A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
Malachi, chapter 4; James, chapter 5...(KJV).
The question we must answer is this: "Is history the work of man, or the work of God?" If it is the work of man, the universe is out of control, Chaos reigns. If it is the work of man, then indeed, it is The End of History, what we see is what man has come to and the neocons have as much natural right to attempt to impose their own Darwinian order on the world as anyone else. If God has truly left these affairs in the hands of man as the Deists believed in 1776, then there is no hope but fleeting hope. It means there is no final synthesis, at least not in our time, and (lamentation upon lamentation), Augustine was right, the theology of Rome is correct and James Earl Carter (and others of his stature in the earth), are indeed men for our time. If it is all the work of God, however, then the Darkness will suddenly be dispelled and chaos will result in order. Out of Great Darkness, GREAT LIGHT.
And then God said, Let there be Light: and there was Light...(Genesis 1:3).
The Political and Religious Right labors under the severe delusion that God is on their side. These children of Ba'al cannot begin to imagine how the One God who rules over all, has brought both history and them to this moment in time in order to reveal to the whole world what He will do in any future attempt to return to the social, political, economic and religious conditions that prevail over the earth today, over which He is now rising up to destroy. I have laid a snare for thee O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found and also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord...(Jeremiah 50:22-24)...
The Left on the other hand, thinks of God in the abstract and has little reverence for the reality of God's existence. It has little use for the words of the prophets and in turn faults God (mostly unwittingly) for the present state of the world. It can see evil (in part, and particularly in the present rulers of America), but believes this sight is an inherent quality of its own natural goodness. The Left (disconnected from the heart of Reality), is tangled up in its own intellect and basically believes that it would understand the things that it does, even if God had not gone to all the historic efforts to reveal it to them and to create it in them. The Left believes that it has no hand in the great evils that have been perpetrated upon the world by America in the name of God. And it naively believes that the liberal-leftist mind alone, without the assistance of the Higher world (and particularly through the present political process), is capable of solving the overwhelming dilemmas that beset humankind in (now) the 21st century.
(However, though lacking a vision of the Divine Chariot, without historical perspective [an understanding of the forces of Creation that have brought us to the present state of the world, or an idea of where all of it is leading], we have, nevertheless, a timely, ground level look at the present political and religious order in America, one that God it is certain would have us share. An appeal to Christ's Sermon on the Mount, a most excellent place to begin, it lays groundwork for the conversation we must have in our time).
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL:
"Of all the Bush Cartel lies and betrayals, of all the breaches of faith, Bush's usurpation of God to advance his political agenda is perhaps the most heinous of his sins. By asserting that he can better discern God's will than the leaders of his own faith (Methodist), his father's faith (Episcopalian), his brother's faith (Catholic), and the leaders of virtually every denomination in the United States, short of the Southern Baptists and Evangelicals, Bush is committing the ultimate arrogance. They all oppose the war that Bush claims is being committed in the name of God and Jesus. Bush stands virtually alone in claiming that God is on the side of his little war.
Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles, Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up...(Joel 3:9-14).
(Compare Joel 2:27-32 with Acts 2:16-21...KJV).
Bush's betrayal of the public trust through the manipulation of Americans by the use of fear and lies is a betrayal of men and women. His attempts to use God as an advocate for his pending Guernica bombing of Iraq -- with the resultant deaths of civilian Iraqis -- is a betrayal of the almighty.
Now show them the king that they have chosen...(1 Samuel, chapter 8...KJV).
It is unforgivable to hijack the government through a rigged Supreme Court vote. (Hail The Thief! he cometh not but for to steal, to kill, and destroy...John 10:11-10; 1 Thessalonians 5). It is unforgivable to split the world of nations apart -- to pit ally against ally through threats, intimidation and bribery like a mob enforcer -- in the pursuit of a self-serving war. It is another thing altogether to use God as if he were your personal servant. For that sin, Bush will be held accountable in the hereafter.
