Moyers Equivalence

Bill Moyers:

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 true; ideologues hold stoutly to a worldview despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.

He goes on to explain the threat to humanity that Christians represent, then segues into this:

So what does this mean for public policy and the environment? Go to Grist to read a remarkable work of reporting by the journalist Glenn Scherer - "The Road to Environmental Apocalypse." Read it and you will see how millions of Christian fundamentalists may believe that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed - even hastened - as a sign of the coming apocalypse.

As Grist makes clear, we're not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. Nearly half the U.S. Congress before the recent election - 231 legislators in total and more since the election - are backed by the religious right.

Forty-five senators and 186 members of the 108th Congress earned 80 to 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian right advocacy groups. They include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Conference Chair Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Policy Chair Jon Kyl of Arizona, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Whip Roy Blunt. The only Democrat to score 100 percent with the Christian coalition was Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, who recently quoted from the biblical book of Amos on the Senate floor: "The days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land." He seemed to be relishing the thought.

And why not? There's a constituency for it. A 2002 Time-CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the book of Revelations 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 the more than 1,600 Christian radio stations, or in the motel turn on some of the 250 Christian TV stations, and you can hear some of this end-time gospel. And you will come to understand why people under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected, as Grist puts it, "to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth, when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?"

Because these people believe that until Christ does return, the Lord will provide. One of their texts is a high school history book, "America's Providential History." You'll find there these words: "The secular or socialist has a limited-resource mentality and views the world as a pie ... that needs to be cut up so everyone can get a piece." However, "[t]he Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's earth ... while many secularists view the world as overpopulated, Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all of the people."

No wonder Karl Rove goes around the White House whistling that militant hymn, "Onward Christian Soldiers." He turned out millions of the foot soldiers on Nov. 2, including many who have made the apocalypse a powerful driving force in modern American politics.

I've seen comments on the abrasiveness (to use a kind word) of Moyers' attack, but what many are failing to note is that what he's doing is suggesting a moral equivalence between evangelical Christians and Islamic fanatics. Although the al Qaeda crowd are the other shoe that doesn't fall in Moyer's discussion, savvy lefties hear it loud and clear. Don't dismiss this, I've seen folks make that comparison straight faced and earnestly - the Christians are wanting to bring about rapture and armegeddon much the same as the jihadis are trying to restore the caliphate, etc. etc. This is a fundamental distortion of Christian theology, which states that the second coming will happen on God's timetable, thanks, don't listen to anyone who tries to tell you exactly when that might be, but be ready for it at any time. And though a few Christians might have picked a specific date (and therefore distorted their own scripture) it's Moyers who's truly distorted the issue.

But since this gives left wing idealogues an opportunity to condemn Americans as no better than the terrorists who flew planes into the World Trade Center they jump at the chance. This is denial of the real world around them, but it meshes nicely with their world view - or their theology if you prefer, and you'll not get them to change their minds on issues of their religion. I've said this before and it bears repeating here, the modern left is poorly educated (note this has no relationship to duration of that poor education), exceptionally gullible and easily led.

At least, Bill Moyers seems to think so.

Update: More from James Lileks here and Dave Kopel here.

A Christian perspective here ? along with more evidence that Moyers is simply rehashing (if not plagiarizing) a long running leftist meme and a great debunking of some of Moyers ?facts?.