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'ON A MISSION FROM GOD': THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT AND THE EMERGING AMERICAN THEOCRACY |
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by Maureen Farrell March 9, 2004 "The religious right is winning. They've won." -- Howard Stern In Dec. 2002, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman reported that House Majority Leader Tom Delay had openly admitted he was "on a mission from God to promote a 'biblical worldview' in American politics." On Monday, the Washington Times revealed that DeLay "is about to announce his own legislative agenda." "One goal, [Delay] said, will be to re-establish what he sees as the rightful role of religion in public places. . ." [Washington Times] In other words, look out. The warning signs have been in place for quite some time, but went largely unnoticed until the walls started closing in on shock jock Howard Stern. When Project Censored listed "FCC Moves to Privatize Airwaves" as its top censored news story for 2001-2002 and shed its suspicious spotlight on FCC chairman Michael Powell, for example, few noticed. "[T]he mainstream press has raised few warnings about the FCC's squashing of the public interest," Project Censored's Brendan Koerner wrote, while co-author Dorothy Kidd explained that "things have just gotten worse for the US public with regards to media democracy. Mergers are up and the number of dominant players controlling media production and distribution has shrunk to a handful." [ProjectCensored.org] Or, as Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) put it, "The bottom line is that fewer and fewer huge conglomerates are controlling virtually everything that the ordinary American sees, hears and reads." Fast forward to 2004 and Howard Stern's woes. "What this company [Clear Channel] is doing is buying up every radio station, then they sign someone like me for five years at a time and renew my contracts and then wake up one day and have a whole new attitude," Stern said. "Now why do they have a new attitude with me, but not with that guy [Michael] Savage who sits there and talks about infesting people with AIDS and all that stuff? He's just as controversial, but he backs Bush. They're being intellectually dishonest." Welcome to our brave new world. In case you missed this unfortunate paradigm shift, this hypothetical scenario might help: Imagine, for a moment, that Sept. 11 occurred on Clinton's watch. Now, can you imagine anyone being "Dixie Chicked" for criticizing Bill Clinton? "My days here are numbered because I dared to speak out against the Bush administration and say that the religious agenda of George W. Bush concerning stem cell research and gay marriage is wrong," Stern said. "And that what he is doing with the FCC is pushing this religious agenda." For those who've been supplementing daily requirements of U.S. news with reports from the foreign press, the ramifications of Stern's honesty are understood. Though it's likely to cost him dearly, he's become the unlikely champion for those who know that the underlying themes are not, as most pundits would have us believe, a matter of liberals vs. conservatives, Republicans vs. Democrats or blue states vs. red, but threats to America itself. Yet, considering the steady diet of nonsense we're fed by a bevy of clueless pundits, busy citizens are understandably confused -- which is why it is absolutely stunning that Stern sees past the smoke and mirrors and is sounding off. "Does anyone have a problem with a United States senator being funded by a religious organization?" Stern asked, regarding Kansas Senator Sam Brownback's faith-based living arrangement, which is subsidized by the secretive religious organization, The Fellowship. [Charleston Post and Courier] "Now when someone gives you low cost housing – a gift – do you think you have to answer to them?" As Rev. Barry Lynn, head of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State put it, "What concerns people is when you mix religion, political power and secrecy," which coincidentally (and sadly) pretty much sums up the State of the Union today. So how embedded is the religious right in our political institutions? In his aptly titled Jan. 28, 2004 Rolling Stone cover story, "Reverend Doomsday," Robert Dreyfuss explains: "It might seem unlikely that the commander in chief would take his marching orders directly from on high -- unless you understand the views of the Rev. Timothy LaHaye, one of the most influential leaders of the Christian right, and a man who played a quiet but pivotal role in putting George W. Bush in the White House." LaHaye, you may recall, is co-author of the various Left Behind series, which, to date, has sold a reported whopping 60 million copies. A "strict biblical reconstructionist" who takes the Bible as "God's literal truth," LaHaye believes that Armageddon will be unleashed from "the Antichrist's headquarters in Babylon" (i.e. Iraq). "Of course, there have always been preachers on the margins of the religious right thundering on about the end of the world," Dreyfuss writes. "But it's doubtful that such a fanatic believer has ever had such a direct pipeline to the White House. Five years ago, as Bush was gearing up his presidential campaign, he made a little-noticed pilgrimage to a gathering of right-wing Christian activists, under the auspices of a group called the Committee to Restore American Values. The committee, which assembled about two dozen of the nation's leading fundamentalist firebrands, was chaired by LaHaye." [Rolling Stone] In other words, Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore, and the religious right wants to be the great and powerful Oz. For your consideration, here are some of the means by which they're succeeding: 1) The Council for National Policy Deemed by ABC News as "the most powerful conservative group you've never heard of," the Council for National Policy, which