The issue of Bush's alleged God and faith are so intertwined with every aspect of his horrifying presidency that BuzzFlash.Com will be running a multi-part series over the next week entitled, "Bombing His Way Into the Jaws of Armageddon."
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh Fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men...(Revelation 13:13).
Part commentary and part reflection, we hope to offer some insight into the disastrous reign we call the Madness of King George.
We hope you learn a bit from this series; we certainly are in writing it.
SHOCK AND AWE
We've already experienced the Bush Cartel "Shock and Awe" here in the homeland. No we haven't been hit with 3,000 missiles and bombs in 48 hours. That's not the kind of "Shock and Awe" inflicted upon us. No, the "Shock and Awe" that has rained down upon Americans is a bombardment of lies and propaganda that has become so commonplace that is now banal to hear another Bush Cartel politically motivated mistruth.
It is hard to keep track of the morally repugnant use of ginned up terror alerts and the manipulative use of fear to achieve political goals. It is hard to keep track of the ever-changing public relations explanations Bush uses to justify bombing Iraq and setting up a neo-colonial American outpost there. It is hard to keep track of the Grand Canyon gap between Bush's public image of "compassionate conservative" and his actual gutting of the social service support system for the elderly, children, the poor and the middle class in America.
We have been "Shocked and Awed" by the daily avalanche of big and little lies. The administration is the ultimate Hollywood production, where nothing you see or hear represents the reality of what is going on behind the set. As we said, the very naming of the inferno that will be created by the Bush Cartel in Baghdad -- "Shock and Awe" -- symbolizes how the Bush Cartel is, in its own mind, assuming God like powers.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin (the American president) be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God (in the midst of the people), shewing himself that he is God.
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of Iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming
Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish: because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
And for this cause GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE A LIE.
That they might be (indicted before all the world) who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness...(2 Thessalonians 2:3-12).
...The claim of "moral clarity" by the likes of Bush, Ashcroft, and Tom DeLay is perhaps the most hypocritical of the hypocrisies of the Republican Party. There is no "moral clarity" to the Bush Cartel: only the assertion of a mandate from what clearly must be a renegade God, who appears closer to the Anti-Christ, as evidenced by the deeds of Bush, than to the God of the Bible.
If this is, as Bush and Blair proclaim, a "just war," then why does the Bush Cartel have to intimidate, threaten, bully and bribe national leaders to support it? This is, as they say in the "juice loan" enforcement racket, a muscle job, not a mission mandated by God. (See "The Muscle Beach Party" at http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/03/01/23.html)
So it is not surprising that the actual Guernica-style bombing of Iraq is meant to intimidate more than Iraqis and more than Muslim countries. It is meant to be a warning sign to our allies that there's a made-in-the-White-House vehicle loaded with enough firepower to destroy the earth careening down the highway of the world. A dry drunk (GWB) is at the wheel, with a car full of passengers besotted by absolute power (1 Thessalonians 5:1-9), shouting instructions into his ear. The display of "Shock and Awe" in Iraq is meant to signal to anybody who might think about crossing Fredo and the Corleone/Bush family that the Bush Cartel truck loaded with nuclear and conventional explosives might speed into any independent-minded country at any time.
The perverse assumption of God-like powers in the "Shock and Awe" attack is also meant to send a chill of fear down the spines of dissenters in America. The Bush Cartel will stop at nothing, the pulverizing attack on Iraq is meant to tell us. "We will assert power absolutely. We will roll over you. We will do what it takes to stay in power." That is what it is meant to show us here in the homeland. When Richard Perle called investigative journalist Seymour Hersh a terrorist on CNN, as he did on March 9th, you know that the arrest of U.S. citizens in the name of fighting terrorism is not far behind. As Daniel Ellsberg warned BuzzFlash.com in our interview with him, we are just one terrorist attack away from a dictatorship-like government being written into law. With its attack on Iraq, the Bush Cartel knows that it will probably provoke at least one or more terrorist attacks in the U.S.
