Commentary
Beware the influence of end-times ideology on U.S. politics
By K.C. Boyd
K.C. Boyd is the author of "Being Christian, A Novel."
While America wrestles with the tragic deaths in Libya and the unrest roiling the Middle East, Christian Zionist pastors such as John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, are using the conflict to feed the ever-present fear and hatred of Muslims. Their ultimate goal apparently is to accelerate the end of the world as "foretold" in the Bible's Book of Revelation.
In 2006 Hagee founded Christians United for Israel, a pro-Israel lobbying group. That is, if impeding Mideast peace qualifies as being pro-Israel.
On the Sunday after the attacks on the consulate in Libya, Hagee, flanked by Israeli and American flags, stood before television cameras to reinforce what his end-times-hungry congregation already believes: President Obama does not stand with Israel but apologizes to terrorists. Iran is the evil that must be stopped. And the biblically prescribed Israeli territories were given to the Hebrews 6,000 years ago by God, so who is Barack Hussein Obama to demand that Israel cede a single centimeter of land to its enemy?
Flaunting the First Amendment and the U.S. tax code, Hagee urged his audience to "vote the Bible" while hawking Vote the Bible T-shirts and pins. He also encouraged his followers to participate in Forty Days of Prayer, beginning, not coincidentally, last Friday — 40 days from the U.S. election.
"God chose Jerusalem as Israel's capital," Hagee declared. "You'd think the Democratic National Convention would get that by now. The third world war will start over the issue of who owns that land [Israel] and you're watching it start right now on national television. The Jewish people do not occupy the land — they own that land. The president's actions send a message to the enemies of Israel: we're not supporting you. It's not a matter of if war is coming between Israel and Iran; it's only a matter of when."
In these times of heightened geopolitical danger, rather than calming the fury, Hagee incites. He asked Obama a rhetorical question: "Why don't you tell Libya, that murdered our diplomat this week, 'We are going to retaliate, we are not going to apologize any more, we're going to respond'?"
Words like these would matter little if no one were listening. But millions watch Hagee and other Christian broadcasters, and they hang on these pastors' every word. Even more significant, mega-pastors like Hagee have the ear of countless politicians who either believe as they do or who want to court their voting bloc.
The end of one of Hagee's sermons should strike fear in America's collective soul: "We are living in the final moments of the Dispensation of Grace," Hagee preached, referring to the period prior to Revelation-predicted calamaties and suffering before the Second Coming, "and prayer is the only thing that will save us. Hallelujah." Prayer. So much for diplomacy, democracy or wisdom.
Comments (6)
Well, the standard default lines -- "God works in mysterious ways" and "It's all part of God's divine plan, which we cannot know" -- pretty much allows these folks to "rationalize" away anything.
My God approves of what I do, laughs at my jokes, approves of my friends. That's why he's my God.
"My God approves of what I do, laughs at my jokes, approves of my friends. That's why he's my God."
That would make him your slave, not your god.
John Hagee, support Israel for theological reasons--and Mr Hagee's support has been so vociferous that he was invited to address AIPAC in 2007. Yet Mr Hagee also believes that Hitler did divine work and Jews are to blame for anti-Semitism because they rejected Christ.
Bigotry comes in many forms, and can easily be set aside for the right reasons. Loving racial or theological purity is both easy and juvenile; it is a rejection of the world as is in favor of a perfect world that can never be.
Thanks to this writer for keeping our attention on the threat of the religious right. Radicalism in any form is to be confronted and contained. Thank you!
If the God you believe in acts like you, and hates like you, you've created a God in your own image.
What can we expect from simple people whose fundamentalist faith provides the most compelling narrative for understanding a complex world? What have they been offered as an alternative explanation? I don't remember there ever being a real discussion of America's role in the world since the end of the Cold War when we had a clearly non-inerventionist stance in the Powell Doctrine. This was violated by the Bushes who put American boots on the ground in the Muslim holy lands, earning the reaction of bin Laden, and our reaction to him (more boots in more countries now) plays into his hands by turning moderate and non-militant conservative Muslims against us. Worse, it's created a reactive Iran unchecked by a strong Iraq and many angry people who want to make Iran, Syria, Egypt, or Libya into a power that will teach the west a lesson. They are delusional in their own fundamentalism, just as our fundamentalists are. They both want to fight each other. It must be explained in a compelling way why this is madness.
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