Prophecy as Policy: The Evils of Apocalyptic Politics

"Come the rapture, can I have your car?" a bumper sticker I saw the other day...

revised Jan 24, 2003

Club Apocalipsis on Lake Street in Minneapolis Sept. 2004

Inspired by the 2004 Republican convention in New York, I'm adding a new introduction to this piece. Tommy Franks, the General in charge of the Iraq invasion, dug an interesting grave for himself and the Republican party. Franks was silly enough to describe Kerry's philosophy on the war on terror as wishful thinking and undesirable because it focuses on fighting terrorism at home with law enforcement and intelligence programs (which is false, but let's just take him at his word for argument's sake). According to him, Bush's philosophy was much more certain and desirable because it is, if I read between the lines correctly, a strategy of using the Iraq occupation as a lure to draw out terrorists "over there," rather than here at home. Bush's strategy relies almost entirely on explosive devices, prisons (Abu Grahib was renamed "Camp Redemption."), and attempts to create a pro-American political system through a highly manipulated pseudo-democracy. I have a theory, based on the teachings of Bush's self-proclaimed faith, and the actions and statements he has made: Bush is actively invoking the Apocalypse in the Middle East. In all fairness, I must add that he is far from alone in this endeavor. The picture above is a wry metaphor of the self-fulfilling prophecy that informs the Bush Administration. In both cases, Franks' policy of hypocritical wishful thinking inspired by Messianic self-assuredness in Bush's appointment as the new Soter Kosmoi, and the pan-religious obsession with the Middle East as the central stage of a scriptural, mythical drama of terrifying implications, we see a strange pattern: a policy of hope. A strategy of wishful thinking, cynical and pessimistic as it might seem to those not seeking an end of the world as we know it. The primary difference then, between the two parties is, as they have both asserted, the GOP promotes a dark and pessimistic resignation to terror combined with a faith in metaphysical doctrines to justify boldly arrogant aggression, while the DNC promotes a hopeful vision based on past experience, reasoning and nuanced political reflection backed by diplomatic and military power. Interestingly, the GOP has been fairly successful at labeling the DNC as pessimistic, while they are hopeful. The irony of this mis en abysme is nearly nauseating.

Before beginning to lay out my argument, I think that it is important to get a good look at the thinking and policies I am talking about are indeed connected to real people with real power:

Jerry Falwell on Mandatory Homosexuality -#- Reverend Fred Phelps -#- Cutting Edge on Harry Potter and Wicca -#- The School of Prophecy (doomsday publishing subsidiary of Jerry Falwell Inc.) # Rapture Ready -#- Michael Savage's call to apply the Sedition Act to anti-war protesters

Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson speaking just after the September 11th attacks:

God, [Falwell] told Robertson, had protected America "wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this is the first time that we've been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results.
"Throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools," he said. "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad.
"[T]he pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America," Falwell continued, "I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" [emphasis added]
"Well, I totally concur," responded Robertson.

ABC News has the story [click here].

This is just a quick summary of the hatred that I believe demands a response like this.

Any American who has been consuming our media for the last ten years knows that there is a vigorous campaign of religious morality directed at the supposed evil brainwashing of Hollywood, occultism and homosexuality. This little essay is a table-turner in which I will argue, following the lead of the FBI's Megiddo Report, that the most dangerous cults on this planet are not witches or occultists, but rather the believers in a metaphysical Apocalypse. I don't mean necessarily those who predict environmental or military doomsday. Yet, these less supernatural elements obviously play an important role in the wish-fulfillment fantasies of those whose essential spirituality revolves around the anxious-yet-fearful anticipation of an expeditious end of the world as we know it. It is these people to which I am referring right now.

Also, I confess a perverse desire to turn the table on conservative talk radio rhetoric. During the past two years I have heard, especially from Ann Coulter and Michael Savage a constant chanting of "arrest the anti-war protesters as traitors" "use the sedition act to arrest those wussy liberals who criticize our president and the war on Iraq." But, it hardly merits addressing them, given the fact that many Republicans (and these Republicans took out a full page ad in the NYTimes in protest), Christians, Capitalist Libertarians and even soldiers (including Norman Schwarzkopf) are protesting this war too. Even the Bush family janitor James Baker III is strongly encouraging UN agreement. With the possible exception of the Catholic Church and many Protestant Christians who oppose it, the AM demagogues can hardly claim that these people are "lib'rals." Hence, there is no reason to take seriously Coulter's and Savage's claims that this is a liberal plot to overthrow the Republican/Federalist coup d'etat. Since this argument is pure nonsense, I will focus on the strictly religious issues.