was co-founded by former Moral Majority head LaHaye, has included John Ashcroft, Ed Meese, Ralph Reed, the editor of The National Review, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Grover Norquist and Oliver North among its members. As ABC put it, "the council has deservedly attained the reputation for conceiving and promoting the ideas of many who in fact do want to control everything in the world. . . The CNP helped Christian conservatives take control of the Republican state party apparati in Southern and Midwestern states. It helped to spread word about the infamous 'Clinton Chronicles' videotapes that linked the president to a host of crimes in Arkansas." (According to Rolling Stone, "The impeachment effort was reportedly conceived at a June 1997 meeting of the CNP in Montreal.") Secular-minded folks are likely to be most intrigued by the fact that President Bush made his rumored "king-making" speech before CNP in 1999, fueling speculation that the council was responsible for his presidential nomination. And though the Democratic National Committee and others urged Bush's presidential campaign to release the tape of his CNP speech, the Bush camp refused. What was on that tape? Depending on who you believe, "Bush promised to appoint only anti-abortion-rights judges to the Supreme Court, or he stuck to his campaign 'strict constructionist' phrase. Or he took a tough stance against gays and lesbians, or maybe he didn't." [ABC News] As we now know, Bush is endorsing a Constitutional amendment which could change the country forever. As one Republican lawyer told Andrew Sullivan, "[With] one amendment the religious right could wipe out access to birth control, abortion, and even non-procreative sex (as Senator Santorum so eagerly wants to do). This debate isn't only about federalism, it's about the reversal of two hundred years of liberal democracy that respects individuals." Or, as Sullivan put it, "Memo to straights: you're next." [AndrewSullivan.com] 2) The Christian Coalition On Dec. 24, 2001, the Washington Post featured an article entitled "Religious Right Finds Its Center in Oval Office: Bush Emerges as Movement's Leader After Robertson Leaves Christian Coalition " in which reporter Dana Milbank explained exactly how significant the Supreme Court's selection of George W. Bush was. "For the first time since religious conservatives became a modern political movement, the president of the United States has become the movement's de facto leader," Milbank wrote. [Washington Post] Meanwhile, former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed explained Bush's rise to the White House in revolutionary terms. "You're no longer throwing rocks at the building; you're in the building," he said, adding that God "knew George Bush had the ability to lead in this compelling way." Bush reportedly made similar statements. According to Newsweek, "As he prepared to run, in 1999, Bush assembled leading pastors at the governor's mansion for a "laying-on of hands," and told them he'd been "called" to seek higher office." And as Bob Woodward wrote in Bush at War: "The President was casting his mission and that of the country in the grand vision of God's Master Plan," wherein Bush promised, in the President's own words, "to export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great country and rid the world of evil." "Bush's flirtation with End Times rhetoric makes some suspect that he actually perceives himself as God's instrument," Gene Lyons noted, and his sentiment was echoed in former Nixon aide Charles Colson's observation that, "Some wonder if the president might be influenced by evangelical teachings that envision an end-of-the-world battle between Israel and its enemies. It would be dangerous for a president to take a particular theology like that and apply it to world events." 3) Christian Zionists Various mainstream sources, from the BBC to the Christian Science Monitor, have long been reporting on ways Biblical prophecy is influencing political reality – and the Christian Zionists' campaign to oust the Palestinians in order to make way for the Second Coming of Christ is one of the most bizarre. In Oct. 2002, The Guardian's Matthew Engel spelled it out:
"American politico-religious wackiness" aside, the conference Engel describes begins "with a videotaped benediction straight from the Oval office," and involves Tom Delay, "the most powerful man on Capitol Hill," addressing the gathering "not once, but twice." 4) Opus Dei While FBI agent Robert Hanssen brought the Catholic organization Opus Dei to the prominence when he was caught spying for Russia, it is once again in the spotlight thanks to the best-selling book The Da Vinci Code. And while the group's secrecy appeals to some ("I think they really fly under everybody's radar screen and that they're a lot more powerful than a lot of people think," Rev. James Martin, associate editor of America magazine explained. [ABC News]) and its attitude towards pain and suffering appeals to others ("After I joined, they gave me a barbed-wire chain to wear on my leg for two hours a day and a whip to hit my buttocks with," former Opus Dei member Sharon Clasen said. [Chicago Tribune]) in April, 2001, The American Catholic co-editor Catharine A. Henningsen revealed why this highly secretive group might be of concern to average Joes:
