The dangers of 'rapture' theology

Catholic New Times, Jan 30, 2005

Respected religious affairs commentator, Bill Moyers, just retired from public broadcasting in the U.S. has taken up a new challenge; understanding and explaining the fundamentalist religio-political ideology that governs official U.S. policy today. "The delusional is no longer marginal," Moyers wrote on his web site recently. "It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress."

What is happening, Moyers believes, is that theology is asserting propositions that cannot be proven true and ideologues are holding stoutly to a worldview despite its being contradicted by reality.

His thorough-going critique of fundamentalism points to "the danger that voters and politicians alike become oblivious to the facts." He recalls James Watt, President Reagan's first Secretary of the Interior, telling the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Watt said, "After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back."

One-third of the American electorate believes the Bible is literally true. "In this past election," Moyers writes, "several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the "rapture index." The best-selling books in America today are the 12 volumes written by the Christian fundamentalist Timothy LaHaye. These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the 19th century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them into a narrative that has captivated the imagination of millions of Americans."

Moyers pays tribute to British writer George Monbiot who has dissected the phenomenon of fundamentalism. In its theory, once Israel has occupied the rest of its "biblical lands," legions of the "anti-Christ" will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. Jews who have not been converted will be burned, and the messiah will return for the rapture.

"True believers will be lifted out of their clothes and transported to heaven, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts, and frogs."

The believers are sincere, serious, and polite and feel called to help bring the rapture on as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. "The invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelation, where four angels "which are bound in the great river Euphrates, will be released to slay the third part of man." Therefore, a war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed--an essential conflagration on the road to redemption.

Effect on public policy

Moyers asks what this means for public policy and the environment. Millions of Christian fundamentalists believe that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed--even hastened--as a sign of the coming apocalypse.

"Nearly half the U.S. Congress, 231 legislators in total, are backed by the religious right. Forty-five senators and 186 members of Congress earned 80 to 100 per cent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian right advocacy groups. They include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Conference Chair Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

The only Democrat to score 100 percent with the Christian coalition was Senator 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."

A 2002 TIME/CNN poll found that 59 per cent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the book of Revelation are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks. The country has 1600 Christian radio stations and 250 Christian TV stations, where, says Moyers "You can hear this end-time gospel."

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? Fundamentalists believe that until Christ does return, the Lord will provide.

"No wonder," says Moyers. "Karl Rove goes around the White House whistling that militant hymn, 'Onward Christian Soldiers.' He turned out millions of the foot soldiers in the November 2 election--a powerful driving force in modern American politics."

Moyers became personal. "I myself don't know how to be in this world without expecting a confident future and getting up every morning to do what I can to bring it about. So I have always been an optimist. Now, however, I think of my friend on Wall Street whom I once asked: "What do you think of the market?" "I'm optimistic," he answered. "Then why do you look so worried? And he answered: 'Because I am not sure my optimism is justified.'"

"Once I agreed with the Center for Health and the Global Environment that people will protect the natural environment when they realize its importance to their health and to the health and lives of their children. Now I am not so sure. I read the news and connect the dots."