Countdown to Armageddon

The 2006 national election was a small victory for the voice of reason.  But unless you appeal with the passion of belief, you cannot speak to the hearts of people longing for deliverance.

I believe that
history will mark September 11, 2001, as the date that America lost
its spirit, but for reasons that have little to do with terrorism.
That was the date that galvanized a vocal segment of American
Evangelicals to forsake their God and look to politics to implement
their agenda – America as a theocracy and the Mid-East as its final
battleground.

The
2006 national election was a small victory for the voice of reason,
but objective reason is no worthy warrior in the battle against ideas
and ideologies. Whether in religion or politics, unless you appeal
with the passion of belief, you cannot speak to the hearts of people
longing for deliverance.

Chris
Hedges, the former Pulitzer Prize winning foreign correspondent for
the NYT, was recently interviewed by Amy Goodman of Democracy
Now
regarding his new book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and
the War on America.

Hedges, who has a masters degree
in Theology from Harvard University and is the son of a Presbyterian
minister, singles out such public figures as Jerry Falwell, Pat
Robertson and James Dobson. He sees them as leaders in a Christian
reconstructionist movement with a lust for attaining secular power by
forming alliances with powerful right wing interests bent on creating
a nationalist America with Christian iconography.

He points to two main factors –
the war on working class Americans through globalization, and a cult
of masculinity within Christian demagoguery that elevates dominant
male authority figures in megachurches and within the family
structure.

Here is his profile of evangelist
Pat Robertson:

When we look at the sort of empires that people like
Pat Robertson run, you know, this man is worth hundreds of millions,
some people say up to $1 billion, surrounded by bodyguards, flying
around on private jets, investing in blood diamonds in Sierra Leone.
He has rock star status. I mean, if you've ever been to an event
where he appears, people are weeping and want to be touched by him.
There is no question. He essentially runs a despotic little fiefdom.

As the Christian Right exerts more
and more influence on national and international politics, according
to Hedges, they become bold in their conviction that not only do they
speak for God, but they have been anointed to carry out His will.
"There are only two options for people who fail to submit to their
authority – either convert or be exterminated."

This
movement, that has in recent years resulted in the unholy merger
between "McChurch"
and the Republican Party, has given rise to debate over which faction
is in control. Because of the recent contortions by John McCain to
court those he previously accused of being "agents of intolerance,"
Hedges is convinced that it is the Christian Right that has taken
over the Republican Party – not the other way around.

If
he is correct, the objective will be to focus American hegemony on
the Mid-East to orchestrate the return of Christ. Already, we see
Messianic Jews and Messianic Christians joining forces in their
mutual belief that the Jews have a divine right to control the region
of Palestine. This reaches way beyond support for a Jewish state of
Israel growing out of the tragic condition of diaspora.

For the Christian Zionist, Jewish
control of Palestine is just one more step toward Armageddon, where
it is prophesied that the blood of Jews and others who fail to
convert to Christianity will "…flow to the horses' bridle."

History will dictate whether or
not such extreme scenarios are tenable. Of deeper concern for the
church and America, however, is that in the event the Divine Plan
deviates from that of Christian Zionism, faith as a moderating
influence in public life will be increasingly under attack from
desperate demagogues.

As it is, many right wing American Christians no
longer believe the Gospel. Salvation has become an insurance policy
paid in full at the altar but left there in a rush toward the final
but "glorious" crisis. God is no longer sovereign; He is "away,"
rendering Him nearly impotent. Somewhere on the way to the Forum,
Amazing Grace stopped being amazing.

The strength of America
was never its pseudo-Christian beginnings. The strength of America
has been its people living in freedom to make individual choices for
good or for not-so-good, learning from and living with the results of
those choices.

The strength of the Evangelical Church was its
unique voice and ability to offer hope and reconciliation to those
who have fallen through the moral, economic and ethical cracks of
life. The reasoning was once simple and straightforward:

"If
love were possible without the Gospel, we would need no Gospel;
If
love is not possible by the Gospel, we have no Gospel;
That love
is possible by the Gospel is what the way of discipleship is all
about."

Stan Moody, Christian Policy Institute, is the author of "Crisis in Evangelical Scholarship" and http://www.amazon.com/McChurched-PhD-Stan-Moody/dp/0977761444