The world must go through hell before we get to heaven

I’ve quoted a few times from the magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact. When I do I say I’m 6½ years behind in my reading. I was so far behind I stopped buying it in early 2015. I have two issues of that era yet to read. I’ve already started buying it again and getting used to a new publishing schedule. I say I’m behind in reading to explain why I just finished the December 2014 issue. The guest editorial in that issue is by Howard V. Hendrix, an author who I don’t recognize and the magazine doesn’t introduce. I checked online and see Hendrix has 14 books readily available. I haven’t read any of them. The title for his editorial is A Choice of Apocalypses. He noted some apocalyptic literature – such as the books of Daniel and Revelation in the Bible and Milton’s Paradise Lost – and also talked about what these have in common. He wrote these stories of End Times have these suppositions:

1) Although the powers of the world arrayed against us (and even civilization worldwide) may be swept away, we’ll still be alive for further adventures, and 2) No matter what things are like after the End (whether nasty, brutish, and short on a blasted Earth, or blissful, beautiful, and benign in a millennial paradise), the situation for we few, we happy few, will at least be much simpler and more direct – possessed of a far fewer frustrating niceties than life in an advanced and complex human society. This odd entangling of ideas – that the world has to go through hell before we get to heaven – is embedded in the word ‘apocalypse’ itself.

Hendrix then explained that the roots of that word mean both ‘to reveal’ and ‘to cover.’ What caught my attention in that section was the world must go through hell before we get to heaven. That’s close to saying we gain heaven after the world goes through hell – after we make the world go through hell. The sooner we make the world go through hell the sooner we will get to heaven. Another aspect of that is they won’t be around. They didn’t make it through hell. Which is why we want the world to go through hell. The Christian fundamentalist idea of the Rapture is exactly that, the favored people are taken up to heaven as the world goes to hell. Sarah Kendzior has reminded us that several top people in the nasty guy administration, notably Mike Pompeo, believe in the Rapture and created national and foreign policy around fulfilling the signs that indicate the Rapture will soon happen. Many of those signs focus on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where a couple months ago Israeli police entered a Muslim Mosque to cause trouble. This apocalyptic description also fits the American and world hyper rich. Even though Leah McElrath recently said no place is safe the rich believe they will be spared in their OligArks and after the rest of us are washed out into the rising sea they can rule the world free of the rabble (or at least have a lot less rabble making the job of ruling them easier). That means the rich are doing nothing about climate change because they are following the apocalyptic literature – the world will go through hell and we will get to heaven. That’s what we’re up against. Later in the editorial Hendrix wrote about modern versions of apocalyptic scenarios. One of them is the Singularity described by Ray Kurzweil. I’ll let you explore that one on your own, though it may be much more community minded than what the older scenarios portray. Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported that 58 Texas House Democrats have left the state to prevent a quorum for passing voter suppression laws. Yeah, they denied a quorum at the end of the regular session, which is why the governor called this special session. The law is that if the governor has called a special session (which this is) and a lawmaker is in the state they can be arrested and taken to the Capitol. So they boarded chartered buses and planes. The session is expected to last at least into August, so they’ll be gone a while. Where most of them are going is also important. They are heading to Washington DC to lobby the Democrats in Congress, saying they have not done enough to protect the right to vote. They may even sit on the Capitol steps, forcing the members of Congress to walk through them. Their departure came after the public comment on the proposed suppression laws. That commenting took 17 hours. Yes, that means some did not stick it out and were not heard. Sherrilyn Ifill tweeted:

17 hours. The only wait time longer than standing in line to vote in Black precincts is the wait time to testify against voter suppression bills that will make waiting in line to vote even longer.

The church was a sanctuary; he made it a battleground

More protests in many cities last night in response to the death of George Floyd from a policeman’s knee. The one that is getting the attention happened in Washington DC.

In late afternoon protesters were in Lafayette Square, which is across from the north side of the White House. About 6:15 federal police and national guardsmen began to clear the area. It wasn’t a cordial action, saying curfew is about to begin, please leave. No, it featured flash bangs, tear gas, and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters. People were pushed to get our of the area.

Shortly after that the nasty guy held a press conference in the Rose Garden. Lafayette Square is north of the WH and I think the Rose Garden is on the south side. So the cameras on the nasty guy didn’t see what was going on in the square (though cameras in the square certainly could). However, they might have heard the flash bangs and the shots – nicely dramatic sounds for the press.

