The Ugly Un-American: End Times and American Foreign Policy
Posted by Ray Church on 08.22.2007
This week, Ray Church looks at the impact of Christian End-Times Beliefs on American Foreign Policy. Plus, this week's Shut the Hell Up Award.
So much happening, so little time this week. I missed last week due to a swathe of extra editing work at my real job, and there were so many things that I missed.
Karl Rove has announced his resignation; a bare one week after Brandon Crow announced that he would be the last rat to leave the sinking ship, pretty much assuring himself a place in the Village Idiot awards at the end of the year.
Then there was the capitulation of the Democrats, where they basically collapsed into a heap over the FISA court, rolling over and sticking their feet in the air so that Bush can scratch their belly.
Then you have the self inflicted wounds on the Giuliani, Romney and Edwards campaigns. Giuliani claimed that he spent more time at Ground Zero than the rescue workers, Romney figured that driving him around the country was analogous to soldiers under fire and Edwards didn't realize that he had invested in the wrong legal firms.
The one that grabbed my attention more, however, was the Family Research Council releasing a fund raising letter attacking Democrats as un-Christian and accusing them of trying to fool people of Faith by stealing religious language.
With their disastrous defeat in the 2004 elections, liberals were finally forced to confront a cold, hard fact—their long history of hostility toward Christians and other people of faith was costing them dearly at the polls. So they set out to solve the "problem" of what they call "religion right in politics" [sic]—meaning socially conservative ideals.
Leaders on the Left knew they couldn't change their radical views and still appeal to the homosexuals and the abortion crowd. So instead they decided to hijack the language of faith in order to hide the truth about their real agenda.
By the time the 2006 elections rolled around, even the most liberal congressional candidates began sounding like "God and country" conservatives. The strategy worked—the Left's smooth talk fooled just enough values voters to put them in control of both the House and Senate.
The religious right is out once more, guns blazing and looking to take down the Democrats. Good for them. Look at the words used here: "hijack the language of faith", as if they have a monopoly over faith, and even adding the association with terrorism with the word "hijack"
Now, I could go on about the Family Research Council, with their fallacious linking of homosexuality to pedophilia and their continual pursuit of the war on the "War on Christmas". I could talk about the accused racism of the leader of the FRC, Tony Perkins, when he bought a mailing list from the Ku Klux Klan.
But I'm not going to. I'm not so worried about the values that they reportedly defend. I've talked about those in detail before. I'm more worried about the theology that underpins their ideas, and the dangers this presents to the safety of the earth.
The Evangelical Right, End Times Prophecy and American Foreign policy
The Family Research Council represents part of the religious empire of James Dobson, formed in 1981 and incorporated in 1983. I spoke about the "Loud Voices of American Religion" way back in my second column, but when I wrote that I focused on the role religion played in opposing abortion, homosexuality and evolution. In the year since I wrote that column, I have come to realize that there are other issues at play which are far more dangerous than those above.
A quick review of the wikipedia entry on the Family Research Council will show a number of the familiar issues for the Religious Right: support for intelligent design, tighter regulation of pornography and abstinence education, opposition to abortion, civil unions and the destruction of embryos. Now, which ever side of the issue you fall, these are all essentially domestic issues. These are things that a country can decide for itself and it won't significantly affect other countries.
If you read down a bit further you see a few more dangerous ideas appearing: They oppose any idea that global warming is man made, in favour of strong military action against radical Islam, a connection to the Blackwater USA, a private military contractor. If you push a bit further, you find a unilateral and unwavering support for Israel.
If you scratch the surface, you'll find that behind the veneer of family values there are some moments where the Religious Right has some downright scary ideas. The Family Research Council represents one of many organizations that present a public face of the theology of Dominionism.
Dominionism and Pre-Millennialism
Dominionism is the belief that America is a Christian country, and will one day be ruled by Christian precepts and Biblical law. Pre-Millennialism is the belief that Christ is coming, in most cases soon, and will establish a Kingdom on earth that will last for 1000 years. There's more to it than that, and several of these groups have a clearly defined story as to how that will happen.
Now before I go further, let me point that there are so many different forms of these two beliefs that if I tell you that "these people believe this given idea" then I'm bound to be as wrong for as many people as I am right. Even if I just name the big three; James Dobson, Pat Robinson and the now deceased Jerry Falwell, there are monumental differences. Dobson, for example, plays his cards exceedingly close to his chest, and his theology is not immediately obvious, at least in comparison to the other two, but at least one critic (Theocracy Watch) has identified him with the above ideas.
It's perhaps better to talk about "popular Dominionism" and "popular Pre-Millenialism". Probably the most famous example would be the "Left Behind" books. Bad theology, but a famous example of these two ideas, and believed almost literally by many believers.
