Fundies Inside The Gates

[GrpCaptMandrake]

There's an ugly split on the Left these days. Some of us are called "Anti-Semite" because we hate war and refuse to support Israel's hell-on-earth bombing of innocents in Lebanon. Some of us are called "Zionist stooges" because we support Israel's right to exist. Some of us, like me, are called "delusional" because we think there is a better way; a way that leads to peace and security for all involved.

What is most obvious, however, is that the whole world aches for a leader. Here in the U.S., that ache takes the form of wishing we had a statesman in the White House instead of what appears to be a do-less imbecile who chews with his mouth open, has the vocabulary of a drunken sailor and gropes German Chancellors.

Some "experts" explain away this do-less-ness as a function of Bush's blind, "Zionist" support for Israel. Some see it as a Rovian machination to take the focus off the bloody meat-grinder that is Iraq. Some see it as a means of driving Iran and Syria into such a frenzy they'll provide causus belli for an expansion of Bush's mid-East mayhem.

In seeking the reasons for the profound lack of leadership displayed by the Bush Administration during this horror in Lebanon and Israel, most analysts are ignoring the 900 pound gorilla in the room: radical American Religion Industry Fundamentalism. I'm not and I won't.

Being a Recovering Southern Baptist (TM) myself, I can report to you from the belly of the Beast.

This administration is controlled by a Radical Fundamentalist Christianity more dangerous by far than any Iranian mullah. That fundamentalism is manifested in the words of Falwell, of Dobson, of Robertson, of D. James Kennedy and a host of other Generals in the so-called culture wars. This is no conspiracy theory. Control of the government of the United States has been the stated goal of the Fundamentalist Radicals for quite some time now. And now they've got the bit in their teeth and they're going at a full gallop.

Remember when Dobson tried to quell conservative fears about Harriet Miers' competence by saying he had the inside skinny on how she'd rule? Remember when General Jerry Boykin blithely announced that the U.S. is in a holy war against Islam? Remember when George W. Bush gladly accepted the advice of the Southern Baptist Convention that Jesus wanted him to invade Iraq? These are all manifestations of the profound control that Radical Fundamentalist Christianity now has over the White House.

All of these power-mad men demand that George Bush now take a step back and allow unfettered carnage to be the order of the day in the Levant because they hold to a belief system that says Jesus will return when things get "hot" enough in the Middle East to fulfill their twisted reading of "prophecy."

George Bush, in turn, lets them know he's on their side when he says Jesus is his favorite philosopher; when he says there won't be any history, that "we'll all be dead."

Among other things, the Fundies cite the "Parable of the Fig Tree" (Matthew, Chapter 24, vv. 32-34) to put a date on the so-called "End Times."

"Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near- at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place."

In current apocalyptic Radical Fundamentalist Christianity, that parable stands in for the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel. "Summer" is the time when Jesus is supposed to get in his Holy Rolls and come zooming back to earth "on the clouds of heaven" (v. 30).

There's a heap of other stuff in Chapter 24 that shows what Jesus was talking about. Scholars differ. Some say he was describing the impending doom of Jerusalem that followed only a few decades later when Titus, sick of the bickering and warfare, simply leveled Jerusalem. Others think these words may have been put in Jesus' mouth after the fact by an author who wanted to show that Jesus was the Real Deal.

But that's all far too easy for the Fundies. They have to turn these words into a prophecy that suits their taste for blood and mayhem. They have to apply it to the Now. That started in the mid-19th century with an English Theologian named Darby.

The latest manifestation of this apocalyptic business started in the 1950s, after the formation of Israel, however, as "Hooo, boy! He'll be here any minute!" When that didn't happen, the apocalypticists changed it to "He'll be here in a generation." (See above) The generation passed. Still no Jesus.

Meanwhile, Hal Lindsey was making a fortune predicting the imminent demise of the world with books like "The Late Great Planet Earth" and "The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon."

And you must surely respond "Yeah, yeah, Kincaid. So what?"

"So what," indeed! So let me, raised in that fetid Fundie Southern Baptist stew, clue you mainstream Episcopals and Catholics and Lutherans and Presbyterians and Jews and Muslims and Atheists and Agnostics who go about your business and never cast a glance toward the weird fringes of Christianity into the 4-1-1 of what the Fundies have in store for you if they aren't stopped.

Let me tell you, in no uncertain terms, that the Fundies dream of, nay, yearn for, a day when the suffering of humanity will make the depredations and horrors of the Second World War look like a day at the amusement park; for they ache to see a day when all of humanity will be tormented in a "Great Tribulation," at the end of which Christ will return (again; note: that makes twice he will have returned. Go figure) and "every knee shall bow" to Him, as I was taught in the Southern Baptist Church.

Now here's the fun part. In Apocalyptic Fundamentalism, it goes without saying that not every knee shall bow. And by "bow to Him," the Fundies mean "believe like we believe." Guess what happens to those who don't!

The Fundies get to put them to the sword! That's right! (Game Show Announcer Voice) "A BRAND.NEW.HOLOCAUST!" 'Cause Jesus v.2.1 (Beta) tells them to! Somewhere. In the Bible. Someplace. In a prophecy. It's really rather enigmatic. Only the Fundies have the magic power to discern the meaning. But He said it! They know because they believe it. I'm not kidding.

Doubt me? Have a thumb-through of Tim LaHaye's literally God-awful "Left Behind" series. While it's put out there as "fiction," millions and millions of American Fundies have read it as gospel. And in it, getting to kill the unbelievers is some of the biggest fun. After all, "gospel" means "good news." And to them, getting to do a whole boatload of wanton murder is "good news."

After all, they've even released a video game for children called "Left Behind." In it, you're a soldier for Jesus who goes around a post-apocalypse New York City killing homosexuals, Jews, Muslims and various other sorts of "unbelievers."

This, then, is why George Bush is standing back and allowing the slaughter to mount up both in Israel and Lebanon. This is why the United States, instead of counseling peace, ramped up production of fresh bombs for Israel. This is why the Fundies over at www.raptureready.com are vibrating like struck tuning forks.

But don't believe me. Go and Google "Christian Reconstructionists" and "Christian Dominionists." Read LaHaye. Read Lindsey. Spend as long as you can watching the Trinity Broadcasting Network without throwing up. Read the beliefs of these Fundie sects in their own words. They'll tell you: after Jesus comes back, they get to start killing Jews. It's cold comfort that they also get to start killing everyone else who doesn't believe like they do. It's the Jews, though, that they're really excited about killing.

A long, long time ago, a pretty young girl tried to tell an aging king about the dangers of accepting things at face value.

These Fundies aren't on auto-pilot. They're actively pursuing a course of action that they fervently believe will literally end the world. They dread any peacemaker as "the Antichrist," their Boogeyman of the Apocalypse. They are sharpening their swords: for you, for me and for all those we hold dear.

I know this is difficult to comprehend. But it's real. It's real enough it should turn your bowels to water just thinking about it.

But it probably won't. I understand.

That pretty little girl I mentioned a couple of paragraphs back? Her name was Cassandra. Priam was the king. Troy was their home. And their whole world came to an end because no one heard when she warned of the perils of hollow horsecraft.

The Trojan Horse that is Fundamentalist Christianity isn't sitting out on the beach. It's already inside the Capitol gates. And most of us on the Left are sitting around wondering why it makes that hollow sound when we thump it.