In the election of 2000, the mantra of the Bush post-election Florida team was "bring it on home" no matter what tactics were required -- legal or illegal, ethical or unethical, honest or dishonest. There wasn't a thought about morality or democracy.
Most of us worship a God of justice, a God who urges honesty and compassion. But in the case of the Bush Cartel, given its Orwellian underpinnings, everything about the war on Iraq is the opposite of what is preached by Jesus. In the world of the Bush Cartel truth is translated into lies; humility is translated into arrogance; compassion for the poor is translated into contempt; peace is translated into war. (This is exactly what God would have us see).
One of the great ironies of the Iraq war buildup is that the Bush Cartel is betting that Saddam does not actually have any Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Yes, the Bush Cartel sell-job to the American public and the world is to claim Saddam is busting his gut with WMD's. But it is one of the great farces of modern times that the U.S. intelligence agencies can't prove or find the location of what they claim exists. So they are banking on the fact that their real intelligence is correct: the madman of Iraq has no or little WMD inventory left. In that case, American casualties will be "minimal" and the Bush Cartel is counting on a decisive victory drowning out any other concerns about the war (such as civilian casualties).
We know that references to Nazi Germany tend to marginalize arguments against Bush among most Americans. But read these quotes and deny that they have relevance to the current Bush Cartel propaganda strategy about the Iraq war:
"I shall give a propaganda reason for starting the war. Never mind whether it is plausible or not. The victor will not be asked afterward whether he told the truth or not. In starting and waging war it is not right that matters, but victory.
"The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out....The function of propaganda is, for example, not to weigh and ponder the rights of different people, but exclusively to emphasize the one right which it has set out to argue for. Its task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly."
This was what Hitler said in 1939 prior to invading Poland and his words from Chapter Six of "Mein Kampf." That is not to say that the Bush administration is morally equivalent to the Third Reich, but the fact remains that they utilize similar propaganda strategies.
The Bush Cartel is counting on a "successful" outcome of this war to smash any opposition abroad or domestically to the permanent rule of a right wing government. All of this will be accomplished in the name of "God," of course. But this particular "God" is known only unto George W. Bush and his fundamentalist pals, like John Ashcroft.
(Buzzflash says): OUR BRILLIANT CONSTITUTION (It may be brilliant but it is also the means by which George W. Bush came to power in the earth), and Bill of Rights was set up to prevent a crisis like the one that we are now experiencing. (Actually the Torah was given to prevent such a crisis). OUR FOREFATHERS (Who? Moses and Christ, or slaveholders and landstealers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson)? separated church and state so that we wouldn't be at the mercy of leaders who felt that they were on a mission on behalf of their own personally interpreted God. The Constitution was framed to keep us from a Jim Jones-style of government, replete with Armageddon overtones and fatalism...
For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
ONLY TAKE HEED TO THYSELF, AND KEEP THY SOUL DILIGENTLY, LEST THOU FORGET THE THINGS WHICH THINE EYES HAVE SEEN, AND LEST THEY DEPART FROM THY HEART ALL THE DAYS OF THY LIFE: BUT TEACH THEM THY SONS AND THY SON'S SONS...(Deuteronomy, chapter 4).
WE (America) WERE FOUNDED BY PATRIOTS WHO BELIEVED IN GOD (What God?), but a God that existed as the image each American has of the Lord, a universal God. (Open the pages of the Book of Isaiah at the time of the American Revolution...KJV). George W. Bush has blurred the lines of church and state. (Put it in spiritual perspective, think of the whole history of this country as it actually happened...1 Peter 2:1-21). He would have us all worship in the church of the God of George W. Bush -- and have us believe that all other interpretations of God aid and abet terrorism. To be against George W. Bush's personal God is to be for terrorism, which means most of the nation's religious leaders must be aiding terrorism.