"Whether or not an alleged member of Opus Dei, like Justice Antonin Scalia, enjoys a touch of the lash on his prodigious derriere from time to time, is certainly no business of ours," Mike Whitney wrote. "However, the affiliation of a Justice on the highest court in the land to an organization that, for all appearances, is nothing more than a right-wing cult should arouse not only suspicion, but an investigation." [CounterPunch.org] Scalia's alleged membership notwithstanding, the fact that a mere three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to take up the vice president's appeal in lawsuits concerning the administration's energy task force, Scalia traveled with Dick Cheney on Air Force Two to hunt on a private hunting reserve owned by an oil industry executive is unsettling. And Scalia's keynote speech before a Philadelphia-based advocacy group which actively opposes gay rights (during a time when the Supreme Court was weighing a landmark gay rights case) has also raised eyebrows. [LA Times] 5) Christian Reconstructionists Ever hear of Rousas J. Rushdoony? Didn't think so. Before he died in 2001, he was the leader of the Reconstructionist movement, which, in a nutshell, seeks to toss out the U.S. Constitution and turn the United States of America into a theocracy. Active in the GOP for quite some time, the movement's greatest influence has been, according to a 1998 article in Reason, "in helping change the terms of discourse on the traditionalist right." Journalist Walter Olson put it this way: "One of their effects has been to allow everyone else to feel moderate. To wit: Almost any anti-abortion stance seems nuanced when compared with Gary North's advocacy of public execution not just for women who undergo abortions but for those who advised them to do so. And with the Rushdoony faction proposing the actual judicial murder of gays, fewer blink at the position of a Gary Bauer or a Janet Folger, who support laws exposing them to mere imprisonment." [Reason] Though Reconstructionists are deemed "scary," even by Jerry Falwell's followers, considering that Rushdoony, like Attorney General John Ashcroft, was a member of the Council for National Policy (see #1) and Rushdoony's son-in-law Gary North is a current member, it may not be wise to dismiss them out of hand. In February, when Ashcroft subpoenaed hospitals for the records of patients who had had late term abortions (a move which Philadelphia's Hahnemann's University court filing deemed "vindictive and mean-spirited") red flags sprung up. "No valid justification exists to allow such a blatant invasion of privacy into the reproductive rights of the women whose medical records would be disclosed," the filing read. "People's medical records should not be the tools of political operatives," Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D., N.Y.) added. "All Americans should have the right to visit their doctor and receive sound medical attention without the fear of Big Brother looking into those records." [Philadelphia Inquirer] 6) The Moonies In January 1986, Mother Jones featured an article entitled "Unholy Alliance" by Carolyn Weaver which detailed a letter written by Tim LaHaye to Colonel Bo Hi Pak of the Washington Times, (which is owned and operated by the Moonies) thanking him for his contribution to LaHaye's organization, American Coalition for Traditional Values. (Also mentioned was "Concerned Women for America," which is run by LaHaye's wife, Beverly). In 2001, the St. Petersburg Times opined, "We believe Mr. Bush and his supporters deserve to have their philosophy placed fairly before the public, without the distorting lens of liberal media bias. Therefore, without further ado, we give you the verbatim comments of the President's good friend and spiritual comrade: the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. "You must realize that America has become the kingdom of Satan. Americans who continue to maintain their privacy and extreme individualism are foolish people. The world will reject Americans who continue to be so foolish.. . ." "We must have an autocratic theocracy to rule the world. So we cannot separate the political field from the religious. My dream is to organize a Christian political party including the Protestant denominations, Catholic and all religious sects. We can embrace the religious world in one arm and the political world in the other." Coda: "I want to salute Reverend Moon. He's the man with the vision." - former President George H.W. Bush. [St. Petersburg Times] And, as As journalist Robert Parry wrote in July, 1997, "Despite his virulent anti-Americanism, Rev. Sun Myung Moon still relies on friends in Washington to help him expand his political-and-media power base. Moon's latest reach into South America had the helping hand of former U.S. President George Bush. But the Moon-Bush alliance dates back years and could reach into the future, as Bush lines up conservative backing for the expected White House bid of his eldest son." [ConsortiumNews.com] Of course the list of religious right organizations goes on and on, but this should be more than enough to present the bigger picture. In other words, yes, Virginia, the religious right is winning, even though most folks believe that life in America proceeds as usual. And while you may not be able to hear Howard Stern on the radio in the not-so-distant future, you can always tune into cable "news shows," where, chances are, you can catch Washington Times editor Tony Blankley or Concerned Women for America President Sandy Rios. "I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It's shaping up that way," Pat Robertson said on his nationally televised 700 Club. "The Lord has just blessed [George W. Bush]. I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him." All of this sounds nuts, of course, because, quite frankly, it is. But considering that when John Ashcroft became attorney general, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly anointed him with cooking oil (in the manner of King David), [The Guardian] these are nutty times. How bad will things get? Stay tuned. But be forewarned. As the Washington Times recently reported, Rep. Mike Pence, (R-IN) said that Mr. DeLay's decision to set his own legislative agenda "signals the dynamics of the president's second term, hopefully very different." From the tone, it sounds as if an American theocracy may some day be a reality. In the meantime, however, Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State made a prediction we can be sure of. "Pat Robertson in 2004 will continue to use his multimillion broadcasting empire to promote George Bush and other Republican candidates," he said. [USA Today] Amen and pass the remote. DeLay to offer own Hill agenda By Ralph Z. Hallow March 8, 2004, THE
