INSIDE THE FUNDAMENTALIST MIND
The "End Times" Are Coming

Last month, my parents had dinner at a restaurant with me and my wife--it was, for the most, part a very pleasant experience. Toward the end of our meal, however, while my mother and my wife drifted off on their own topic of conversation, my father and I started talking about the Middle East. Politics are always a frustrating topic when I talk with my Dad. I fear making him angry by disagreeing with him too terribly much; actually, he tends to be very respectful of my opinions, and I am thankful for that, but he is a conservative fundamentalist Christian and I am a progressive leftist: I know that if I am too strong of an advocate of my beliefs, he will feel threatened. That's why I shuddered when he finally asked, "Do you think we are in the End Times?"

Here's a bit of background. My mother has known for years that I am no longer a Christian--she's very tolerant, very Christian in the love-your-neighbor sense which belies her adherence to strict fundamentalist views. My father, on the other hand, still thinks that I'm part of the club: I fear that declaring to him that I believe his understanding of the universe is hopelessly wrong might damage our always-fragile (but improving these last few years) relationship; he knows I'm liberal, but I don't think he realizes just how liberal I am. Perhaps it's not a good idea, but I've allowed him to think that I've never reconsidered my childhood spiritual views. Surprisingly, this has not been such a difficult thing to pull off. Every now and then, however, I have to carefully thread my way through conversation with him.

Back to our dinner talk. "No, I don't think we are in the End Times," I honestly replied. The funny thing here is that, while I was a bit nervous about the course of the conversation, I still enjoy discussing the Bible with my father--usually I try to concentrate on the stuff I still pretty much believe, like the immorality of wealth, or the greatness of love. Pondering crackpot theories about the Revelation, however, comes dangerously close to revealing (no pun intended) just how far I have deviated from my dad's beliefs. I went on, "I do, however, fear that there are people in the White House who may very well be trying to make the End Times come prematurely."

"Well, that can't be done," my father said.

"I know," I again replied honestly, "But these people I'm talking about may try to, say, get the Temple of Solomon rebuilt in accordance with prophesy: currently there is a very holy mosque on that site; this could cause all manner of horrors."

"I see what you're saying, but that won't happen unless God wants it to."

Ugh. This was making me nervous. Fortunately, my wife and mother were ready to leave then and our conversation ended there.

My point in recounting this story is that my father's preoccupation with the "End Times" is utterly typical of fundamentalist thinking. Fundamentalists understand the horrific events in Iraq, Israel, and the rest of the Middle East in terms of their own cockeyed interpretation of the Bible. They have a very weird and dangerous way of thinking about US foreign policy. I understand their point of view because I once embraced it, but it is very difficult for me to explain such seeming insanity to those who don't share my experiences. Given the prevalence of Apocalyptic thinking in American politics today, it is extremely important that Americans with saner philosophies understand what they're up against. That's why I'm linking to this really great article from the Nation: it does a great job of laying out what these "End Times" are all about, and what it means to US politics.

Check it out:

The links between global politics and the "prophetic calendar" are matters of doctrine among the large swath of evangelicals who are also ardent prophecy watchers. For these true believers, the Middle East, particularly Israel and Iraq, is deeply important, both religiously and politically, as the theater of God's actions in the final days. LaHaye has often argued that the founding of Israel--the return of the Jews to their land--is the "supersign" that the Second Coming is approaching. In [the fundamentalist book series] "Left Behind," as in virtually every other prophecy adventure, Israel is the only nation God favors. Despite the well-documented nationalism of many Christian conservatives, most interpreters argue that the United States as a nation hardly figures at all in the end times. After all, as several Internet commentators have pointed out, America is not mentioned in the Bible. Jerry Falwell suggested something similar back in 1985, when he announced that "if we fail to protect Israel, we will cease to be important to God."

If he's right, then the United States must matter to God a great deal these days. The remarkable influence of the Christian right and more specifically Christian Zionism on the current Bush Administration's Middle East policy has been hard to miss. Right-wing figures in Congress like Oklahoma Republican Jim Inhofe and House majority leader Tom DeLay have close working relationships with evangelicals like LaHaye, Falwell and Ralph Reed. These evangelists and politicians are in turn deeply connected to the Israeli right, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his financeminister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The relationship has deepened in recent years--it seems as if some Jewish pro-Israeli organization is always giving Pat Robertson an award, and among grassroots Christian conservatives, there are multiple campaigns to raise money to settle immigrant Jews in the West Bank and Gaza--but the connections pay off particularly well in times of crisis. When the Israelis pushed into Jenin last year, for example, killing dozens of Palestinians and leaving thousands homeless, Falwell organized a massive e-mail campaign to call for the United States to "stand firm" behind Israel, while DeLay spearheaded Congressional opposition to any weakening of the Bush Administration's pro-Sharon stance. At about that time, DeLay discussed his recent trip to the Middle East before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. "I didn't see any occupied territory," he told the appreciative audience. "What I saw was Israel." More recently, DeLay declared himself "an Israeli of the heart" in a rabid speech before the Knesset.

You really ought to go read this. Click here.

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