To The Deists.
"He can never be a friend of the Human Race who is a Preacher of Natural Morality or Natural Religion; he is a flatterer who means to betray, to perpetuate Tyrant Pride & the laws of that Babylon which he sees shall shortly be destroyed, with the Spiritual and not the Natural Sword. He is in the state of Rahab, which state he must put off before he can be a friend of man.
O ye deists, profess yourselves to be the enemies of Christianity, and you are so: you are also the enemies of the Human Race & of Universal Nature. Man is born a spectre of Satan & is altogether an evil, & requires a New Self continually, & must be continually changed into his direct counterpart. But your Greek Philosophy--which is a remnant of Druidism (in its fallen state)--teaches that man is righteous in his Vegetated Spectre; an opinion of fatal and accursed consequences to man, as the ancients saw plainly by Revelation, to the entire abrogation of Experimental Theory; and many believed what they saw, and prophecied of Jesus.
Man must & will have some Religion: if he has not the Religion of Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan & will erect the Synagogue of Satan, calling the Prince of This World, God, and destroying all who do not worship Satan under the name of God. Where are they? Listen! Every Religion that teaches Vengeance for Sin is the Religion of the Enemy & Avenger and not the Forgiver of Sin, and their God is Satan, named by the Divine Name. Your Religion, O Deists, Deism, is the Worship of the God of This World by the means of what you call Natural Religion and Natural Philosophy, and of the Natural Morality of Self Righteousness, the Self Virtues of the Natural Heart. This was the Religion of the Pharisees who murdered Jesus. Deism is the same and ends in the same…
Those who Martyr others or who cause War are Deists, but can never be the Forgiver of Sins. The glory of Christianity is to Conquer by Forgiveness. All the Destruction, thereof, in Christian Europe has arisen from Deism, which is Natural Religion." William Blake.
James Toler, a feisty local columnist, and free lance writer, said it another way, in an article in the Charleston, West Virginia, Gazette:
"This nation was founded by a bunch of money-grubbing colonists who nearly exterminated the native population because the Indians would not live like 'civilized' white men. They built the South on the backs of black slaves and poor whites.. The North built its commerce on children and immigrants who worked from daylight to dark, were poorly fed and paid, and whose only reward was to die young.
In West Virginia, mineral rights were swindled away and the citizen's reward was spending the biggest part of their short lives underground breathing coal dust and dodging slate falls, if they were lucky, and owing their souls to the company store.
Jesus Christ was the same fellow who threw the money changers out of the temple and said that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. If he were walking the earth today, I doubt that he would have any truck with the likes of...that gang of thugs who run Washington, nor do I think he would embrace the so-called 'Christian principles' (they all) seem so fond of…" (Nov. 95).
...Bush's outlook is a betrayal of the Constitution and of America. (George W. Bush is actually the end result of that purely humanistic doctrine. Every Tree is known by its Fruits).
What a telling contrast Bush's calculated religious posturing is TO THE TRUE FAITH EMBODIED BY NOBEL LAUREATE JIMMY CARTER. Carter uses belief in a God as a motivating force to build homes for families in need through Habitat for Humanity. Carter is a creator, a humble nurturer.
Bush, in contrast, uses his God in a showy way as a justification for destroying women and children, cities and democracy. He pits ally against ally. He divides the world in order to pursue war. In the name of his alleged God, Bush has become a destroyer"
THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS AND THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE
There are millions of Americans praying for King George, according to the King himself: "I feel the comfort and the power of knowing that literally millions of Americans I'm never going to meet ... say my name to the Almighty every day and ask him to help me," he [Bush] said. "My friend, Jiang Zemin in China, has about a billion and a half folks, and I don't think he can say that. And my friend, Vladimir Putin, I like him, but he can't say that."
