CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALIST LUNACY
Bush, the Bible, and Iraq

In foreign lands, it's a short leap from such thinking to the conclusion that Bush is the religion-crazed bad guy in the Iraq crisis. If you accept that view, the determination of Israel's Likud Party to expand Israeli settlements means the Jews are returning to Judea and Samaria, the territory God promised Abraham. And now, with the U.N. balking at Bush's wishes, even some among America's allies worry that the Christian right -- and maybe even the President himself -- see the U.N. as the vehicle for the Antichrist's world order.

The only thing remaining to complete John Darby's prophecy is the war. It's no surprise that in a Feb. 26 debate in the British Parliament, George Galloway, a Labor Party backbencher from Scotland, declared that "that born-again, right-wing, Bible-belting, fundamentalist Republican Administration in the United States want war."

That sentiment is no doubt a reaction to the words created for Bush by his chief speech writer, Michael Gerson, an evangelical Christian. Historian Boyer notes that when Bush said in his State of the Union address that Saddam Hussein could unleash "a day of horror like none we have ever known," the President not only played on memories of September 11 but also invoked "a powerful and ancient apocalyptic vocabulary that for millions of [Christian] prophecy believers conveys a specific and thrilling message of an approaching end -- not just of Saddam, but of human history as we know it" -- complete with the return of Jesus to lead a much-expanded flock.

Remember, I come from fundamentalist roots, so I know: fundamentalist Christians, as a political force, are dangerous. During the brief Afghanistan war, I liked to joke that the conflict was actually the Islamic fundamentalists versus the Christian fundamentalists. Laughing wild amid severest woe. Sadly, this is no joke. I disagree with this article's author's assertion that "few of Bush's aides share his particular brand of faith," and that the White House is not as insane as it might seem (Rumsfeld and his staff have daily prayer meetings, for god's sake). In addition to the oil imperative and the empire imperative, millennialist philosophy is clearly a factor in Oval Office decision making--it is self-evident in the irrationality of Bush's Israel policy, at the very least. It is clear, however, that one way or the other, whether deeply religious or not, the Bush administration behaves in a fundamentalist way that is scaring the hell out of the rest of the world.

For an update on the Bush administration's fundamentalist lunacy, click here.

Thanks to J. Orlin Grabbe.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$