Christianity, Islam and Judaism all embrace slight variations on this ancient Zoroastrian theme. Even Karl Marx's prediction of proletariat revolution is an analogous "opium of the people," making the oppressed feel better by promising a future revenge and heavenly reward for them. But, I am not going to enter into a deconstruction of Karl Marx here. That has already been done ad nauseum, in hopes of discrediting any type of income tax-funded social program that helps those in need when instead they can create tax-funded programs to subsidize wealthy corporations that make bombs, petroleum, SUV's, and drugs. The world is full of zombies saying "Socialism didn't work. Look at Russia." Never mind that it used to be known as the Soviet Union, or that socialist ideas work quite well in Canada & Europe in spite of Limbaugh's ignorant rantings. Never mind that Marxism, Socialism and Soviet Communism are three distinct things. But I digress.

This apocalyptic thought is, I will argue, a huge and fatal flaw in their overall doctrine. They have devised theological reasons for looking forward to the end of the world. It is a flaw because it leads people to accept or encourage behaviors that are destructive to the planet and society. It is fatal because it is ingeniously simple to convince people that current events match the descriptions of the Scriptures. It is also fatal because people with vast amounts of money and power are manipulating events and minds to create this illusion. This flaw is a huge threat because more than half the world's population believes in one of those three religions, and all three major religions possess weapons that can destroy the world. The atomic bomb is the ultimate wish fulfillment of Apocalyptic religion. Pat Robertson, while running for president, indicated that he liked the idea of having his thumb on the nuke button. Bush has been carefully pushing to break down the anti-nuke barrier for our military. Imagine what would be happening right now if John Ashcroft were in the Oval Office. He has already proven himself to be an overhyped Pentecostal who sings a self-composed patriotic/religious anthem on a regular basis for the edification of his staff and foreign dignitaries. I mean no offense to the devoutly religious Christians in general. Ask any sane Christian who doesn't appreciate Ashcroft's penchant for capital punishment, or the support of brutal dictators in third world countries in the name of "democracy." I highly doubt there are many Muslims who think Osama bin Laden will be in heaven. A few. Not all. What percentage of Jews world-wide think that Ariel Sharon is an effective statesman or humanitarian? They are out there, yes. However, the majority of Jews outside of Israel, and many within Israel do not support Israel's recent policies--or at least they didn't used to support him before they were so brutalized by Palestinian reactions to his policies. [update 2004: Israel's plan to withdraw from Gaza is very interesting. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I will say that my earlier remarks may become irrelevant as things develop.] In spite of careful efforts to the contrary, Christians are beginning to line up against Bush and even Israel's kooky plans.

The geographical coincidence of petroleum and Jerusalem is perhaps the greatest danger to the future of this planet. [New America article goes into depth on the Neocon movement] Greedy Robert E. Lee rebels with oil wells and Bibles are in control. They tell us "We can't afford to put black kids through college. There's a war to be fought." We sell weapons of mass destruction to insane dictators in unstable countries, and when they screw up, we threaten them with the same weapons in order to take them away from them. In the case of Iraq, we littered the countryside with radioactive waste uranium from our power plants and Soviet nukes we buy. America has finally found an effective way to get rid of nuclear waste. You give us your oil or we give you toxic and radioactive waste.

Perhaps the most educational and pitiful thing about the situation, in my opinion, is the fact that the obvious lesson for history is this: war rarely works since it is always about rich people manipulating the poor and innocent to kill each other. Further, neither military nor economic sanctions are of any value if they are not universalized. Castro has made it to his tenth American president. Hussein survived nuclear waste, carpet bombing, disease and stringent sanctions. Nothing works if the whole world isn't with you, and you can't expect much support when the motives are obviously about imperialist/corporate greed. Religion makes a nice smokescreen for them. Greedy brutes are useful tools for the Apocalyptic. It's an unholy symbiotic pairing.