Yes, it is a tradition going back to the Egyptian Pharaohs; the subjects of the divinely chosen leader pray for his wisdom and well-being.
The inimitable Arkansas journalist Gene Lyons recently wrote: According to Bob Woodward's book, "Bush at War" even in one-on-one interviews, "THE PRESIDENT WAS CASTING HIS MISSION AND THAT OF THE COUNTRY IN THE GRAND VISION OF GOD'S MASTER PLAN."
Conquering evil is bin Laden's plan, too. Even fighting beside the "socialist infidel" Saddam Hussein, he hinted in a taped statement Feb. 11, was permissible "to establish the rule of God on earth." Quoting the Koran, he assured his followers that "those who believe fight in the cause of Allah, and those who reject faith fight in the cause of evil. So fight ye against the friends of Satan: feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan."
So have we really been transported back to the 12th century A.D. with Bush as Richard the Lionhearted and Osama/Saddam as Saladin in a replay of the Third Holy Crusade?
White House staffers have told journalists that Bush believes God chose him to lead the nation through its hour of darkness. (2 Thessalonians, chapter 2...KJV). Indeed, shortly after September 11th, Bush used the term Crusade to describe his war against terrorism. In a September 24, 2001, editorial, BuzzFlash.com commented: "Although the White House apologized for Bush's evocation of the 'Crusade,' the propaganda damage had already been done. If we are simultaneously trying to crush extremist Islamic terrorists while minimizing the possibility of the Middle East and parts of Islamic Asia from exploding in an armed uprising, then Bush's use of the word 'Crusade' was like tossing a match onto a tinder box when the use of a fire extinguisher should have been the rhetorical tool of the day."
But the reality is that Bush's notion of being chosen by God implies that he is imparted with divine knowledge that others don't have. As a divinely chosen leader, Bush believes that he is accountable to no one. (It is true. We are accountable because our minds are open to accountability. Bush has had no such awakening). He has shown utter contempt for Congress and the democratic election process. That is because Bush believes that they are unnecessary because only he is hot wired into the Lord's intentions. (I will choose their delusions...Isaiah 66:4-9).
In Woodward's suffocatingly fawning book, Bush sniffs, "I don't need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation." Of course, Kings could make mistakes and they would remain kings. They didn't, indeed, have to explain themselves to anyone. When you lose an election and are appointed by the Supreme Court, maybe you have to a right to view your ascension as divinely inspired. (Quite so).
Bush may, no doubt, believe that he is heir to the great thrones of Europe, when kings viewed themselves as rulers by divine right.
Now here is the mind that hath Wisdom...(Revelation 17:18)
King James VI of Scotland, who later became King James I of England, having ascended to the throne in 1603 following the death of Queen Elizabeth, was one of the better-known proponents of the notion of the divine right of kings. (Ezekiel, chapters 28).
He wrote: "The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth; for kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself are called gods. There be three principal similitudes that illustrate the state of monarchy: one taken out of the word of God; and the two other out of the grounds of policy and philosophy. In the Scriptures kings are called gods, and so their power after a certain relation compared to the divine power. Kings are also compared to fathers of families: for a king is truly Parens patriae, the politique father of his people. And lastly, kings are compared to the head of this microcosm of the body of man."
When James II angered his countrymen by attempting to restore Roman Catholicism in England, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 put an end to the rule of the House of Stuarts and dealt the notion of divine right a major blow. It still existed in France, however, where the reign of Louis XIV was rooted in the divine-right doctrine; the remark "L'etat, c'est moi" (I am the state) is attributed to him. It is widely believed that the death of this doctrine occurred in the late 18th century. During the Enlightenment period –- and as exemplified most clearly in the French Revolution –- more democratic ideas held sway and the concept of an absolute monarch, let alone one appointed by God, became part of a mythic past.
And yet the doctrine was once again championed in the early 1900s by the German Emperor Wilhelm II as king of Prussia, and by Czar Nicholas II of Russia. And once again, apparently, by Bush.