WASHINGTON TIMES "I have not discussed this with President Bush or anyone else in the White House, and have no desire to," Mr. DeLay told The Washington Times in an interview in his majority leader's office. "But if you don't set these conservative goals, you don't get conservative governance." On Wednesday, Mr. DeLay will take the extraordinary step of introducing his own set of legislative and policy goals, for this year and beyond. He said that while he was still working on the specifics, his proposed initiatives "will cover three basic issues: security, prosperity and family." "We're trying to get people excited about being Republicans again," the Texan said. One goal, he said, will be to re-establish what he sees as the rightful role of religion in public places, so that Christian, Jewish or Muslim symbols could not be barred from holiday displays in front of town halls. Mr. DeLay said he will call for a doubling of the nation's economic output within 10 to 15 years, a goal which he says can only be met by cutting taxes, reining in government spending and reducing regulation. "What Tom's doing is pretty refreshing," said Rep. Mike Pence, Indiana Republican. "The White House normally sets the agenda." Mr. DeLay,
first elected to the House 20 years ago, was a favorite of conservatives
until he began taking flak for pushing some presidential initiatives
that were anathema to many grass-roots Republicans, such as Medicare
prescription-drug legislation. When the same party controls the White House and Congress, the normal way of doing business is for the House speaker and the Senate majority leader to huddle with the president over a legislative agenda before presenting it publicly. Mr. DeLay, in effect declaring his independence, said he plans to present his package of goals and initiatives for the first time to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and the other 226 Republican House members at a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference. Mr. DeLay said he had not discussed the specifics of his package with the speaker but has told him about the broad outlines. Although Mr. Hastert can veto any part of the DeLay plan, he is not expected to, given that the Illinois Republican has one of the most consistently conservative voting records in the House. Word of the DeLay plan generally met with approval from other House Republicans, especially those who disagreed with Mr. Bush's recent immigration-reform proposal. "This will reaffirm Tom's leadership as a conservative," said Rep. Todd Tiahrt, Kansas Republican. Mr. Pence said Mr. DeLay's introducing his own agenda "signals the dynamics of the president's second term, hopefully very different." The first hint of Mr. DeLay's agenda came in a speech he delivered last month at a private retreat for Republican legislators in Philadelphia. Some fellow Republicans who heard that speech said it sounded like an updated version of the "Contract with America" that Newt Gingrich introduced before the 1994 elections. Widely credited with having helped spur the Republican takeover of the House for the first time in 40 years, the Contract with America also boosted Mr. Gingrich from minority whip to House speaker. But a Democrat, Bill Clinton, was president when Mr. Gingrich devised his Contract. Even some fellow Republican House members who have occasionally disagreed with Mr. DeLay nonetheless defend his overall job performance as majority leader. They point out that the job of even a conservative leader at times requires making compromises either out of loyalty to the president or the need to win the votes of liberal Republicans in the House. "He has been steering the art of the possible," said Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican. Making compromises on basic core principles is a more serious matter for conservative House members and their supporters. Even though Mr. Wilson is an assistant House whip, for example, he felt compelled to ask Mr. DeLay and Majority Whip Roy Blunt to be excused from counting votes on a free-trade bill that Mr. Wilson opposed. For his part, Mr. DeLay has not always carried water for the Bush White House. He made his own stand on principle, his supporters noted, when he opposed parts of Mr. Bush's proposal to grant guest-worker status to illegal immigrants and voted against the president's "No Child Left Behind" legislation that expanded the federal role in education. (#1) FCC Moves to Privatize Airwaves by Project Censored Sources: London Guardian Mother Jones Media File Faculty evaluators: Scott
Gordon For almost 70 years, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has administered and
regulated the broadcast spectrum as an electronic "commons" on
behalf of the American people. The FCC issues licenses to
broadcasters that allow them, for a fee, to use, but not own, one or
more specific radio or TV frequencies. Thus, the public has retained
the ability to regulate, as well as influence, access to broadcast
communications. Comments by Scott Gordon, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Sonoma State University During my 6 or 7 years of
involvement with Project Censored, I have reviewed several dozen
stories. Most of the stories sent to me have related to computers,
communications, or other technical topics, presumably because of my
Computer Science background. Often I find that such studies contain
technical misinterpretation, confusion, or are simply old news to
me. This was the first one to strike me as clearly deserving of
consideration as a top "Censored" story. Update by Author Brendan Koerner: As part of the mind-numbing
alphabet soup of Beltway agencies, the Federal Communications
Commission rarely receives much attention from the mainstream press.
