"God made a farmer" aims for the heartland

There's a lot of talk, today, about Dodge Ram borrowing interest for its heartland-friendly Super Bowl ad, "Farmer":


Not only does it borrow an emotional on-air poem by radio's Paul Harvey verbatim, but the slide show imagery also seems mostly "found". And then there's the open admission that the whole idea was lifted (with permission and credit) from a 2011 ad made by Farms.com, an agricultural news site.

Regardless of its creative originality, the ad has been called "the best ad of the Super Bowl" by Jalopnik and "the most striking Super Bowl ad" of 2012 by Slate.

It's certainly sentimental. And many farmers do, indeed, love God.

But what does God think of farmers?

In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? f you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." 

Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Damn. I could be wrong. I probably am. But maybe, just maybe, God hates farmers just as much as he hates shrimp.