Yes, it has taken the madness of King George to restore a concept of divine rule that most scholars thought had been abandoned to the dust heap of history. During his March 6th news conference -- and on previous occasions -- Bush has referred to "my government," echoing Louis XIV ("I am the state"). Citizens of America expressing their opinions are just focus groups to King George. Royal court reporters are vetted for a news conference and escorted in two-by-two to their seats (as they were on March 6th), so as not to offend the king. We also learned that Mad King George wouldn't appear before the common leaders of the European Union unless he was assured of a standing ovation.
"I hug the mothers and the widows of those who may have lost their life in the name of peace and freedom," Bush has said on more than one occasion. He views himself as the benevolent sovereign, sending America's finest off to fight in a war for oil and hegemony, then being the "First Hugger" for bereaved survivors. He hugs them on behalf of his personal Bush Lord, the same one that sends their children off to die.
As for the men and women of the clergy -- representing the religious leadership of every major denomination in the United States, with the exception of the Southern Baptists and Evangelicals -- who believe Bush's little war is a violation of God, Bush won't even meet with them. Why should King George waste his time talking with these men and women of the cloth? After all, George is busy running his kingdom and has a war to start. In any case, King George knows that they are all impostors. God has selected only King George to implement God's divine will on earth. George knows that all of these religious leaders are just hearing voices, so what's the point of wasting time indulging their fantasies?
http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/03/03/11.html
Can Bush Play Chess?
http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/2001/09/24_Bush_Chess.html
Is the Pope Aiding and Abetting Terrorism?
http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/03/02/21.html
Profiles in Prophecy: Which Armageddon Angle is Right for You?
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/03/07_armageddon.html
LAUGHTER OF THE GODS
By Sheila Samples
Contributing Editor
Axis of Logic
3-5-4
The more I look at the chaotic mess George W. Bush is making in every blessed
corner of the world, THE MORE I AM INCLINED TO TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE GOD
IN WHOSE NAME HE CLAIMS TO BE MAKING IT. JUST WHO IS THIS GOD THAT CHATS UP
BRAZEN HYPOCRITES AND ZEALOTS IN OUR MIDST -- whipping them into a frenzy of
pharisaic attempts to strangle democracy at home and abroad? THIS AWESOME CREATURE
IS ON A MURDEROUS RAMPAGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA, SOUTH AMERICA -- as Donald
Rumsfeld would say -- EAST. WEST, NORTH AND SOUTH...Armed and jackbooted, Bush's
flinty-hearted Diety bears no resemblance to the compassionate and forgiving
God in whom Christians have put their faith for more than two millenia.
More and more innocents are being herded onto the world's killing fields
by the deliberate actions of a Christian nation -- in the name of its Christian
God. What blasphemy! IF CHRISTIANS ARE UNABLE TO RECOGNIZE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
GOOD AND EVIL; if they cannot see that those we crush under our heel are also
God's creation -- then all those hours spent in Sunday School, church services,
summer camp and "all day singing and dinner on the grounds" picnics
were a sorry waste of time. (Sad
but true). The nature of a man is revealed by the company he keeps.
Those who preach that maiming and killing terrified men, women and children
is "God's will" -- who cover up the slaughter of their own citizens
and who topple other regimes by force or farce -- are evil men who cavort with
evil gods. And every single Christian in this country knows it.
THE BEAST MAY NOT YET BE LOOSED UPON THE WORLD (if not, then what, or who are we talking about here?), but his minions are having one hell of a good time, and laughing their asses off in the process. By joining forces in a destructive "means justifies the ends" crusade to both control and convert the world, the Neoconservatives and Religious Right have created a playground for wicked gods. Each needs the other to achieve its goals. And the glue that holds them together is a man whose own words indict him as the proverbial village idiot who has no clue about either means or ends, but who serves at this point in history as both the enabled and the enabler.