And perhaps appropriate for a rambling speech in which the nasty guy declared he is mobilizing the military – “thousands and thousands” (not sure if that actually happened). He warned governors they need to “dominate” the protests. If they don’t he will.

Yes, “dominate” is a supremacist word.

The speech rambled and at times didn’t make sense. There were tidbits that did, such as an invocation of 2nd Amendment rights, that extreme right militias could take as his blessing for them to attack protesters. It was also enough that CNN host Don Lemon said, “We are teetering on the edge of a dictatorship.”

Once the nasty guy was done with his speech we learned why the square had been cleared. He walked across Lafayette Square and stood in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, which is just across from the north side of the square. The church says it is visited by presidents because it is so close to the White House. Now with the background he wanted he raised a Bible in his hand and posed for pictures.

Yup, his reason for standing in front of the church – his reason for violently clearing the square – was for a photo op.

The church did not invite him and considers he was trespassing. Accounts came out today saying that in addition to clearing the square the National Guard cleared the outdoor patio of the church and the building as well. They used the same violent tactics. The patio was being used as a respite for protesters under the care of the church’s priests. One priest wrote about being driven off.

For a photo op.

That drew sharp condemnation from Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Espiscopal Diocese of Washington. She had a discussion about it with host Steve Inskeep on NPR’s Morning Edition today. She said:

[This] I think expresses the dissonance and the tremendous disconnect between what churches are and what our sacred texts represent and the president's actions. He used violent means to be escorted across the park into the courtyard of the church. He held up his Bible after speaking a inflammatory, militarized approach to the wounds of our nation. He did not pray. He did not offer a word of balm or condolence to those who are grieving. He did not seek to unify the country, but rather, he used our symbols and our sacred space as a way to reinforce a message that is antithetical to everything that the person of Jesus, whom we follow, and the Gospel texts that we strive to emulate our lives...

But he seemed to use the Bible as an extension of his previous message in the Rose Garden. He - I mean, what preceded it is also contextually significant. He, with use of force, cleared the area so that he could walk across and hold that Bible up. It almost looked like a symbol of American military power. And I - that's a misuse of what the Bible represents. So that is deeply offensive to anyone who adheres to sacred Scripture.

Inskeep wonders whether the church was chosen as a backdrop because there had been a fire in the building a few days before, perhaps started because of the protests. It was quickly put out and there was little damage. Budde says if so chosen it was a misuse by the nasty guy. Loss of property should in no way be equated with loss of life.

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos summarized the events and concluded:

In a day and a situation when “unprecedented” seems far from adequate, Trump’s march to St. John’s stands out as a signal moment in American history—an image of total disregard for the rights of citizens, for the symbolism of the church, and for the genuine religious concerns of those who worked and worshiped there. The protesters were peaceful; Trump brought violence. The priests sought unity; Trump brought division. The church was a sanctuary; Trump made it a battleground.

On the basis of this single event alone, Trump should be removed from office. November is far too long to wait.

I’m sure a lot of you are scratching your heads. Why did the nasty guy go to so much trouble to stage a photo of him standing in front of a church sign holding a Bible? He isn’t religious. He gives no indication he knows anything about the Bible. Yeah, white Evangelicals already think he’s wonderful, so how does this help?

Jared Yates Sexton offers an explanation. He tweeted:

Trump's stunt with the Bible was a message to the Cult of the Shining City and the white supremacist Christianity that has taken over the American Right and how it endangers all of us in ways you can't even imagine.

I wrote about the Cult of the Shining City back in early April. With Sexton as a source I described it as a racist Christianity from the Confederacy now merged with capitalism and the GOP.

Back to Sexton’s current thread:

Since [the 1980s], Cult of the Shining City members have been taught that America, as God's chosen nation and champion, can only be harmed by Satan and people manipulated by Satan, including minorities and liberal traitors. They believe this, wholeheartedly.

When politicians talks about evil liberals, they're referencing the idea that liberals are in league with Satan in the New World Order conspiracy. They truly believe people like Obama and the Clintons are satanically evil and have to be stopped lest Satan will prevail.

The Deep State is just the New World Order with a new paint job. They're framing America as if it is the battleground for war between God and Satan, and believe they have to destroy Democrats and liberals to prepare for the End Times.

The Cult of the Shining City worships power and wealth as symbol's of both white supremacy and God's favor. Trump is their messiah and he talks to them through his surface-level religious utterances and phrases like "enemy of the people."