To Joe Q. Public, the FCC is still best known for harassing George
Carlin over his infamous "Seven Dirty Words" routine. Beyond that,
the commission is pretty much a mystery. Update by Author Dorothy Kidd Since this story was
written, things have just gotten worse for the US public with
regards to media democracy. Mergers are up and the number of
dominant players controlling media production and distribution has
shrunk to a handful. At the same time, almost all the federal
government regulations that had limited monopoly, or had ensured a
small measure of public service programming, have been abolished.
By Dana Milbank
Pat Robertson's resignation this month as president of the Christian Coalition confirmed the ascendance of a new leader of the religious right in America: George W. Bush. For the first time since religious conservatives became a modern political movement, the president of the United States has become the movement's de facto leader -- a status even Ronald Reagan, though admired by religious conservatives, never earned. Christian publications, radio and television shower Bush with praise, while preachers from the pulpit treat his leadership as an act of providence. A procession of religious leaders who have met with him testify to his faith, while Web sites encourage people to fast and pray for the president. There are several reasons for the adulation. Religious conservatives have regarded Bush as one of their own since the presidential campaign, when he spoke during a debate of the guidance of Jesus. At the same time, key figures in the religious right -- Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Billy Graham and Franklin Graham -- have receded in political prominence or influence, in part because they are no longer mobilized by their opposition to a president. Bush's handling of the anti-terrorism campaign since Sept. 11 has solidified his standing by painting him in stark terms as the leader in a fight of good against evil. "I think Robertson stepped down because the position has already been filled," said Gary Bauer, a religious conservative who challenged Bush in the Republican primary. Bush "is that leader right now. There was already a great deal of identification with the president before 9-11 in the world of the Christian right, and the nature of this war is such that it's heightened the sense that a man of God is in the White House." Ralph Reed, who once led the Christian Coalition and now is chairman of the Georgia GOP, notes that the religious conservative movement "no longer plays the institutional role it once did," in part because it succeeded in electing Bush and other friendly leaders. "You're no longer throwing rocks at the building; you're in the building." Conservative Christians tend to view Bush's recent success as part of a divine plan. "I've heard a lot of 'God knew something we didn't,' " Reed said. "In the evangelical mind, the notion of an omniscient God is central to their theology. He had a knowledge nobody else had: He knew George Bush had the ability to lead in this compelling way." Bush himself dismisses the notion that he is part of some divine plan. "He does not believe he was chosen for this moment," a senior aide said. "He just views himself as governing on his beliefs and his promises. He doesn't look at himself as a leader of any particular movement." Still, some of those around Bush say they have a sense that a higher purpose is involved. "I think President Bush is God's man at this hour, and I say this with a great sense of humility," Bush aide Tim Goeglein, described as a "strong evangelical," told World magazine, a Christian publication. Partially a victim of their own success, groups such as the Christian Coalition are finding fundraising difficult. Some leaders, such as Focus on the Family's Dobson, have retreated from political involvement. Some religious conservative leaders have inflicted wounds on themselves. Falwell was roundly criticized, even by supporters, for saying on television, with Robertson's agreement, that "abortionists and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians" and civil libertarians were to blame in part for the Sept. 11 attacks. Franklin Graham produced a furor by declaring Islam a "very evil and wicked religion." Voting patterns also show a declining religious right. Karl Rove, Bush's top political strategist, said that only 15 million of the 19 million religious conservatives who should have voted went to the polls in 2000. "We may be seeing to some degree some return to the sidelines of previously involved religious conservatives," he said. And Bush, his advisers acknowledge, deliberately circumvented the power of the leaders of the religious right, appealing to conservatives himself rather than paying homage to the Christian Coalition during the campaign. "In the old days, Republican presidential candidates went to religious conservative leaders to seek their imprimatur," said a Bush adviser. "George W. Bush was able to go directly to those who sat in the pews." Bush's effort succeeded. "He is the leader of the Christian right," said Marshall Wittmann, a former Christian Coalition figure now with the Hudson Institute, a think tank. "As their institutions peel away, he can go over the heads" of religious conservative leaders. Bush, aided by speechwriter Michael Gerson, himself a religious conservative, speaks the language of religion better than any president since Jimmy Carter, religious leaders say, and Bush's policies appeal more to conservatives. To many outside the religious conservative movement, Bush's faith-infused words may sound sanctimonious; to those within it, the words sound familiar and comforting. Across the country, churchgoers share Bush's "testimony," his discovery of God 15 years ago with the help of Billy Graham. "Reverend Graham planted a mustard seed in my soul, a seed that grew over the next year," Bush's memoir recounts. "He led me to the path, and I began walking. It was the beginning of a change in my life." As Bush had embraced religious conservatism, religious conservatives have openly embraced him. The Internet has several sites offering prayers for the president's success. One example: "Call on the name of the Lord to hedge him in from terrorists and violent people. Psalm 91:11-12; 1 Corinthians 1:10-11." World magazine, which is edited by one-time Bush adviser Marvin Olasky, named Bush's attorney general, John D. Ashcroft, its "Daniel of the Year." Ashcroft himself considered running for president in 2000 