Within the three big monotheistic religions there are many sects. The tone of Apocalyptic sensibilities varies a great deal among the various sects. Given that America is allegedly a Christian nation, I will focus primarily on the Christian manifestations of Apocalyptic thinking. Within the traditional mainstream of Christianity, this peculiar blend of fear and vengeful anticipation tends not to be central to their world view. The more eschatologically inclined sects like Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostal, and a host of fragmented, balkanized fundamentalist sects believe firmly that the surreal visions of Revelation will come true. They also believe that Israel is the stage upon which the Wagnerian battle of Armageddon will occur. These people also believe that the current violence we see in the Middle East is a fulfillment of the Apocalyptic prophecy. Furthermore, among these doomsday fundamentalists are such people as John Ashcroft, Osama bin Laden, the entire Israeli population of the West Bank, Jerry Falwell, and a large number of conservative Christians who are vigorously supporting West Bank Settlements. For more on this theme, click here., and especially here.

At this point, it's hard not to look at the situation and make the ironic and sarcastic observation that perhaps Satan himself has discovered that as long as he hates homos and women controlling their reproduction that he can get away with any vile act of blasphemy, degradation and violence. Unfortunately for all of us, there is no way to verify which religion is really the one true religion, other than to bring on the end of the world. Thanks to their power, the Christians have the upper hand. They are getting closer to achieving this goal.

This means that the abused Palestinians and the shell-shocked Israeli Jews are merely puppets and pawns in the drama of Christian salvation. We heathens are also mere riff-raff in their glorious visions of Divine Revenge. Besides the profoundly disturbing fact that these same religious crackpots are pulling the strings of George W. Bush's American Fascist international policy, this also means that we should probably assume that the followers of this sinister, cynical and superstitious dogma can only be counted on to undermine every attempt to bring peace to the Middle East, or ensure the long-term viability of this planet.

There is a conspiracy theory to the extent that Hitler's extermination of Jews was a tool devised by Zionists--apparently both Jewish and Christian--who had a grand plan to hasten the coming of the Messiah (for the Jews, Messiah 1, for the Christians, Return of the Messiah.) There was debate as to whether or not to place the Jewish homeland in Israel, or Uganda, or several other spots. The Zionists felt very, very strongly that it should be in Israel. This last part is an undisputed fact of Israel's recent history. The existence of a hidden plan to use the Holocaust to inspire Jews to go there is disputed. However, it is quite true that the gathering together of the lost tribes of Abraham (the Jewish people) in the Holy Land (Palestine) is a prerequisite for the coming of the Messiah according to the Old Testament and Kabbalistic as well as Christian prophecies. Furthermore, the current situation is quite obviously being used by the conservative/Zionist faction in Israel to encourage Jews around the world to come build a new home in the occupied territories. Such immigration further enrages former Jordanian Muslims and Christians. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that Rabbi Berg's Kabbalah Centre, which is in vogue in Hollywood among the likes of Madonna, Roseanne, and others, has a deeply apocalyptic side as well.

As mentioned previously, conservative Christians (some of whom have old roots in anti-Semitic racist organizations: Trent Lott, Strom Thurmond, Robert Byrd) Surely, nothing is stranger than Joseph Lieberman's connection to this same movement. They are the most loyal and militants supporters of Israel now. It is for this reason that I disagree sharply with those who believe that Israel controls American foreign policy. The truth is, I argue, much more sinister, and complex. Complex, yet ingeniously simple and efficient. Although the media has been promoting the notion that people who question Israel's motives are anti-Semites, the truer analysis is that Christians who support Israel's occupation of the West Bank are anti-Semites using the Jewish people for their own ends. Religious fanatics leading the media voices of these three religions are our greatest enemies. Let me explain.

For example, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Yassir Arafat have all directed Muslims to play their part in this Apocalyptic drama. The Muslims, Christians and Jews all believe that the Supreme Deity is on their side. Each group believes that the violence brings the Last Judgment closer and only those who convert to their religion will be saved. The rest are damned or forsaken. It's a sort of lottery where three teams play at a game of killing and hating on the assumption that the more they can escalate the antagonism, the sooner the game will end and one of the teams will become the big winners, and the other two will be cast into fire or darkness. This is the legacy of Abraham. It is a drama like the Mahabarata, but the dice game is a 3-way game of universal Russian roulette.

Not all of the devotees of any of these religions thinks like this. Many have no idea that this is happening. Many prefer to avoid the paranoid, obsessive and angry ranting of Apocalyptic Demagogues like Pat Robertson. The President of Iran recently chastised America for being driven by "fanatical fundamentalism" to become a "Big Brother" empire. Sure, that's coming from Iran, one of the "Axis of Evil" states, but it sure is damned ironic that Iran is calling us the religious fundamentalist bullies of the world.