Trump standing in front of a burnt church among a riot with a bible was a message that he is their warrior and that they are entering a Holy War.

It's hinting at an End Times battle, and it'll doubtlessly escalate tensions and possibly lead to violence.

Please tell people.

This all sounds like madness unless you were raised in the community. It's their reality. They see this stunt with Trump and the Bible and these riots as the beginning of the end and the start of a Second Coming.

They'll support WHATEVER he wants.

Walter Einenkel of Kos says the nasty guy’s speech (at least) had the desired effect:

White vigilante groups around the country began the process of colluding with local law enforcement like an amateur brown shirt brigade. In Philadelphia, social media posts showed a group of white folks, armed with all kinds of blunt objects, all itching for a fight, all completely supported by the police around them.

Hunter of Kos describes the connection and timing of the effort to clear the square with the nasty guy’s speech. The link is clear when the nasty guy ends his speech by saying he would walk to the church. Hunter reports the Park Police are now lying about the connection.

Senate Republicans, who recently acquitted the nasty guy so he stays in office, seem to not have anything to say about the battle in the square.

Sumner reports that the nasty guy also drove people away from a Catholic shrine, though provides no details of the incident. Sumner does write:

It’s unclear what Trump means to do by driving people away from places of worship, claiming that space for himself and waving a Bible. It’s certainly not a Christian act, though it does appear to be Christianist: the appropriation of the trappings of Christianity for the purposes of holding power and justifying unjust actions by giving them a religious whitewash. William Barr has been a notable practitioner of Christianism, waving a Bible and religious justification over policies that are profoundly unjust, undemocratic, and absolutely antithetical to Christian beliefs and traditions.

Though Lafayette Square had been cleared protests continued elsewhere in Washington in spite of the curfew. It seems police started herding protesters to Swann Street. The police set up barricades to trap the protesters so they could be arrested. When police started with the pepper spray, Rahul Dubey, a resident in the area, invited 100 people to shelter in his house. He handed out business cards in case the protesters were accused of breaking in. The guests stayed overnight until the curfew was lifted the next morning. All made it home safely.

A wonderfully gutsy move in a pandemic.

I’m pretty sure the nasty guy didn’t read this part of the Bible he held up (I’m sure he read very little of the Bible): Matthew 25:35 – I was a stranger and you invited me in.

Confederate Christianity still preaches a racist God

Almost two weeks ago I wrote about the Cult of Trump as laid out by Jared Yates Sexton. He had tweeted a long thread about how the Cult of the Shining City had become the Cult of Trump. In that thread he started in the 1960s with the reaction to MLK and the civil rights movement.

In another thread, this one 67 tweets long, he reaches back further and fills in more detail. America, since its beginning, has been seen as a “Shining City,” one chosen by God to be special. Yeah, a myth, though a powerful one. The Confederacy made that explicit and official.

In Confederate churches, Confederate preachers gave sermons about a racist God who carried out white supremacy as a universal belief and operation. … When the Confederacy lost battles, it was because they had angered their racist God. … Here's the thing: when the Civil War ended, the racist Confederate God didn't just go away. The preachers continued preaching divine white supremacy.

Then in the 1960s Confederate-strain preachers…

They preached that their God had "drawn a line" of segregation and white supremacy. To fight that would be an affront to their racist, Confederate God.
…
Without saying it explicitly, white-identity evangelicals had a unifying message: Civil Rights & social progress were the projects of Satan in battling God. Troubling white supremacy meant troubling the racist God's plan. To do so would destroy the world and call God's anger.
…
What you need to understand is this: capitalism as it's enshrined in America is white supremacy made law. The people at the top from the beginning were white men. That has held throughout the centuries and capitalism stands as "proof" of white supremacy.

Through Reagan and the Evangelical Right, wealth and power denoted God's will. If you were rich, it was God's reward for being godly. If you were poor, obviously you were a sinner and had failed to find God's will. In this, the Confederate, racist God became a capitalist.
…
The Cult of the Shining City told us America, as a godly country, was being attacked by Satan and conspiracies. The conspirators and devilish army?

People of color. Poor people. Women. LGBTQ Americans. Everyone challenging the white patriarchal order.
…
Inside the US, the Cult of the Shining City believed anyone questioning America, anyone calling for reform of Reagan's disastrous policies, was secretly part of the conspiracy against America and in league with Satan. They weren't just opponents, they were satanic traitors.