as the candidate of the religious right. "Just as the biblical Daniel faced an established idol-worshiping religion in Babylon, so our Dans must not back down in the face of deadly persecution abroad or the scorn and harassment that comes domestically from the academic and media high priests of our established religion, secular liberalism," Olasky wrote. The top Daniel, of course, is Bush himself, a view liberally offered by the many religious figures who pass through the White House. In an account of one such meeting, Jean Bethke Elshtain, a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, wrote of a "powerful and moving moment" with Bush and an ecumenical group of religious leaders. "One of our group asked, 'Mr. President, what can we do for you?' He indicated that we could 'pray for me, for our country, for my family.' He believes in the efficacy of prayer and needs wisdom and guidance and grace, he said. A Greek Orthodox archbishop was invited to lead us in prayer. We all joined hands in a prayer circle, including the president." © 2001 The Washington Post Company The members of
the Christian Coalition of America are some of the most passionate
defenders of Israel in the United States. There's just one catch:
they want to convert all Jews to Christianity. Matthew Engel reports
on an unholy alliance
At first sight, the scene
is very familiar: one that happens in Washington DC and other
major American cities all the time. On the platform, an Israeli
student is telling thousands of supporters how the horrors of
the year have only reinforced his people's determination.
"Despite the terror attacks, they'll never drive us away out of
our God-given land," he says.
This is greeted with whoops and hollers and waving of Israeli flags and the blowing of the shofar, the Jewish ceremonial ram's horn. Then comes the mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, who is received even more rapturously. "God is with us. You are with us." And there are more whoops and hollers and flag-waves and shofar-blows. This support is not offered with any ifs or buts either. The placards round the hall insist that every inch of the Holy Land should belong to Israel and that there should never be a Palestinian state. These assertions are backed up by biblical quotations. It could be a rally in Jerusalem for those Israelis who think Ariel Sharon is a dangerous softie. But something very strange is going on here. There are thousands of people cheering for Israel in the huge Washington Convention Centre. But not one of them appears to be Jewish, at least not in the conventional sense. For this is the annual gathering of a very non-Jewish organisation indeed: the Christian Coalition of America. And the strangest thing of all is not their support, which is a novel and important development in American politics, but the thinking that lies behind it - which is altogether more chilling to Israel's traditional supporters than all the cheers and flags would suggest. You might also describe it as downright weird. In a country where weekly church attendance is about 20 times the level it is in Britain (40% v 2%), the relationship between religion and politics in the US is intense. And there is little doubt that, last spring, when President Bush dithered and dallied over his Middle East policy before finally coming down on Israel's side, he was influenced not by the overrated Jewish vote, but by the opinion of Christian "religious conservatives" - the self-description of between 15 and 18% of the electorate. When the president demanded that Israel withdraw its tanks from the West Bank in April, the White House allegedly received 100,000 angry emails from Christian conservatives. A decade ago, when the president's father was in the White House, his eldest son's election-time job was to act as unofficial ambassador to this group, offer assurances that they and the administration were at one on such matters as abortion and pornography and prayer in schools, the issues they like to group together as "family values". US-Israel relations, which reached rock bottom when George Bush Sr was president and the obstreperous Yitzhak Shamir was Israeli prime minister, were never an issue. What's changed? Not the Book of Genesis, which is what Michael Brown, the coalition's church liaison officer, quotes when you ask him to explain the support for Israel. "And I will make of thee a great nation," the Lord told Abraham, "And I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee." On the conference floor, however, the explanation has more to do with the end of the world than the start of it. What has really changed is the emergence of the doctrine known as "dispensationalism", popularised in the novels of the Rev Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. LaHaye and Jenkins may not mean much to you or to the readers of the New York Times Book Review, but the ninth volume of their Left Behind series sold three million hardback copies in the US last year, eclipsing John Grisham. Central to the theory - based on a reading of scripture Brown would prefer not to discuss - is the Rapture, the second coming of Christ, which will presage the end of the world. A happy ending depends on the conversion of the Jews. And that, to cut a long story very short, can only happen if the Jews are in possession of all the lands given to them by God. In other words, these Christians are supporting the Jews in order to abolish them. Oh yes, agreed Marion Pollard, a charming lady from Dallas who was selling hand-painted Jerusalem crystal in the exhibition hall at the conference. "God is the sovereign. He'll do what he pleases. But based on the scripture, those are the guidelines." She calls herself a fervent supporter of Israel, as does Lewis Hall of North Carolina. "I believe they do have to accept the Messiah." And if they don't? "I believe they will when they know who He is. I believe that one day they are going to wake up. It might take a third world war to do that." Meanwhile, outside the hall was Leanne Cariker from Oklahoma, carrying a placard saying "Just Say No! To A Palestinian State". Her support of Israel is based on the same premise. "The Bible says there is no way to worship God except through the son," she explains. To add to the bizarreness of this scene, she was standing opposite another group of demonstrators: anti-Zionist Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn in long black coats, who oppose the state of Israel based on their own reading of the Bible. Confused? You