Interesting article on the God message from Bush, the GOP, Leo
Strauss, and the neo-cons.
...
While many of us reserve a soft spot for true Christian generosity and
the warm teachings of Jesus, it's important to remember that
Christianity can be (and has been) distorted for darker purposes.
Whether you're talking about Nazi Germany, the pre-Civil War American
South, or the atmosphere in the U.S. these past few years, whenever
questions of conscience are vigorously denounced, you can bet there is
trouble ahead -- and the hijacking of faith and the manipulation of
religion should always arouse suspicion. Moral values as a mandate?
What better way to foster civil obedience and "One nation Under God"
unity in a time of preventative war, suppressed liberty and sanctioned
torture.
So, yes, despite tales of Hitler's atheism and Germany's Godlessness,
the list of Hitler's religious assertions and Nazi Christian
affiliations is long, and before Americans swallow more WMD-type
baloney, it's best to comprehend this history and understand that no
nation, including our own, is immune to faith-based fascism.
Substituting "America" for "Germany," many of Hitler's religious
assertions could have been uttered by Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson
-- with Hitler even asserting that God punished Germany for turning
away from Him -- before promising that renewed piety would protect the
Fatherland and make it prosperous and successful once more. "Once the
mercy of God shown upon us, but we were not worthy of His mercy.
Providence withdrew its protection and our people fell, fell as
scarcely any other people heretofore. In this deep misery we again
learned to pray," Hitler said in 1936, sixty-five years before Falwell
and Robertson blamed abortionists and feminists for the tragedies of
Sept. 11.
...
George Bush is not Hitler. America is not Nazi Germany. But buying
into religious assertions or thinking that God is on your side is not
wise when it comes to matters of war -- particularly when that war is
an aggressive preventative war based on false premises and
assumptions.
So, aside from Jerry Falwell, who speaks with hate-filled authority,
most of us do not know how God will judge us. We will have to settle
for History's imperfect record.
All of this begs the question, however. Given his assertions regarding
God's role in helping him decide policy ("I pray that I be as good a
messenger of His will as possible" Bush told Woodward. . . "I felt so
strongly that [invading Iraq] was the right thing to do") how does
Bush view the more mundane, secular implications of his actions? When
asked by Woodward how History would judge the war in Iraq, Bush
replied: "History. We don't know. We'll all be dead."
...
http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/12/far04041.html
Mentioned in this long essay is Michael Scheuer, who happens to be the
fifth leading anti-terrorist expert that I know of to resign from this
administration protesting ineffective and bad policies. He is
mentioned because he reveals Bin Laden has been told "God is with you"
if he kills tens of thousands of Americans.
Gary Denton
http://www.apollocon.org/
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