A note: the GOP was well aware of all this. They didn't believe it necessarily, but they used it to their advantage. They played the Cult of the Shining City like an instrument, dropping dog whistles in speeches and their public performance.

Over time, they merged.

After a discussion of religion in Nazi Germany…

This brief journey to Nazi Germany tells us something: religious belief can be seized by anyone and turned into a means of control and power.

All you need to do is to grasp control and use it to your own ends, establishing a new cult of personality.
…
The "Deep State" conspiracy theory is the New World Order and the Elders of Zion conspiracy theories made new. [Trump’s] wielding of those paranoid ramblings is a weaponization of the cult's beliefs and fears.

It is a message: I am battling a conspiracy of evil as a messiah.
…
The truth is that the Cult of the Shining City is at a terminal point. Their stories are losing their power and are becoming muddled and strange, indecipherable and offputting. This is what happens with cults. They grow and grow and change until they become deadly.

The Cult of the Shining City has been raised to search for the apocalypse, told over and over it's coming, and in a way they're dying to die. They want the End Times now because their country has been poisoned with murderous politics and culture.

This is a death cult.

Watch the coverage now. Evangelicals holding services. Saying they're protected by the blood of Christ from coronavirus. They believe this is a plague sent against the unholy. They believe these are the End Times. They'll kill themselves and take us with them.

A merging of religion, white supremacy, and capitalism

After my post yesterday, which talked about the GOP demanding the economy be restarted in spite of the huge numbers of deaths to the elderly and the rest of us, my sister sent an email with questions.

- If The Nasty Guy delegated responsibility to The Vice to handle this crisis, why is he still talking about it himself? Why not let The Vice do that? Or am I the only one sick and tired of his daily stupidity?

You are far from the only one tired of his daily stupidity. There are efforts asking major news sources to not show those press conferences live because the nasty guy spews such misinformation and lies.

The reason why the nasty guy is doing it and not the vice nasty guy is because it shows the NG as in charge and smart enough to know all the answers. This isn’t about him giving info to the country. This is about him getting his ego stroked. Notice that when the VNG does speak it is always in terms of praise to the NG. He either believes it or knows how the game is played, likely the latter.

- If they don't care that The Virus is going after their constituents, the senior citizens who voted him into office, who will be left to vote him in again?

I’ve already talked about ways the fall election could be avoided. I’ve shown that the nasty guy doesn’t have the ability to change the date of the election. But I’ve also written that the GOP state legislatures could cancel the election and award their Electoral College votes to the nasty guy.

In the mind of an authoritarian it is a balance between oppressing others (including to the point of death) and trusting a rigged election system will keep them in power (and declaring it fake news when it doesn’t).

- Will believing like Thanos (bad guy in the Marvel Comics Avenger's Universe) does - that half of the population needs to die immediately to bring stability back to planets with overpopulation problems - really help him get reelected and solve pollution, environmental, and economic problems within The Nasty Guys "reign"?

He and his backers aren’t interested in solving pollution and environmental problems. They believe their billions will provide a way to live comfortably no matter what happens to the world. The environmental problems oppress the rest of us, perhaps aiding in killing us off. From their viewpoint that’s a good thing. As for economic problems – they have so completely rigged the system that when the economy goes belly-up most of them make money off the misery of others.

But yeah, they believe the world is overpopulated. A smaller population is easier for them to control. However, the humane way to stabilize or reduce the population is to allow women to have complete control of their bodies. But that would mean ending patriarchy and misogyny, and they’re not about to do that.

- And where are all the "I survived the 2020 Crisis" (or other sayings) T-shirts to sell and bring back the economy?

This sounds like an entrepreneurial opportunity. Create your own!

And ask more questions as they occur to you.



The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Michigan has topped 2300, up about 500 in the last day. Over 1100 of those cases are in Wayne County (where I live). Michigan Radio reports that Detroit area hospitals are close to capacity. They don’t know how big the situation will become because there still isn’t enough testing.



I had mentioned that the nasty guy suggested some alternate drugs would defeat the coronavirus, though no tests have yet been done to verify that, and some people have died. One of those drugs is critical for Lupus patients. And they are having a hard time getting prescriptions refilled.



