Praying for
Armageddon
by Heather Wokusch
Dissident Voice
September 1, 2002
As the religious right gains ground in the US, accompanied
by politicians evoking the god-fearing values of good and evil, a culture
honoring diversity is replaced by calls for apocalyptic war.
As always, the schoolyard has become a major political
battleground. Hysteria over removing "under God" from the Pledge of
Allegiance aside, the latest educational minefield lies in the origins of life:
namely a return to the 1925 Scopes Trial debate of evolution vs. creationism.
For example, to promote Christianity, Cobb County, Georgia is putting
disclaimers on its science textbooks, saying that evolution is "a theory,
not a fact," and school districts from Kansas to Ohio are enmeshed in
battles royale over an issue that should be settled in a country separating
church and state.
Not that bible-banging US attorney general John Ashcroft is
troubled by the far right's assault on the First Amendment; claiming "I
think all we should legislate is morality," the man charged with upholding
the Constitution has instead slowly dissected it to fit his far-right
Assemblies of God ideals.
And then there's Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's
insisting "the religious viewpoint should have a role in the legislative
and political process." Speaking at the University of Chicago earlier this
year, Scalia cited the New Testament to assert government, "derives its
moral authority from God ... to execute wrath, including even wrath by the
sword," adding, "the more Christian a country is, the less likely it
is to regard the death penalty as immoral ... for the believing Christian,
death is no big deal."
Good thing he cleared that up because for many of us death
seems like a pretty big deal indeed.
The upshot of all this is that by promoting fear and blind
arrogance, "leaders" charged with protecting the tolerance and
diversity that make our country strong, chisel away at the base instead. Their
approach boils down to: "If you are one of us, religious freedom and life
itself are all-important; if you are one of them, your beliefs are wrong and
your death is no big deal."
This attitude would be creepy enough if many of those
marching us into a Middle Eastern blowout didn't believe in a literal
Armageddon. Not helpful either that a full 59% of Americans polled say they
believe in the apocalyptic events predicted in the Bible's Book of Revelations:
when the Messiah returns on judgement day, believers will be lifted to glorious
heaven while sinful non-believers will be "left behind" to do battle
with the anti-Christ. All of this is complicated by the belief that the Messiah
can return only if a new temple is built on Temple Mount, one of the holiest -
and most contentious - sites for Islam, Judaism and Christianity combined.
So we're left with US arsenals of mass destruction in the
hands of politicians with a simplistic good/evil, us/them approach to the globe
- among whom are those seeking salvation in a fiery Middle Eastern apocalypse.
Not the most comforting reality as the potentially nuclear
Palestine-Israel conflict implodes, and Iraq is backed into more dangerous
corner every day.
While longing for deeper meaning is natural in times like
these, divisiveness and fiery death aren't the correct goals. And who said our
lawmakers should be in the business of legislating morality and defining life
and death according to their own religious beliefs?
Ultimately, rather than glorifying in the sinners
"left behind" to face torturous battles with the anti-Christ, we
should focus on helping those left behind by today's unbalanced social and
economic systems. Through diversity and tolerance we all are lifted up; through
small-minded arrogance and greed we all lose.
Heather Wokusch
is a free-lance writer with a background in clinical psychology. Her work as
been featured in publications and websites internationally. Heather can be
contacted via her website: http://www.heatherwokusch.com/