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SAVE US FROM
AMERICANITY!
Throughout the
history of Christianity the Church has normally acted as the
protector of the oppressed and the mother of liberty. And whenever
the Church abandons that role over against civil government,
whenever she shifts her unconditional loyalty from King Jesus to the
state, catastrophe ensues.
The prime example is
the alliance between Thron und Altar (throne & altar) to
which the German Protestants acceded in the 1840s. By the time of
Kaiser Wilhelm II, it was hard to find the line that divided church
from state. When the Kaiser abdicated in 1918, the church was left
without a reason for being. In the ensuing existential crisis many
clerics transferred their spiritual vision to socialism as they
searched for some new meaning for the church. Then along came
Hitler with his “German Christianity” and his program to subvert the
Church. Many brave Germans stood by the Gospel; others went along,
and compromised the Church.
Now think about how
so-called “conservative” or “evangelical” Christians have
transferred their loyalty to the Republican Party, identifying it as
God’s Chosen Instrument for saving the country. Some preachers, I’m
told, have even referred to King George II as “God’s anointed.” Of
course Bush holds office by God’s providence, but so did
Bill Clinton, and Bill Clinton and his Harridan were certainly no
blessing.
What is most
astounding about all this? Frankly, it’s hard to choose, but I
think the most astounding is that these Christian leaders and people
let the Republicans kick them around like a mangy yellow cur, and
have not the self-respect to slink off into the corner to lick their
wounds. Republicans have not kept a single promise to Christians.
Sodomites still reign a protected species, while babies are
relentlessly slaughtered in the womb. The Republican Party has spit
on, and will spit on, the whole Christian social agenda, and
gutless, mindless Christians just lick the spittle and call it
honey. Now their “anointed” has introduced worshipping the God of A
Thousand Faces in the aftermath of 9-11. Israelites worshipping
Ba’al couldn’t have afforded a more contemptible and disgusting
sight. Brothers & Sisters, I stand witness to you here that bold,
faithful Christian leaders allow no such blasphemy, let alone lead
it. Talk is cheap. Only walk counts.
“Americanity” is the
seamless blending of Americanism and Christianity -- seamless, that
is, institutionally. It can only be accomplished by ripping apart
Christian theology and installing man and the state on the throne of
God. Its most common manifestation is displaying the US flag in the
sanctuary of God, where it has no business at all. However, here
below is a yet more dangerous excrescence of Americanity,
identifying George Bush 2 (King George II for short) as “God’s man”
and “God’s anointed.” This borders on the hysterical. Frankly, it
leaves me nearly hysterical in the corrupt ignorance and idolatry it
reveals. Please pray with me:
O, God who by your
Holy Spirit made your witness Stephen so strong that he would preach
the gospel even if it infuriated every official in church or state,
even if it meant his own death, look with pity on your corrupted and
benighted Church, purge from it every false witness who teaches your
people to trust in any man except the Lord Jesus Christ, and raise
up faithful witnesses to purify your church and lead her people out
of the black darkness of their idolatry, in Jesus’ blessed name,
Amen.
Religious Right Finds
Its Center in Oval Office
Bush Emerges as
Movement’s Leader After Robertson Leaves Christian Coalition
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff
Writer
Monday, December 24,
2001; Page A02
Pat Robertson’s
resignation this month as president of the Christian Coalition
confirmed the ascendance of a new leader of the religious right in
America: George W. Bush.
For the first time since
religious conservatives became a modern political movement, the
president of the United States has become the movement’s de facto
leader -- a status even Ronald Reagan, though admired by religious
conservatives, never earned. Christian publications, radio and
television shower Bush with praise, while preachers from the pulpit
treat his leadership as an act of providence. A procession of
religious leaders who have met with him testify to his faith, while
Web sites encourage people to fast and pray for the president.