My criticism is not pointed at Christians, Jews or Muslims in general. This is a defiant proclamation against a loud, but vocal minority of religious zealots in all the major world's religions, even in Hinduism and various modern nationalistic/fundamentalist religio-political movements. The worst ones I am criticizing practice a rather aggressive, iconoclastic monotheism blurred with national identity politics (patriotism). They focus their promotional campaigns on promises of a future date in which some cataclysmic event will end the world as we know it. The faithful will be rewarded. They use the same psychological pressure as the store that puts on a limited time sale, without stating how long the limited time will last. They can keep pressing consumers to hurry up and buy at their store, or they will be left out in the cold, having to pay a higher price.

The more extreme believers in metaphysical Apocalypse should be regarded as potential traitors to the human race--certainly not worthy of trust in matters regarding Middle East politics or the environment. They have a vested interest in seeing death and destruction supreme there. Furthermore, their preachers are telling them such shocking things as:

Did you all know that Procter and Gamble is doing a massive hiring of homosexuals and lesbians? We're supposed to be the ones receiving those people into church to get them changed. All the stuff they are trying to do to keep the church separate from the state, there's just a massive effort by the Enemy to eradicate what this nation was founded on. You vote for who God tells you to vote for. Don't be fooled by political rhetoric. As Oral Roberts said, this election is a spiritual battle. And it should not be motivated by whether we are at war or not. The Bible says there will always be wars. You need to be looking at morality issues, the stuff that destroys countries. You need to be paying attention to the homosexual and lesbian issues. Because the Enemy is on the offensive."

They read aloud the opening of Psalm 118: "The Lord is on my side. I will not fear."

"Do you see that?" exclaims Thompson. "Now bow your heads. Father, we thank you that you're on our side." They repeat the phrase to each other in a crescendo: "The LORD is on our SIDE." Sweet relief on their faces, they embrace. http://www.alternet.org/rights/20328/

The real problem, as I see it is that it is extremely difficult to effectively communicate with people who think like this. For those who do not easily fall into this type of thinking, there is no way to convert them. For those who have already slipped into it, there is an incredible barrier to awakening them.

It's not a coincidence that here in America the same people who encourage Ariel Sharon to genocide also resist every attempt to reduce pollution and nuclear weapons. They are also the same people who reject all attempts to create social programs that help the poor--instead they prefer to piss them off even more so they'll become more destructive and try to end the world. If they can get someone else to end the world for them, then Jesus will come back for them.

I wonder if the late horror author H.P. Lovecraft could have foreseen that the diabolical religion that would attempt to destroy the human race would be fundamentalist apocalyptic Christianity. Jesus has become the Cthulhu or Yog Sotthoth, promising to destroy the human race except for a select few who worship Him. (For more on the Lovecraftian mythos, see this site, and this site, and these nice songs) It is encouraging to note that Lovecraft spent most of his life as an elitist conservative, switching in his last years to a quasi-socialist or liberal after the Great Depression. I'm confident that even a xenophobic WASP antiquarian elitist sexist racist Christian author of horror stories from the 1920's would be shocked by this irony. It wasn't the occultists, demonologists and demonic beings from beyond that are going to kill us. It's the devout, orthodox patriot fundamentalist wackos who will bring the world to an end, and by golly, they're proud of it.

A Time/CNN poll reveals that 1/3 of Americans are watching the news for signs of "the End Times". 59% think that the book of Revelation will come true. 50 million copies of the apocalyptic serial "novels" Left Behind have been sold in America, and these books are driving Christians in droves to lobby Bush for more support of Israel in its plan for ethnic cleansing of Palestine. (See also RaptureReady.com)

It's time to stop letting these childish, delusional fanatics determine the future of this planet. It's time to stop being tolerant of such a crazy and destructive religious doctrine. Secular humanists and spiritual people of all creeds need to stand firm against this regressive stupidity and evil. But, things do not look good for us here. On the bright side, if there really is a benevolent deity out there watching all of this nonsense, we can at least be assured that these emissaries of eschatological politics will be in for a "damned" big surprise when the smoke clears. If there isn't a benevolent deity out there, they will be surprised too.

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