On today’s Morning Edition on NPR Ayesha Rascoe explained what is going on with the Defense Production Act the nasty guy pretended to use and then didn’t. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has criticized the nasty guy for not sending enough ventilators, said:

Only the federal government has that power. And not to exercise that power is inexplicable to me.

Beyond that various government people say we’ve invoked it, no we don’t need to. The nasty guy said using it is like a government takeover of companies.

Peter Schulman, a history professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, said private industry acting on its own won't be able to get the goods to where they're needed most. The act has previously been used for emergencies too big and complex for the country's free markets to handle.



I mentioned yesterday various GOP talking heads have been pushing the idea that the economy must be reopened and it’s fine of that kills off a few seniors. That got a lot of pushback today.

Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos reports the hashtag #DieForTheDow has been trending. Einenkel included several tweets with that tag. One is from a 59 year old woman who lists several ways she helps her daughter and grandchildren, who would be in worse shape without her.

Bree Newsome Bass tweeeted:

Everyone arguing that 1-2% of the population dying isn’t a big deal needs to identify 1 or 2 close family members or friends that they are willing to offer up to death in this moment for capitalism. Name them.

Say their names out loud and speak it into the universe with the same ease you condemn others to death.

Paul Jacobson replied stop using small numbers like 1% and 2%. That translates to 3 million to 6 million deaths.

The Good Liars tweeted photos of posters they put up around their town. The main poster is a take on the WWII poster where Uncle Sam points a finger and says “I want you to serve,” but in this one the nasty guy is pointing the finger and the words say, “I want you to die for our economy.”

And in another tweet they say, “Trump caskets. Coming soon.”

Samantha Bee of Full Frontal tweeted:

Trump wants to open up the nation by Easter because he clearly observes Christian holidays. For example, he gave up your grandparents for Lent.

Lots of people responded with scathing quips of their own. Such as an image that shows two buttons labeled “Save Grandma” and “Open Cheesecake Factory Again.”

A 90 year old: “So trump wants country open by Easter. Ok. So we’ll crucify him, put him in a cave and, if he resurrects, we’ll become believers.”

And Lady Leo: “The Republicans at EASTER Time Anti Abortion but PRO Killing Grandfathers and Grandmothers.”

The pro-life party is proposing this? Doesn’t sound pro-life. Which means their ranting about protecting the life of the baby wasn’t about the baby. It was about keeping the woman at home. And out of the business world.



Jared Yates Sexton soundly rejects the idea that there needs to be a trade-off between millions dead and a working economy. As part of his thread:

The truth is that billionaires could be multimillionaires with everything they want and this thing could stabilize. In fact, it would thrive. You’d finally get a stable economy, which we haven’t had for decades. It’d literally be better for everyone. But these people lack duty.

The fact is that Reaganomics pushes corporations and individuals until they grew larger than the nation that birthed them, until they became nations unto themselves and devoid of civic responsibility or conscience. They’ll sacrifice us, all of us, and they’ll do it happily.

In another thread Sexton provides a bit of history into the Cult of Trump, which is also the Cult of the Shining City. It started in the 1960s when MLK highlighted the social justice aspects of the Gospel of Jesus. Jerry Falwell, preaching a supremacist Confederate religion, shifted the Christian focus from social justice to prosperity as an indicator of God’s favor.

Add in Adam Smith’s capitalism and the “invisible hand” of the market that chooses winners and losers. Falwell and gang declared that hand to be the hand of a racist god. Pour in Reaganomics and his idea that poverty was a mark of sinfulness. We get a merging of religion, white supremacy, and capitalism.

People are constantly confused by how the Cult of the Shining City worships Trump as a messiah and stands by him, but he is the literal embodiment of their ideology. His wealth and power, not to mention his defense of white supremacy, makes him a perfect pope-like figure.
...
This worship of the market is inherent to the ideas of Falwell and Reagan. When you watch the DOW jump or fall, these people inherently believe it is a measure of God's pleasure or displeasure. They see a plague like this and see a supernatural punishment.
...
Here's a warning: The Cult of the Shining City is an apocalyptic cult. They're not afraid to sacrifice lives. They're not afraid to drive civilization over the cliff. This policy of reopening the economy despite the warnings of scientists does not frighten or impede them.

The Cult of the Shining City that worships Trump will watch while millions die from the pandemic and they'll chalk it up to God's will. You already hear that. I'm seeing it left and right in white-identity, evangelical circles. It's economic Darwinism made into scripture.