should be. Poor Leanne Cariker was. "I'm not against them," she wailed. "I'm for them. I believe they're God's chosen people." You might think these Christian activists represent the furthest shores of American politico-religious wackiness. The politicians don't think so. This conference began with a videotaped benediction straight from the Oval office. Some of the most influential republicans in Congress addressed the gathering including - not once, but twice - Tom DeLay, who is hot favourite to take over as majority leader of the House of Representatives after the midterm elections on November 5, thus becoming arguably the most powerful man on Capitol Hill. "Are you tired of all this, are you?" he yelled to the audience. "Nooooooo!" they roared back. "Not when you're standing up for Jews and Jesus, that's for sure," he replied. Jews habitually do not stand up for Jesus (although this conference did have a sprinkling of Messianic Jews, who do just that). But most Jewish leaders have opted to shrug, accept the Christians' support and let them whistle for their conversions. That certainly goes for Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, reportedly greeted "like a rock star" by Christian evangelicals in Jerusalem last month. More thoughtful leaders are at least concerned. "I'm going to take the support because Israel needs it," said Rabbi Jerome Epstein, vice-president of the US's conservative (in this context middle-of-the-road) Jewish organisation, the United Synagogue. "Their theology is in a different world. We can cope with it. If I convince them not to support Israel, are they going to give up their attempt to convert Jews? No." Not everyone accepts this. "They don't love the real Jewish people," the author Gershom Gorenberg told the CBS programme 60 Minutes. "They love us as characters in their story, in their play, and that's not who we are. If you listen to the drama that they are describing, essentially it's a five-act play in which the Jews disappear in the fourth act." This is not something speakers at the rally are anxious to emphasise. DeLay was followed by Pat Robertson, the coalition's founder, sometime presidential candidate and the very personification of the successful American TV evangelist: blow-dried hair, stick-on smile, expensive suit, honeyed voice and certainty of tone. Robertson prefers to dwell on Arab plans to drive Israel into the sea and the iniquity of Yasser Arafat and "his gang of thugs". But he also cites the stories of Joshua and David to prove Israel's ownership of Jerusalem "long before anyone had heard of Mohammed". Robertson has now retired from the coalition, leaving it in the hands of Roberta Combs, a grandmother from South Carolina who has the longest and most scarlet fingernails I have ever seen. She scratches them across the table when she wants to make a point. In an interview, her most vigorous point is in support of Bush. "I think he's a great president. I think he's a caring person. First of all, he's a Christian, which I identify with. He's pro-family, he's pro-life, he's a friend of mine." Combs is not in the Robertson league as a communicator. And when I shift the conversation round to Israel, she discovers an urgent need to attend to her toddler grandson, leaving me with her aide Michael Brown. The prevailing view is that the coalition, a powerful voice in the early 90s, is not the force it was. This is partly held to be due to her failings, and partly to the rhetorical excesses of Robertson and his ally Jerry Falwell, leader of the Moral Majority, especially in September last year when Falwell, on Robertson's TV show, blamed the attacks on, among others, "the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians". The other week Falwell called Mohammed a terrorist, which might have accounted for his unexplained non-appearance at the conference. But even the coalition's most tireless opponent does not sense any kind of victory. Rev Barry Lynn, himself an ordained minister and head of the pressure group Americans United for Separation of Church and State, likes to start his speeches by saying: "The good news is that the Christian Coalition is fundamentally collapsing. The bad news is that the people who ran it are all in the government." Whenever he goes over to the department of justice, he keeps running into Pat Robertson's old lawyers. The linkage between the Christian right and the Republican party is getting ever stronger, especially in the electorally crucial states of the south and west. And Lynn is alarmed at the prospects for the midterm elections. The Republicans are quite likely to regain control of the Senate, removing the roadblock that currently stops the president appointing conservative judges ("impartial judges", according to most Republicans; "rabid rightwingers," according to their opponents) to lower courts and, when the expected vacancies arise, to the supreme court. This will give the right, and most particularly the religious right, unprecedented influence over all three branches of government in Washington. "Karl Rove [Bush's political guru] has said publicly you cannot alienate your base. You cannot alienate that 18% of religious conservatives. You don't mess with these people," says Lynn. "They want you to be just as they are. And Bush is just as they are. He may waffle on one or two issues, such as stem-cell research. But fundamentally he comes down on their side." In the short term this might not alter American life all that much. It might take a generation for the Supreme Court to roll back the restrictions that, for instance, forbid prayer in school. The abortion debate is for the moment dormant. Neither the churches nor the government show any sign of imposing teenage sexual abstinence any time soon. Not before, say, the conversion of the Jews. One of the points Robertson likes to emphasise is to reject accusations that the coalition's support of Israel is a "Johnny come lately experience". "We've been with them through thick and thin," he says. This is a point made by several of his supporters, one of whom presses on me a little booklet with quotes from Christian theologians on the subject. He especially recommends the one from Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century puritan divine. "The Jews in all their dispersions shall cast away their old infidelity," said Edwards, "and shall have their hearts wonderfully changed, and abhor themselves for their past unbelief and obstinacy. They shall flow together to the blessed Jesus."