The Neocons...I have written so much about this ungodly bunch I sometimes feel like a rabid Sam Kinison, standing in the breach, screaming into the wind. (God, I suspect, thoroughly enjoyed that scene). Except for God's coat-tails they intend to ride in on, the Almighty does not enter into their equation for world domination. (Oh but he does...Romans 9:17). Their names are familiar -- Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, William Kristol, Michael Ledeen...THEY TOWER CONTEMPTUOUSLY ABOVE GOD (Isaiah 14...KJV), THEIR PLAN FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER FAR GRANDER THAN HIS, and their fingerprints are all over the tens of thousands of innocents who have been killed, injured or horribly maimed. They are everywhere -- from the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) and other right-wing think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) -- to the Pentagon, State Department and White House. And, in their own words, they have only just begun.
Ledeen is possibly the most dangerous and influential neocon of all the
Iran-Contra madmen who are back in power. In his book, Machiavelli on Modern
Leadership, Ledeen says, "Creative destruction is our middle name. We do
it automatically...It is time once again to export the democratic revolution."
"God," Ledeen explains, "understands that all men are evil, and
the only way to achieve peace is through total war." Ledeen believes "the
sparing of civilian lives cannot be the total war's first priority...The purpose
of total war is to permanently force your will onto another people." In
the unlikely event that Americans emerge from their stupor before Ledeen and
his New World Order is upon them, I hope they realize that following the hostile
and unfamiliar God for whom Ledeen speaks would be kind of like walking a mad
dog on a leash...
The God People The Religious Right is also obsessed with power and control, and the majority of its members are living proof that, like the ancient Euripides wrote -- "Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad." God walks with them; talks to them and issues militant edicts to us through them. Most are Republicans -- proud "born again" Christians who speak deleriously of "God's will and the blood of Jesus Christ" -- but their true religion is cold, hard politics. They walk the halls of Congress, and are by far the most powerful voting bloc in America. When they speak, presidents listen -- constitutional amendments are proposed, freedoms are lost, liberties dry up...
According to a project by TheocracyWatch.org, " The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party," they propose bills that are "anti-women, anti-labor and anti-civil rights. Their legislation opposes finance campaign reform; environmental protection; gun control; social justice for the poor; public education; teaching evolution; human sexuality; and a separation of church and state." The report says their bills "show a disregard for the U.S. Constitution, and finally, Democracy itself. Bills coming from the Religious Right favor the wealthy and large corporations. The ultimate political goal is to make this country a Christian nation." (Emphasis added)
We smile and shake our heads at the outlandish claims of TV evangelists Pat Robertson, to whom God confided recently that "Bush will win the 2004 election in a blowout," (consider Deuteronomy 13), or Jerry Falwell, who believes the "idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country." We even giggled when Attorney General John Ashcroft assured graduates at Bob Jones University that "America has no king but Jesus."
Trust me -- these people are not funny. For example, Tom Delay, Texas Republican and House Majority Leader, once told a group of evangelical Christians that God was "using him" to promote a biblical worldview. "Only Christianity offers a comprehensive worldview that covers all areas of life and thought -- every aspect of creation," DeLay said. "Only Christianity offers a way to live in response to the realities that we find in this world. Only Christianity." (Emphasis added) Like his counterparts, DeLay believes that fundamentalists should "overturn the separation of church and state and bring government under religious control."
And listen to Gary Potter, president of Catholics for Christian Political Action -- "When the Christian majority takes over this country, there will be no satanic churches, no more free distribution of pornography, no more talk of rights for homosexuals. After the Christian majority takes control, pluralism will be seen as immoral and evil and the state will not permit anybody the right to practice evil."
