No Tomorrow

Progressive journalist Bill Moyers on Christian fundamentalism, the environment, and American flirtation with self-destruction. From AlterNet via ZNet:

One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington.

Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a worldview despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.

And

A 2002 Time-CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the book of Revelations are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks. Drive across the country with your radio tuned to the more than 1,600 Christian radio stations, or in the motel turn on some of the 250 Christian TV stations, and you can hear some of this end-time gospel. And you will come to understand why people under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected, as Grist puts it, "to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth, when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture?

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One doesn't really realize how strong Apocalyptic Millenialism is as an ideological force in the US until one gets to know some Apocalyptic Millenialists. Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, my father is one of these people. He's intelligent, kind-hearted, and wise. But he believes that the Apocalypse will happen, sooner than later, and that it is a good thing: this means he advocates the rebuilding of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, which would mean the destruction of one of the most holy sites in all of Islam, the Al Aqsa Mosque. Obviously, massive war would result from such an action, and given Israel, Pakistan, and Iran's nuclear capabilities, this war would make the current one in Iraq look like a cakewalk. My father understands all this, but believes that this is the will of God. He's not crazy; he's just deluded. And there are millions and millions of his fellow countrymen who see things as he does.

I have no idea how to engage him in a dialogue about this: to doubt his interpretation of the Revelation is to doubt the word of God; this he cannot do, and urging him to do so would only deafen his ears to what I have to say. Having been a Southern Baptist once myself, I generally feel comfortable talking to fundamentalists on their own turf, but this one has me stumped. It also has me scared when I think about it too much.

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