Now, I'm not going to get into the minutiae of the theology, in part because I don't think I'm the best person to talk about it, but there are three results of these beliefs that have had a dangerous impact on World politics.
Israel
OK, the first part. Pre-Millenialists are the most ardent supporters of Israel, many times more ardent than Jews themselves. Pre-Millenialists believe that Israel was given to the Jews by God himself, and that their dominion over all of Israel, including modern day Palestine, is a requirement before Christ can return to Earth.
This means that they unilaterally, without hesitation, support Israel no matter what the situation. The carpet bombing of Lebanon last year, where over 1000 Lebanese were killed in retribution for the kidnapping of 2 Israeli soldiers, and which resulted in the largest ever oil spill in the Mediterranean? Totally Lebanon's fault because they interrupted in the ineffable plan of God.
Before my Jewish friends start celebrating this unquestioned support, realize that this belief includes the idea that Israel will one day be destroyed in the battle of Har Megiddo, better known as Armageddon.
Now, this support for Israel is nothing new. There is a lot of evidence that Christian End-time beliefs in Britain were largely responsible for the existence of the State of Israel in the first place. The Church of Scotland was instrumental in the events that lead to the Treaty of Paris in 1856, which let the Jews back into Israel in the first place.
The Pre-Millenialists are responsible for huge amounts of aid directly to Israel. They also push for the "restoration" of the rest of Palestine to Israel's control. When Ariel Sharon, who had been instrumental in returning land to Palestine, fell ill in 2006, Pat Robinson was quick to claim that the illness was retribution for his actions.
The United Nations
When I was still a teenager, lying around at home one Saturday, I received one of those knocks on the door. It was two old ladies, forgive me if I incorrectly identify them as Jehovah's Witnesses, who wanted to bring my soul closer to Jesus. They were nice enough old ladies, sincerely wanting to save me. They showed me a nice pamphlet, filled with pictures of children of all races playing with animals of all species.
And then they mentioned the horrible things happening on earth. How the earth was going to hell in a hand basket and how the United Nations seemed to be the bad guys behind it all…
Huh?
It took me years to find out where all the UN hatred was coming from. These nice little ladies, as well meaning as they were, were believers in a particular myth about the end times. They believed that the United Nations will one day be the seat of the Anti-Christ, will rule over the world and force people to wear his mark on their hand and their head.
This probably sounds familiar. You may have seen the Omen (particularly Omen III, the final conflict). Or read the Left Behind series. It's not the only interpretation of these events. Some, such as The Late Great Planet Earth, which was a precursor to the left behind series, place the Anti-Christ as a leader of the European Union, but the most popular idea is the United Nations.
This, by the way, is why John Bolton received such enthusiastic support from the Christian Right. While Bolton's religious affiliation was a bit obscure at points, and there was a rumour at one point that he was Jewish (he appears to be Lutheran), he was widely supported on two counts. Firstly, he was pro-Israel, and secondly, he hated the United Nations.
One need only look at the way Jesse Helms described Bolton, "the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, or what the Bible describes as the final battle between good and evil", to see that Bolton was being sold by the religious connotations of the act. Bolton was a political way of saying "Screw the U.N., we stand with the Christians".
Here's something you can try at home: Do a search for the keywords Christianity and United Nations. About half of the hits you get will tell you about the United Nations role in the end of the world and any number of conspiracies. For some fun examples, try this, and this and this
I'm not sure how much I need to point this out, but these interpretations of the End Times are fallacious. The Book from which most of the prophecies comes from, the Revelation of St John, was an account of a dream and the story that has been weaved out of this (and parts of other prophecies found in Daniel and Isaiah), and it weaves a narrative by gleefully misunderstanding and reducing several different ideas into one idea.
Take the term "Anti-Christ" itself, for example. Does the bible talk of an anti-Christ who comes to power by taking over the United Nations? Not so much. It mentions that anyone who denies Christ is an anti-christ (1 John 2:22, 1 John 4:3) and that there are many deceivers out there who are all anti-christs (1 John 2:18, 2 John 1:7), but not that there is one single Anti-Christ who will rule the world.
I also have to point out that, at the time the bible was written, there was no such thing as the United Nations. Seems obvious, right, but this also means that there is no word in the bible that we can say "this refers to the United Nations". The Anti-Christ generally refers to whoever your enemy is at the time: Martin Luther referred to the Pope as the Anti-Christ; Catholics used to refer to Martin Luther as the Anti-Christ; for much of the Middle Ages (and to Jerry Falwell), he was Jewish; during the 50's and 60's the Anti-Christ was a Communist… you get the drift.
Today, it's the United Nations, or Europe, or Islam… anyone who threatens American hegemony. It's anyone who American Christians fear will diminish their power and authority.
