, ''Now I will have to say that, if we don't have the same daddy, we're not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother."

I don’t know about the good people of Alabama, but I for one could not care less about whether or not my governor thinks I am his sister. I could not care less if he wants to be my brother. Last time I looked, Alabama was not in great shape. Some of the worst health indicators in the country. A ranking of 47 out of 50 from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, in their aggregate analysis of the general health and well-being of children.

Lots of work to be done out of the governor’s mansion. For the sake of the people of Alabama, I suggest the governor-elect roll up his sleeves, and get to it. And stop all the talk about being colored-blind, and brothers-and-sisters, and whatever. And if he can’t stop yakking about what he shouldn’t be talking about, and start working hard at what he was elected to do, perhaps a change of profession is in order. I am sure there are a number of good seminaries out there glad to help him prepare for a place in the pulpit.