Staff cry poetic injustice as singing Ashcroft introduces
patriot games Monday
March 4, 2002
Since John Ashcroft
became US attorney general last year, workers at the
department of justice have become accustomed to his daily
prayer meetings, but some are now drawing the line at having
to sing patriotic songs penned by their idiosyncratic boss.
Mr Ashcroft, a devout Christian and a grittily determined singer, went public with one of his works last month, when he surprised an audience at a North Carolina seminary with a rendition of Let the Eagle Soar, a tribute to America's virtues, which continues: "Like she's never soared before, from rocky coast to golden shore, let the mighty eagle soar," and so on for four minutes. The performance (which can be seen and heard at cnn.com/video/us/2002/02/25/ashcroft.sings.wbtv.med.html) was accompanied only by taped music, but Mr Ashcroft's staff are complaining that printed versions of the song are being distributed at meetings so that they will be able to join in. When asked why she opposed the workplace singalong, one of the department's lawyers said: "Have you heard the song? It really sucks." A group of Hispanic justice department employees were recently summoned to see the attorney general, and went along hoping that their boss might be making a special effort to promote diversity in the department's higher ranks. Instead, they were asked to provide a hasty Spanish lesson to give the secretary a few phrases to use on a foreign delegation the next day. The Hispanic staff were then handed printed copies of Let the Eagle Soar and asked for volunteers to translate it. This is not the first time Mr Ashcroft's subordinates have realised that this attorney general is unlike ordinary politicians. Each time he has been sworn in to political office, he is anointed with cooking oil (in the manner of King David, as he points out in his memoirs Lessons from a Father to His Son). When Mr Ashcroft was in the Senate, the duty was performed by his father, a senior minister in a church specialising in speaking in tongues, the Pentecostal Assemblies of God. When he became attorney general, Clarence Thomas, a supreme court justice, did the honours. In January, a pair of 12ft statues in the atrium of a justice department building were covered by a blue curtain, on orders from Mr Ashcroft's office because the female figure Spirit of Justice was bare-breasted, and the body of her male partner, Majesty of Law, was not sufficiently covered by his toga. The cover-up has provoked an anti-Ashcroft campaign by the singer and film star Cher, who has toured the media circuit denouncing his puritanism. She asked the Washington Post: "What are we going to do next? Put shorts on the statue of David, put an 1880s bathing suit on Venus Rising and a shirt on the Venus de Milo?" Perhaps the most bizarre wrinkle in the Ashcroft enigma emerged in November when Andrew Tobias, the Democratic Party treasurer and a financial writer, published an article on his website accusing the attorney general of harbouring superstitions about tabby cats. According to the Tobias article, advance teams for an Ashcroft visit to the US embassy in the Hague asked anxiously if there were tabby cats (or calico cats as they are known in the US) on the premises. "Their boss, they explained, believes calico cats are signs of the devil," Mr Tobias reported. When asked about the veracity of the report, the justice department said that it had made Mr Ashcroft laugh. There has been no further comment on the matter. Robertson: God says it's Bush in a 'blowout' in November 1/2/2004
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) —
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Friday he believes
God has told him President Bush will be re-elected in a
"blowout" in November.
"I think George Bush is going to win in a walk," Robertson said on his 700 Club program on the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network, which he founded. "I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It's shaping up that way." Robertson told viewers he spent several days in prayer at the end of 2003. "The Lord has just blessed him," Robertson said of Bush. "I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him." The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, a frequent Robertson critic and executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said he had a prediction of his own: "Pat Robertson in 2004 will continue to use his multimillion broadcasting empire to promote George Bush and other Republican candidates." In a reference to Bush's political adviser, Lynn said, "Maybe Pat got a message from Karl Rove and thought it was from God." |