God’s Chosen

My brain may possibly have a Teflon coating when it comes to religious dogma. What little I was exposed to never really stuck. But one thing I do remember is that the Israelites were considered by Old Testament scholars to be God’s chosen people. So it came as quite a shock when our President, an ex-alcoholic and a born again Christian, tells us that God speaks through him and that his administration is literally following God’s will because Americans are God’s chosen people. Obviously Bush is suffering from the delusion that he is a prophet that speaks for God. He preaches the gospel of “freedom and liberty” that he imputes to God and he uses these words repeatedly in his speeches to the point that he deludes his listeners into believing that Christ speaks through him. Observers are convinced that he is an evangelical fundamentalist who believes in the truth and infallibility of the Bible, that Christ died for our sins and that the second coming, according to the Bible, will occur in Israel, the battle of Armageddon. But our troops are presently stationed in Iraq opposing the power of the Moslem national resistance insurgency whose stated purpose is to resist the American occupation of their country and to fight until the American coalition forces leave. What will happen to Iraq afterwards will be up to the Iraqis. One option is that the country could split into three independent sections. After all, the British, after their occupation failed in 1920-21, stitched together these same sections and called it Iraq. Ethnically there were no similarities and it required a strong fist to hold it together, viz. Saddam.

However, in the eyes of the American evangelical fundamentalists, Iraq is the second Babylon and Saddam the modern Nebuchadnezzar. These religious fanatics of whom there are millions in this country and all of them voters were not concerned about oil in the Middle East. Rather they saw Iraq as the anti-Christ and the possible route to Heaven through the coming of the Rapture. This non-Biblical event known as the end-times is when Christ appears and pulls all believers up to Heaven. Non-believers will be left behind as recounted in the novels of Tim LaHaye (Left Behind Series).

Now since these delusional beliefs are linked to America as the chosen Imperial society, it is clear that the fundamental evangelical knows very little about history. History does teach important lessons which most of us tend to forget. Some call it national amnesia. For example, all Imperialist societies before their fall referred to themselves as unique and God’s chosen people, i.e. Britain, Spain and the Netherlands. Based on this past history it is not likely that our experiment as an Imperialist country will last too much longer. The sensible secular people in this country will have to turn back the evangelists at the voting booth and that includes Bush and his supporters. Once having done that we may be able to apply a rational foreign policy to the serious problems of the world.

Since 2/3 of the secular population of the U.S. reject evangelical theology, it should eventually become clear that Rapture as prophetic theology is nonsense. It is difficult to comprehend how fundamentalists who believe in the literal truth of the Bible can accept Rapture as a belief when not one word can be found in the Bible. Rather it was a delusional fantasy of an English ex-priest named Darby who was tossed out of the Anglican church and then came over here in the 19th century to preach the doctrine. He planted the seed and for some unintelligible reason it took root.

However, there is a fly in the ointment. The call to withdraw our troops now creates a serious problem for the evangelists. According to the literal Biblical prophecy Armageddon will occur in the Middle East. Withdrawal of the troops returns the country to the Moslems and it is their decision as to what happens next. But according to the fundamentalists if our troops remain, they become the soldiers of Christ opposing the anti-Christ, the Moslems. This is the battle Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and their supporters envision in their end-times fantasy.

Unfortunately those who believe in this twaddle have a major influence in Washington and many take the attitude that they are not concerned about such issues as global warming, environmental deregulation, or the approaching end of oil because the second coming is imminent. So what does it matter? Attention non-believers, try sleeping comfortably with that one. Instead of taking Ambien, relax with Bush’s latest poll numbers at 31%.


References:

Phillips, Kevin. American Theocracy. Viking, 2006.
Lincoln, Bruce. Holy terrors. Chicago, 2003.