Moyers, Ideology, Theology & The Rapture Index
The following is excerpted from Bill Moyer's acceptance speech for the Global Environmental Citizen Award given by Harvard Medical School earlier this year:
"One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven. Ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts."
"In this past election several million good and decent Americans went to the polls believing in the Rapture Index. That's right - the Rapture Index. The best-selling books in America today are the 12 volumes by the Christian fundamentalist and religious right warrior, Tim LaHaye. These true believers subscribe to a fantastic theology concocted in the 19th century from disparate passages in the Bible that has captured the imagination of millions of Americans."
"Its outline is simple, if bizarre. Once Israel has occupied the rest of its 'biblical lands', legions of the Antichrist will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. True believers will be transported to heaven where, seated next to God, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts and frogs during the years of tribulation that follow."
"I'm not making this up. I've read the literature. I've reported on these people, from Texas to the West Bank. They are sincere, serious and polite as they tell you they 'feel called' to help bring the 'Rapture' on as fulfilment of biblical prophecy. That's why they declare solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and back their support with money and volunteers. It's why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelation."
"What does this mean for public policy and the environment? We're not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers. Nearly half the Congress - 231 legislators in total - are backed by the religious right. A 2002 Time/CNN poll found that 59 per cent of Americans believe the prophecies in the Book of Revelation are going to come true. Nearly one quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks."
"Drive across the country with your radio tuned to any one of the 1600 Christian radio stations, or in the motel turn to some of the 250 Christian TV stations, and you will understand why people under the spell of such prophecies 'cannot be expected to worry about the environment'. Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the 'Rapture'? No wonder [Bush political adviser] Karl Rove goes around the White House whistling Onward Christian Soldiers."
"I can see by your faces just how hard it is to report a story like this with any credibility. But read the news. I read that this Administration wants to rewrite the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act; wants to relax pollution limits for ozone and ease pollution standards for cars; wants to open the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to drilling."
"I read just last night the Administration's friends, supported by ExxonMobil and others, have issued a new report that climate change is 'a myth, that scientists who believe catastrophe is possible are an embarrassment'. And I read the fine print of recent appropriation bills passed by Congress with their obscure and obscene riders removing all endangered species' protections from pesticides."
"I see the future looking at me from my grandchildren's photos. We are stealing their future. Why? Is it because we don't care? Because we are greedy? Because we have lost our capacity for outrage? All you gathered here tonight are the antidote to despair, the answer to the faces of my grandchildren. For your work and your witness I give you thanks."
(originally Moyer's speech claimed that James Watt, a former American secretary of the interior, told the US Congress: "After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back." Moyers hadn't checked his source material for it turns out James Watt never made that comment. Moyers apologized.)
You go, Bill! Thank you. I have been wondering for sometime when journalists (and not just political satirists like Maher and Stewart), would start discussing the implications of “End Times” thinking in the running of this country.
One funny thing about religion is how ignorant it can be of it’s own history. In America, the Christain faith has been tied strongly to the dynamics of the Apocalyps since the 18th century. Listen to the Gospel music sung in Black Church ("Jesus Gonna Hit Like an Atom Bomb” easily comes to mind), go to a Christian Book store and look at how many titles there are dedicated to the subject of End Times.
I have become so frustrated at people thinking this is a silly conspiracy theory, instead of a realistic aspect of America’s spiritual bedrock, that I have begun writing a story to show how Gays in American can become what Jews were to the Germans - something that should be removed - but in this case to cleanse American and clear the way for Christ’s second coming.
For it has been historically very common for a community, when struck with hard times (such as War, economic depression, plague, etc.) to turn on those who are marginalized within the community. Interestingly, Berlin, before the rise of the Nazis, had the most vibrant homosexual community known to modern society. The Nazis used their own cultural myths to cleanse the German people, supplying very simplistic stories (like those in Revelations) to help the medicine go down with the public.
When things go bad, people don’t want complex “Kerry” explanations for what is happening and how to deal with it. They want something simple, black and white, Good and Evil, Us versus Them approach. If the War on Terror spread, goes poorly; if the quality of our lives changes radically because of budget deficits, rising gas prices, or falling value of the dollar; if a plague like Bird Flu begins to spread, many people are going to start asking the simplistic question of “Why is God doing this to us? Maybe it’s time we get right with the Lord and take care of what is wrong with us?” Which plays right into the hands of an administration which seeks to devalue the role of science in public discourse.
Imagine Gays, all those parades of leather men and drag queens, their desire to destroy Marriage, their images of sexual expression, become deemed a Terrorist threat because they represent Americas decedance to the Islamic world. They must be stopped so we do not make ourselves a greater target, so we don’t give fuel to the Great Satan fire. And we must make ourselves right with the Lord, so He will stand by us, in the End Times.
Here is what I offer as proof of the adminstations disregard for the well-being of Gay people:
‘A gay Lebanese man with AIDS has enough reason to fear persecution in his native country that he shouldn’t be deported while he is seeking asylum in the United States, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Nassier Mustapha Karouni’s fear of being arrested, tortured or killed in a country where homosexuality is considered a crime was based in fact, not just emotion.
The court rejected the Justice Department’s argument that Karouni could avoid the fate of gay friends who were killed if he refrained from sexual relations upon his return home.”
Los Angeles Times - March 8th, 2005
The Bush administration agued the Lebanese man should become an “ex-gay” in effect (maybe they will let him in the country while he fixed himself with the Exodus Ministries).
As economic hard times hit, will poor people with HIV/AIDS be forced to “wither on the vine”, due to budget cutbacks?
Since I am a creative person, I think the best way to get people to understand what I’m talking about is to finish this story, something like “The Handmaiden’s Tale” for Gays. Please put some good engery and prayers (yes, I am not anti-Christian at all) out there for me.
What Bill is really saying is what is the world going to be like after people try to use these prophecies, these End Times myths, to justify their actions - a massive war, economic and environmental devistation, lack of quality health care, information disemination under governmental control. Civilizations really do such stupid things.
Is it really so unreasonable that we might anex Canada in the future, to help stablize the Americas as part of the War on Terror?
I hadn't heard about the gay Lebanese man and the Bush administration's take on his asylum request. Outrageous! As for the End Times world view, I myself have been told that the growing acceptance of gays in the industrialized world is 'one of the signs' being fulfilled. Scary ridiculous claptrap.
Our time truly will be included in the Dark Ages when future historians look back on us. Hopefully the dawning information age will mitigate the more irrational side of our nature.