According to Bill Moyers, who is using a recent Gallup poll, one third of our elected officials believe the Bible is literally true.
Literally.
These representatives believe in a "fantastical theology" which was muddled together from various passages from the Bible and translates loosely as such:
Israel will occupy the rest of its "biblical lands", the Antichrist and his legions will attack it and trigger the great and final battle in the valley of Armageddon.
Unconverted Jews will be destroyed, Jesus will return for his believers (the rapture) who will be taken straight to heaven to sit on the right hand of God, while those left on earth will suffer "plagues of boils, sores, locusts, and frogs" for several years that follow (the Tribulation).
This is why our leaders have a bond with Israel and the Jewish settlements. That is why invading Iraq was OK and inevitable, as the book of Revelations predicted it. (Revelations 9:14-15: four angels which are bound in the great river of Euphrates will be released to slay the third part of men.) A war with Islam is fine with these people.
There is actually a "rapture index", which tells of what must occur here before the second coming: the prophetic speedometer of end-time activity.
This index now stands at 153.
Our environment is also not a problem, according to these religious fundamentalists, as why worry when the Lord will come again and the earth will be destroyed anyway?
Quoting from Bill Moyers here:
We're not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. Nearly half of the members of Congress are backed by the religious right. Forty-five senators and 186 members of the 108th Congress earned 80 to 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian-right advocacy groups. They include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Conference Chair Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Policy Chair Jon Kyl of Arizona, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Whip Roy Blunt. The only Democrat to score 100 percent with the Christian Coalition was Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, who before his recent retirement quoted from the biblical Book of Amos on the Senate floor: "The days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land." He seemed to relish the thought.
According to a Time/CNN poll from 2002, 59% of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the Book of Revelations are true.
Now the administration is re-writing the Clean Air Act, The Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and The Environmental Policy Act.
If the Bible is true, and God is going to create a new heaven and new earth anyway, why worry about ruining the old earth?
Iraq? Wars in the Middle East? Bring 'em on..... that only brings the Rapture a little closer.
I suggest you read Bill Moyers comments , There is No Tomorrow, at TRUTHOUT. I have only touched on what he has to say.
I was brought up to believe the whole Rapture and Armageddon story, but I have since dismissed it all as mythology. Population control and all that.
This is the mindset we who love the earth are up against, people.
We must not let them continue to advocate the ruin of our planet.
We must not let them hasten us to war with Islam.
As one who finds the environment extremely important, as we are all part of it, this disturbs me greatly. As a person who believes in peaceful negotiation to avoid war, this lust for war makes me sick.
This is a very good example of why we need to be active in our government, in our communities, and in education.
End of Warning.
Here's a fundamentalist website that explains some of the Biblical Prophesies.
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Comments: 20
debunked, unfortunately, by the right wingers.
Republicans, the environment, and the Second Coming: The origins of a liberal myth.
by John Hinderaker
02/14/2005
http://www.weeklystandard.com
anyway, santorum, frist, et al - just cheerleaders for the elites, not real players. more like attack dogs that growl real loud and look for handouts.
do they really believe in the bible, or just think that we believe in the bible, and therefore will vote for them.
"A 2002 Time/CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the Book of Revelations are going to come true."
there's the jist of it all, right there. they are playing on christian fear to advance agendas.
this kind of reminds me of the occasional chain emails i get from my mom - warning of some kind of internet doom or another... always check out the story, cathy!
I believe I did just that.
I do appreciate your comments. I believe some are playing on the christian fear and many actually believe that stuff. It is convenient for them to make policy which promotes an agenda they believe is divinely destined.
I was taught the whole Armageddon scenario as a child....... I still have a Jack Van Impe album, (recorded from a revival service I attended at my church) entitled, "The coming war with Russia" about the end times. It is all the same. But now there are folks in key government positions using this as their policy basis. It is WRONG!
Thanks for reading!
this all happened over a year ago, and i believe mr moyers is likely pretty embarrassed about it all.
conservative republican politicans can be snakes-in-the-grass and prey upon those with the fear of god in order to advance their agendas and fatten their wallets... but this story is a no-go.
:p
Actually, the debunking article link you provided is eye opening and yet does not actually make a case for Zealots in power protecting the environment, save Watt.
If you have seen the new re-working of our environmental protection bills, we are on dangerous ground and in serioius trouble.
I am not saying here that the Fundies wish to destroy the environment, only that they don't really see it as a priority. This was clear in the 80's as I was fighting for the Superfund and the Right To Know laws and all the advances made since are systematically being wiped out by this administration. This is not dillusion, it is fact. Remember, I was brought up this way and I know it is taught as part of the fanatic doctrine. The earth is not important, and wars in the Middle East are inevitable and soon will hasten the second coming of Christ and the Rapture and then the earth will be destroyed and a new one created. This is not the background we need for folks forming environmental and foreign policy.
And you are so right about the snakes in the grass analogy!
Thanks for you comments!
I am also surprized that not more people are screaming about the Bush Administration's determination to assume the right to defy law in the name of "national security."
National security is at stake in the hands of such a president. We should fear a president who, when he is exposed, immediately goes on the offensive and creates a task force to uncover the leak ... while simultaneously doing everything possible to throw road blocks into investigations of the Valerie Plame leak his administration started.
they took great joy in moyer's gaff, i'm sure, but his mistake is easy enough to understand given their track record.
an old friend really cracked me up years ago. when we got together one day, he looked at me and said, "man! i had the freakiest dream last night! i dreamed that i woke up one morning and all the christians were gone!"
i can't decide if that would be considerd a nightmare or a good omen.... ;p
Good point.
On another note, the truly frightening thing here would be the loss of voice, as Beryl said. And that's a warning for everyone.
Martin- thanks for putting in the alternative view link. While it is unfortunate from the standpoint of losing the debate point against the religious right, one must take some comfort that at least in this case the article has proven wrong and hopefully the problem is not as bad as was presented.
I found myself more comfortable with rural crackers than urban ones, and more confortable with Christian Fundamentalists than Progressive Fundamentalists.
However my "comfort" is only tactical.
I hope for better days, and hope the party I grew up in can recover its soul.
You all know by now that Pat Robertson has declared the Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, had his heart attack because God punished him for "Dividing up God's land".
I kid you not, I saw this myself.
At: http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/spaceman/
eschatology,End Times,second coming,rapture,secret rapture,Second Resurrection,Great White Throne Judgment of the Dead,
End of days,Day of the Lord,Endtime,Judgment Day
One of them went to great lengths to prove that there will be one. He had a DVD package for sale and used Old Testament Holy Days and celebrations. I wrote to a Messianic Jew to get his study on the subject.
Here is a video I produced in which the Marshal asks viewers to get their minister to explain BOTH sides of the question:
http://blip.tv/file/1877394/
It's also at:
http://www.imeem.com/sandandpalms/video/GclIpnQ-/sand-and-palms-productions-iran-wants-to-give-you-a-radioact/