There are several
reasons for the adulation. Religious conservatives have regarded
Bush as one of their own since the presidential campaign, when he
spoke during a debate of the guidance of Jesus. At the same time,
key figures in the religious right -- Robertson, Jerry Falwell,
James Dobson, Billy Graham and Franklin Graham -- have receded in
political prominence or influence, in part because they are no
longer mobilised by their opposition to a president. Bush’s handling
of the anti-terrorism campaign since Sept. 11 has solidified his
standing by painting him in stark terms as the leader in a fight of
good against evil.
“I think Robertson
stepped down because the position has already been filled,” said
Gary Bauer, a religious conservative who challenged Bush in the
Republican primary. Bush “is that leader right now. There was
already a great deal of identification with the president before
9-11 in the world of the Christian right, and the nature of this war
is such that it’s heightened the sense that a man of God is in the
White House.”
Ralph Reed, who once led
the Christian Coalition and now is chairman of the Georgia GOP,
notes that the religious conservative movement “no longer plays the
institutional role it once did,” in part because it succeeded in
electing Bush and other friendly leaders. “You’re no longer throwing
rocks at the building; you’re in the building.”
Conservative Christians
tend to view Bush’s recent success as part of a divine plan. “I’ve
heard a lot of ‘God knew something we didn’t,’ “ Reed said. “In the
evangelical mind, the notion of an omniscient God is central to
their theology. He had a knowledge nobody else had: He knew George
Bush had the ability to lead in this compelling way.”
Bush himself dismisses
the notion that he is part of some divine plan. “He does not believe
he was chosen for this moment,” a senior aide said. “He just views
himself as governing on his beliefs and his promises. He doesn’t
look at himself as a leader of any particular movement.”
Still, some of those
around Bush say they have a sense that a higher purpose is involved.
“I think President Bush is God’s man at this hour, and I say this
with a great sense of humility,” Bush aide Tim Goeglein, described
as a “strong evangelical,” told World magazine, a Christian
publication. …
“He is the leader of the
Christian right,” said Marshall Wittmann, a former Christian
Coalition figure now with the Hudson Institute, a think tank. “As
their institutions peel away, he can go over the heads” of religious
conservative leaders.
Bush, aided by
speechwriter Michael Gerson, himself a religious conservative,
speaks the language of religion better than any president since
Jimmy Carter, religious leaders say, and Bush’s policies appeal more
to conservatives. To many outside the religious conservative
movement, Bush’s faith-infused words may sound sanctimonious; to
those within it, the words sound familiar and comforting. Across the
country, churchgoers share Bush’s “testimony,” his discovery of God
15 years ago with the help of Billy Graham. “Reverend Graham planted
a mustard seed in my soul, a seed that grew over the next year,”
Bush’s memoir recounts. “He led me to the path, and I began walking.
It was the beginning of a change in my life.”
As Bush had embraced
religious conservatism, religious conservatives have openly embraced
him. The Internet has several sites offering prayers for the
president’s success. One example: “Call on the name of the Lord to
hedge him in from terrorists and violent people. Psalm 91:11-12; 1
Corinthians 1:10-11.”
World magazine, which is
edited by one-time Bush adviser Marvin Olasky, named Bush’s attorney
general, John D. Ashcroft, its “Daniel of the Year.” [More
appropriate would have been “King John of the Year.”—FS]
Ashcroft himself considered running for president in 2000 as the
candidate of the religious right. “Just as the biblical Daniel faced
an established idol-worshiping religion in Babylon, so our Dans must
not back down in the face of deadly persecution abroad or the scorn
and harassment that comes domestically from the academic and media
high priests of our established religion, secular liberalism,”
Olasky wrote.
The top Daniel, of
course, is Bush himself, a view liberally offered by the many
religious figures who pass through the White House. In an account of
one such meeting, Jean Bethke Elshtain, a professor at the
University of Chicago Divinity School, wrote of a “powerful and
moving moment” with Bush and an ecumenical group of religious
leaders. “One of our group asked, ‘Mr. President, what can we do for
you?’ He indicated that we could ‘pray for me, for our country, for
my family.’ He believes in the efficacy of prayer and needs wisdom
and guidance and grace, he said. A Greek Orthodox archbishop was
invited to lead us in prayer. We all joined hands in a prayer
circle, including the president.”
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