What this leads to is an undermining of the United Nations. America sends John Bolton, a man openly hostile to the United Nations, and then comments on how the United Nations is weak. It undermines it's strength, and then spites it for not having any strength, and in the meantime the rest of the world is deprived of a method of solving International disputes, granting the US greater unilateral powers.
A Real End of the World
The Evangelical Right was, for a time, a bulwark against belief in global warming. Focus on the Family, another part of Dobson's media fraternity, once described its opposition to global warming thus: Any issue that seems to put plants and animals above humans is one that we cannot support.
Until recently, this was the popular view of Climate Change on the Evangelical Right. People like Pat Robertson have since rescinded their views on global warming, explaining that "I tell you, they are making a convert out of me as these blistering summers". He had previously stated that global warming was an invention of "far left environmentalists".
This change of heart hasn't stopped Christian parents protesting the possibility that their children would have to watch Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth"
The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD.
Perhaps Rush Limbaugh offered the best explanation of this view.
My views on the environment are rooted in my belief in Creation… I refuse to believe that people, who are themselves the result of creation, can destroy the most magnificent creation in the entire universe
There is a sense of "God wouldn't let this happen to us" among many Dominionists. For many others, there is the view that it doesn't matter anyway, because Christ is coming soon anyway.
One wonders, if God wouldn't let us destroy our world, why he would let us kill each other. As for the "Christ is coming" defense, it shows a decided lack of history.
There are always groups of Christians who believe Christ is coming soon. In the 19th century, you can find the Latter Day Saints, the Seventh Day Adventists and the Jehovah's Witnesses, all built around the idea that Christ is coming soon. Go back to the 15th century, at the foundation of the Protestant Movement, and read Martin Luther's writings, replete with warnings of the end of the world. Go back further, to the time the Revelation of St John was written, and you find that it was written with the expectation that the end was coming soon. After all, Christ had promised that his followers would be alive to see the end.
A Self Fulfilling Prophecy
For the most part, I'm a man who believes that people should be allowed their peculiar beliefs. If want to believe that Xenu dropped souls into a volcano, as the Scientologists do, you have the right to. If you want to believe that, the soul being a myth, the only path to immortality is cloning, as the Raelians do, you have the right (although whether that gives you the right to clone is a different matter). If you want to believe that a Jewish tribe traveled from Jerusalem to America around 600BCE, as the Latter Day Saints, you have the right to. You have the right to be wrong, if you wish, and who am I to judge that.
But sometimes these beliefs have dangerous consequences. In the case of American Foreign Policy, End Time beliefs have had a dangerous influence. We could argue whether Bush believes these things himself, but its more important to realize that he plays to his base, and in playing to his base it may well be starting a self fulfilling prophecy.
Full Disclosure
OK, before I get accused of plagiarism, let me acknowledge the two main inspirations for my column this week. The first is the book American Fascism by Chris Hedges. The second is the documentary The Doomsday Code, hosted by Tony Robinson (better known as Baldrick of Blackadder fame).
Shut the Hell Up Award
So in the last week we found out that General Patreus wouldn't actually be writing the report on the success of the surge, but that the Whitehouse would write it, incorporating information from Patreus.
Most of us were debating what this would show us and much we could trust it. Mark Williams, however, was on Hardball using it to attack the Democrats.
I hope what we get is the truth from General Petraeus about every step forward on the ground being made by the military since we started this being ruined, and two steps backwards being taken on Capitol Hill, by the Democrats playing politics with this and plucking the pennies off the eyelids of the newly dead
Yup, not a word about how trustworthy the report would be. Instead, he was using Classical Greek allusions to attack Democrats and hope we wouldn't notice.
The word for this is Ad Hominem. Instead of presenting a real debate, he decided he would just use his 15 minutes of fame to call names.
every military advance we have made over there has been ruined, one way or another, by some fat-mouthed congressman, usually a Democrat, opening his mouth on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, "Nancy Botox" is out there saying, you know, "We're leaving! We're running! We're gonna go away!"
Now, if all this childish name calling wasn't enough, he decides to compare the support for Al Qaeda in Iraq to the city of Boston, which I don't know how many people in Boston would be happy about.
It does lead to a rare moment from Chris Matthews, where he actually realizes the guest he has on is full of shit.
This doesn't help me any
Yup, it didn't help anyone Chris. Word of advice: if you don't want nutcase rantings on your show, don't invite the nutcases on.
The Section Formerly Known as Pimping
Brian McLain completes his fourteen points of fascism this week, and I should mention that the book American Fascism, which mentions these ideas, was also one of the inspirations for this weeks column.
Joe defends Hillary Clinton this week, but he misses one important point: Hillary is not just hated by the right wing, but she's also not trusted by the progressives due to her views on free market globalization and her convoluted history on Iraq, while others point to her misguided priorities in the first 4 years of the Bush Whitehouse, where she felt the most important priorities were flag burning and censoring video games.
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