Ashton Lattimore of Our Prism on Kos notes the persistent use of the word “bungled” in describing the nasty guy’s response to the coronavirus. It has appeared in many headlines. But “bungled” implies accident. And if it is all an accident then the nasty guy is an innocent bystander. But the better descriptions would be “gross negligence” or “reckless indifference to life” which imply intentional non-effort and should demand removal from office.



Dems and GOP have come to an agreement over a rescue bill. I’ll let you read the details here. Alas, the vote is being held up by a bunch of GOP members who don’t like the idea that those at the bottom of the pay scale may make more money off unemployment insurance than from their low paying jobs.



Kos of Kos says life changed because of 9/11 (we still take our shoes off at the airport). He suggests there are at least 11 ways our lives will change because of the pandemic. Some of them:

* Reagan was famous for saying the most terrifying phrase is “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” It turns out in a global disaster the only thing that can help is the government. And the free market is asking for handouts.

* Security is more than thwarting terrorists.

* We’re in this together.

* Working from home is actually OK.

* Government-supplied health care will receive a boost. A lot of people are about to lose health insurance at the worst time to do so.

* We can tackle the big issues. The Obama bailout at $0.9 trillion was hugely controversial. And the Senate is talking about $2 trillion. If we can do it to survive a pathogen we can do it to prevent the death of the planet.



This evening I’m listening to Wagner’s Die Walkure – The Valkyrie. The famous Ride of the Valkyries opens Act III. After watching Das Rheingold yesterday and now well into the second chapter I feel again that Wagner could have used a good editor for his text. A great deal of of this opera so far is explaining how this set of gods works and doing so in dramatic overwrought music. Even so, the singers/actors at the Metropolitan Opera do a fine job of acting (even if sometimes overwrought) as they do a fine job of singing.

A saying of Wagner’s music is moments of amazingly glorious music interspersed in rather boring quarter hours. But, oh!, those glorious moments! (like the last 20 minutes of Act III).

Politics and Apocalypse

Several pastors backing McCain believe in a coming Apocalypse. Pastors of Palin's churches do too which makes a lot of people wonder what her beliefs are. So it is worth looking at Apocalypticism and how it has influenced political behavior.

In general terms Apocalypticism is a belief in an approaching confrontation that will change society and history and which hidden truths will be revealed. The Religious Right has a particular meaning implied by the biblical book of Revelations of Jesus returning in his heavenly glory to wage a final battle between good and evil.

The influence of the Apocalypse on theology and world view depends on whether you start with "imperial Christianity" or "liberation Christianity". It also depends on whether you treat Revelations as a beautiful allegory (in its description of heaven) or whether you take it literally. Strange that if you take it literally you still have to treat it as allegory to figure out who the main players are in real life and whether we are actually in the End Times. One indication seems to be that powerful political and religious leaders will sell out the faithful.

Revelations appears to speak of a thousand-year reign of peace (I have read it, but not lately, so I don't remember if Revelations actually says it or some "literalists" make the claim from some other part of the bible).

Even for people who agree on that bit there is a bigger bit to argue over. Who is in charge during that reign of peace? Some people, premillennialists, think that Jesus has physically come back to earth and is the guy in charge. Others believe that Jesus shows up at the end of that time and it is godly Christians who have seized power, enforced that peace, and made the world holy enough for Jesus to return. These are postmillennialists. And to seize power you must be politically active (unless you are able to take it through the use of your gun). Alas, there are enough of these people to muck things up, but not enough to actually take control.

For premillennialists, true Christians are to be called to heaven in the Rapture and thus spared the apocalyptic war through which Jesus establishes that peace. If this version is true, then a major theological activity is to determine if we are in the End Times and prepare accordingly (never mind that Jesus says no one can know). How to tell? Wars, rumors or wars, natural disasters, plagues, widespread immorality. Are these things more prevalent now than a hundred or thousand years ago? Any number of Fundie TV shows are convinced that the bloodshed in wars since WWI, Katrina and the tsunami, AIDS, and gays gives this era more points than any previous time. The big preparation to be made is to make sure all of the people you care about are true Christians so they are spared the big battle. Establishing the date of End Times can add a special urgency to appeals for conversion.

But if Jesus is about to arrive and take care of things, why bother voting? Through history, this branch of the literalists hasn't bothered to vote. Even so, the "liberation" branch was politically active, using language of the Apocalypse to abolish slavery, push for temperance, and abolish Jim Crow. This strange language led to good things.

