Chip Berlet and Nikhil Aziz have crafted a tour de force analysis of the apocalyptic theology influencing US foreign policy, particularly the rightwing Bush Administration, entitled, "Culture, Religion, Apocalypse, and Middle East Foreign Policy."
Apocalyptic thinking--especially in the Christian Right--joins other factors influencing U.S. Middle East policy....Why focus on this one factor? Because the Christian Right is a powerful force shaping politics and culture in the United States, and they are the largest voting bloc in the Republican Party, so they can expect politicians to pay attention to their interests.
Berlet's and Aziz's article is especially timely given the recent media coverage of John Hagee, a Texas mega-church pastor who wallows in some of the worst kind of apocalyptic rhetoric, including anti-Semitic stereotyping nonetheless failing to keep from Hagee's conference podium US Senator Joseph Lieberman, who in the past, oddly, compared extremist Hagee to Moses. As Max Blumethal summarized:
Hagee's vitriolic condemnation of Catholicism, his jeremiad declaring Hurricane Katrina divine punishment for New Orleans' hosting of a "homosexual rally," and his generally disturbing apocalyptic theology became national news last February when John McCain accepted his endorsement in a widely publicized ceremony.
Read here, courtesy of Bruce Wilson's research, additional outrageous rhetoric Hagee flings at his flock.
Berlet's and Aziz's article (with a real teaser of a first sentence) points out that dualistic Christian apocalypticism has long been a feature of America's collective political and cultural landscape. It
influenced public policy include colonial witch-hunts in New England; attacks on Catholics in the 1800s; claims beginning in the early 1900s that Jews controlled the media, banks, and colleges; the Palmer Raids against immigrants in 1919 and 1920; the anticommunist witch-hunts of the 1950s; and the 1990s conspiracy theories about a secret homosexual agenda.
Please enjoy "Culture, Religion, Apocalypse, and Middle East Foreign Policy."
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