But few are more frightening than Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe who strode to the Senate chamber shortly after 9-11 to announce that the attacks were punishment by God because we were not sufficiently in awe of Israel. Inhofe said God told him Israel is "entitled" to the West Bank, and the U.S. should not pressure Ariel Sharon to stop killing Palestinians. According to Inhofe, God angrily slung three airliners full of unsuspecting souls into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, incinerating more than 3,000 innocent citizens, and furiously rammed another plane into the Pennsylvania countryside -- because America was not sufficiently subservient to Israel. Inhofe believes America got what it deserved, and we should heed God's "wake up call" lest He strike us again... Brother James Inhofe -- just one reason we sleep with the lights on in Oklahoma...
The Chosen One : From Jesus is my philosopher to God is my co-pilot, George Bush has been nothing if not ghoulishly entertaining. Far more talented writers than I have gone completely berserk while attempting to explain what makes Bush tick. It's simple, really. The answer is Nothing. Nothing makes him tick. That's why he's the perfect foil for the warhawks and religious zealots. Bush is a swaggering, paranoid, hubristic bully, consumed by an irrational sense of his own worth. Just your normal, run-of-the-mill Texas good ol' boy Republican -- with money. After carousing, falling down drunk, and failing at every business enterprise his daddy set up for him -- at the tender age of 40, Bush was "born again" and became the Lord's own most visible high-stepping 12-stepper. Fourteen years later, he was President of the United States. In his defense, I have to say Bush is acting no differently than any other 14-year-old spoiled bully would be expected to act under the same circumstances...
And he's a Believer. Bush believes what they tell him he believes, such as he was chosen by God to lead the Christians in a righteous war against Islam. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia even blames God for his own deadly vote that thwarted democracy in 2000 and seized power from the people. Believing that Bush is serving by divine appointment, Scalia wrote in a May 2002 article, God's Justice and Ours that the government has a higher authority granted to it by God. He said unequivocally, "GOVERNMENT CARRIES THE SWORD AS MINISTERS OF GOD, TO EXECUTE WRATH UPON THE EVILDOER..."
Romans 13:1-5; 2 Thessalonians 1:4-10...(KJV).
Much of Scalia's, and therefore Bush's, belief is based on, and his core speeches drawn from THE 13TH CHAPTER OF ROMANS, which admonishes citizens to "obey the government, for God is the one who has put it there." Punishment is swift and sure for those who refuse to "obey" the laws of the land, for the scripture says, "the policeman is sent by God to help you. But if you are doing something wrong, of course you should be afraid, for he will have you punished. He is sent by God for that very purpose..."
For there is no Power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God...(Romans 13:1).
Bush shrugs aside wimps like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John who can't seem to get beyond love, kindness, helping the vulnerable, caring for the needy and the sheer compassion expounded by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount, and seem to prattle on endlessly about salvation. Bush is also wont to deep-six most "Thou Shalt Nots," because, in Romans 13, it clearly says all ten commandments "are wrapped up in this one -- to love your neighbor as you love yourself..." It is the only law Christians need to obey -- other than, of course, those of the government and its Ashcroftian Mr. Policeman whom God has sent to punish them...
Americans who look at Bush and see either compassion or morality are severely suffering from optical delusion. This is a man who sets himself up as a purveyor of truth and knowledge, but who sees "thugs and killers, brutal dictators and barbarians" behind every tree, and is committed to not let "terriers and rogue nations hold this nation hostile." This is a man who declared war upon Islam --calling it a "crusade" -- from the pulpit of the National Cathedral rather than the Oval Office. This is a man who enjoys what he is doing in God's name, and who promises that he will not stop killing until the entire world is "safe."
They are of their father the devil, and the lusts of their father will they fulfill. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it...(John 8:44).
The world cringes as George Bush, militant neocons and the completely mad religious right steer the Bush Ship of State toward the jagged shoals. God has left the building. Is it any wonder the lesser gods are shrieking with laughter...?
- Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma freelance writer, a former US Army Public Information
Officer and Axis of Logic contributing editor. © Copyright 2004 by AxisofLogic.com
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