Seeing the world through an Apocalypse, however, turns every issue into black and white. I'm with God and if you aren't you must be taking the side of the devil. No compromise possible.

So what brought out the vote? First, the battle over godless Communism. Second, Jimmy Carter declared he was "born again," an evangelical that others could vote for. Third, Falwell and the Moral Majority (in 1979), urged on by the ban on prayer in school and the legality of abortion, needed a theological reason to justify voting. R.J. Rushdoony, Francis Schaeffer, and Tim LaHaye (in his non-fiction works) provided that theology by mixing up the two sides of the debate of who rules in that thousand years of peace. The way they did it is to say that while Christians will be spared the big apocalyptic battle, they won't be spared the skirmishes leading up to that battle. And in these skirmishes the forces of evil will be so great as to destroy Christianity so that there will be no Christians left to enjoy the Rapture. I doubt very much Christians would be hunted down and killed, but rather the rest of the culture will see Christianity as so irrelevant that the church gains no new members and eventually dies out. Secularism triumphs. Now they've got a problem.

And now, politics and voting are a big deal. Those that believe in the End Times now have to make sure there are Christians alive to see it and are quite willing to contribute to assist those who believe that reign of peace will only happen if they are in control and have guaranteed that America is a Christian nation (though if the faith dies out there are none to take control and make the world ready for Jesus and thus he never comes. But never mind). The satanic influences are the suspects we've heard them shout about for the last 20 years or so: women's rights, abortion rights, gay rights, ban on school prayer, and anything that has the least bit if acceptance of any other religion. Of course, the influence of these satanic ideas is increased through the work of community organizers.

Satanic ideas aren't just home-grown. There is the fear that the United Nations is being used as a cover for Islam to become the world religion. And if Jesus is to return, he needs somewhere to return to and the designated place is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, currently home to a couple mosques. Israel takes center stage in this prophecy (the big battle is call Armageddon because it will be on the site of the ancient city of Megiddo in Israel) and preventing a solution in the Middle East only aids the prophecy in coming true, so there can't be any criticism of Israel's nasty tactics against the Palestinians (that many critics of Israel are raging anti-Semites doesn't help either).

End Times theology does play out through our politics. As we gays have seen, this theology is behind all of the anti-gay laws and amendments that have appeared in the last couple decades. Anti-bullying laws aren't being passed because they might protect gay kids. Even on the world stage, though Bush doesn't (appear to) hold these beliefs, he has found it politically expedient to hire people who do. A lot of the talk about all Muslims being terrorists and that we must stand firm on this war on terror comes from this theology. From the nature of the churches Palin has attended it appears she believes in some form of End Times theology. It is important to our country to hear about them, instead of allowing them to be used as code phrases to stir up the Right or allowing them to influence domestic and foreign policy.

Of course, when human problems (domestic and foreign) are elevated to the cosmic plane of good versus evil no compromise is possible. The way out of the stalemate is to confront that theology.

The place to start is in our own apocalyptic language. If we call them religious extremists we are declaring ourselves better than them and perpetuating the black/white choice they want to impose on us. Next we need to recognize that there is not one large block of fundamentalists, but there are various strands of these literalist beliefs held with various levels of fervor. We need to be able to tell which beliefs are held only by those wishing for End Times and beliefs that are held by wider groups of Christians so that we can confront the particular problem beliefs without alienating those who are as uncomfortable as we are with the demonization coming from the Right. This wider group of Christians happen to be centrist enough to swing elections. The variety of our beliefs and the consequences of those beliefs should be the source of many articles in mainstream media, but alas, is not.

I should say what I make of Revelations and End Times theology. Back when I was in high school (and the cold war raging) there was a lot of talk about how the USSR, China, and Europe were to take various roles in the Revelations symbolism. There is a character that has 10 horns which are replaced by 1 horn and many were sure that referred to the 10 countries that were becoming the European Union. Then the EU expanded to 15 countries and the USSR fell apart. Oops. Ah well. Someone will revise the list of players. Since then I've heard Revelations was written as a comfort to Christians being persecuted by Rome. Perhaps some of its prophecies were fulfilled 1700 years ago. So what does it all mean? I'll stick to the words of Jesus who said we won't know when the End Times will come and therefore we should first worry about his prime directive: Love God and love your neighbor. Everything else gets in the way.