Saturday, October 23, 2004

Why do American Christians love death?

For some selected answers to that question, read this piece by Dr. Teresa Whitehurst. She gives a number of reasons, including this one:

feel they dare not oppose this or any war because talking about peace, objecting to war's human cost, or even referring to the United Nations has become associated in their minds with the Antichrist and eternal damnation, thanks to fictional works based on Thessalonians such as the Left Behind books and video (this video makes clear the fearful reasoning behind the knee-jerk reactions of many pro-war Christians against peace itself, peacemakers of any kind [poignant indeed in light of Jesus' teaching, "Blessed are the peacemakers"], the Middle East "road map," international dialogue and cooperation, and any form of human rights accountability),
These words get near the correct answer.

The American fundamentalist has entered into a world of perfect paranoia; any data which does not fit into the fundamentalist-approved scenario is a viewed as a lie told by a "liberal" media commandeered by Satan himself. Outsiders cannot even begin to conceive of the influence wielded by Tim LaHaye and his fear-mongering comrades.

I saw much the same thing happen in the 1970s. Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth swept the country by storm -- but it was an underground storm (if you'll forgive such a skewed metaphor). The thing had nationwide impact precisely because intelligent people thought it unworthy of response.

If Bush wins, he'll have LaHaye to thank.

1 comment:

Joy Tomme said...

"American Christians" is too broad a category. It's fundamentalist Christians who are elitist. Being elitist means that only people subscribing to that brand of Christianity will be saved. Even Catholicism admits that being a member of another religion does not automatically cast one into hell.

Christ certainly was not exclusionary...his message included everyone. Fundamentalism excludes everyone but the relatively small sect that says you will go to hell unless you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Fundamentalism is a paranoid, isolationist, exclusionary, fear-mongering form of religion. Is it diamentrically opposed to the Christian message. It's more an ideology based on hate than a religion...it has nothing to do with a merciful God. Its message is that "God despises and will annihilate everyone but us".

Please see my RatfuckDiary (http://ratfuckdiary.blogspot.com) "God Said What?" post.