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Born again Bush
BY NORMAN COUNCIL
Evangelism. e·van·gel·ism (‘-v n j -l-?z m)
1. Zealous preaching and dissemination of the gospel, as through
missionary work.
2. Militant zeal for a cause.
– American Heritage Dictionary
America is in the grip of an evangelical movement. This movement
is not, as one might assume given
the primary defi-nition of evangelism, propagated entirely by the 44 per cent of
Americans who make the personal claim of being "Born Again". This evangelism is
not even, in any specific sense, dedicated to "spreading the gospel" of Jesus
Christ, although its leaders often articulate its agenda in Christian
evangelical rhetoric. Though it has its roots in Christianity, this evangelical
movement, which controls the domestic and foreign policy processes in this
country, is purely political in nature.
Spreading the "gospel"
The Born Again have a penchant for proselytising. This is not
unique to those in the Christian tradition, but to most experiences of religious
epiphany. There is a connection between conversion and zealotry that arises – if
one wishes to be charitable – from the desire to share that which has brought
joy and enlightenment.
Whatever the basis of the impulse, conversion and evangelism are
inextricably linked in a pattern that has been the source of more destruction of
human life than any other, save raw aggression itself. Nowhere is this pattern
clearer or more deliberate than in the Judaeo/Christian/Islamic tradition. From
the exhortation to Israelites to "Tear down (Canaanite) altars, smash their
standing stones, cut down their sacred poles and burn their idols" (Deut 7:5),
to the Islamic conquest of the Mediterranean basin, to Torquemada’s Spain, to
the Zionist recapture of Palestine, no inclination has caused greater human
suffering then that which arises from the unshakeable conviction that one is
acting in concert with the will of God.
In every case these atrocities are to be traced to the
conversion, the conviction and the commitment to evangelism of the individual.
Were it simply an impulse to make others worship one’s own god, evangelism would
be dangerous enough, but it is the mixture of evangelism with a politico-social
agenda that makes it truly deadly. For the evangelist often does not simply wish
to change the heart and mind of the individual, he or she often seeks to change
the society in which he lives, seeks to make the world around him more
consistent with his understanding of its relationship to his beliefs.
Political evangelism
George Bush and his administration embody the dual meanings of
evangelism listed above. Mr. Bush, who has let it be known that he himself is a
Born Again Christian, makes no bones about declaring his faith nor about his
feeling that God whispers in his ear: "I could not be governor if I did not
believe in a divine plan that supersedes all human plans... My faith frees me.
Frees me to put the problem of the moment in proper perspective. Frees me to
make decisions that others might not like. Frees me to try to do the right
thing…"
Though Bush is by no means the only President who has made it
clear that he is a Christian, biographer Steven Mansfield says about Bush that
"(he is) among a small number of American presidents to have undergone a
profound religious transformation as an adult... he came to the presidency,
then, with the zeal of the newly converted."
However, it is not Christianity that is the true basis of Bush’s
evangelical zeal. Nor is it his simple faith that is of concern. Jimmy Carter
was also Born Again, and even Clinton, the great deceiver himself, sprinkled his
rhetoric with biblical references. Bush’s evangelism is much more directly
observable as he forwards neo-conservative social policy.
Christian politics
Despite consistent efforts to turn Ronald Reagan into a minor
deity, the philosophical progenitor of our current conservative government is
Barry Goldwater. In his speech accepting his party’s nomination as its candidate
for President in 1964, Mr. Goldwater set the tone that has been carried forth by
today’s conservative Republicans. The principles he outlined – limited
government, a strong military, limited restraint on capitalist enterprise and
strong moral authority derived from religious belief – were and remain the
pillars of conservative thought. He also encapsulated the rationale for
conservative radicalism in his statement that "Extremism in defence of liberty
is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
Garnering only 39 per cent of the popular vote (the greatest
popular vote defeat up to that day), Goldwater’s defeat was in fact a victory
for the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Goldwater was the first to be
successful in attracting the South to the Republican Party, and, despite Russell
Kirk’s assertion in 1953 that a tradition of American conservatism had existed
since the founding of the country, it was Goldwater who energised fledgling
conservative Republican cadres and began the march toward political dominance.
But it was a grassroots evangelical Christian campaign that made
that dominance possible.
In her book Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian
Right, Sara Diamond attributes the genesis of the religious Right to the
religious cultism that evolved from remnants of the counterculture of the 1960s.
Disillusioned by war and the failure of idealism, the refugees of the
counterculture were readily co-opted into evangelicalism by organisations such
as the Campus Crusade for Christ. By the ’80s this backlash against the
"anything goes" mentality of the ’60s was completed with the emergence of a
reactionary religious Right that helped Reagan get elected and move forward his
conservative agenda.
Sojourners, a progressive evangelical organisation, once traced
the rise of the "New Christian Right" to the "Third Century" movement which
began in 1974. It was in that year that insurance magnate Arthur DeMoss, Bill
Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, Richard DeVos of Amway and Rep.
John Conlan of Arizona founded Third Century Publishers. The company was
established for the purpose of promoting literature designed to link a
comprehensive conservative political agenda with Born Again Christianity.
In a meeting in 1975 convened to solidify the financial base for
Third Century Publishers, Conlan and Bright established a process to train Third
Century’s regional directors in strategies to gradually take positions of
leadership with the government. Conlan told regional directors that Bright would
be working behind the scenes with his Christian business contacts to secure
financing. Realising that they needed a tax-exempt foundation that could receive
donations, they took over the Christian Freedom Foundation, an organisation
started in the 1950s to promote conservative economics, which had fallen on hard
times. Eventually the Christian Freedom Foundation hired Ed McAteer as its
director.
Ed McAteer – sometimes referred to as the godfather of the
religious Right – had retired from his position as a sales marketing manager for
the Colgate-Palmolive Company to become the national field director of the
Christian Freedom Foundation. He soon moved to the Conservative Caucus and
worked as its national field director until he established the Religious
Roundtable in 1979.
Named the Council of 56 Religious Roundtable (56 was the number
of signers of the Declaration of Independence), the organisation’s statement of
purpose listed its activities as: national affairs briefings, national
leadership seminars, rallies, media appearances, personal appearances, and the
distribution of cassette tapes. The philosophy of the Roundtable promoted a
strong military, strong law enforcement and opposed abortion, pornography,
divorce and rights for gay people. The group was strongly pro-Israel. The
Roundtable called itself a public education group and a clearinghouse for
information from other groups of the Right.
Through these organisations McAteer and the Roundtable
coordinated a national grassroots movement that was preternatural in its reach.
Some members of the Roundtable included:
Ø
Beverly LaHaye – Founder of Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest
politically active conservative women’s organisation.
Ø
Tim LaHaye – Writer of the Left Behind series of evangelical fiction;
founder of the Tim LaHaye Ministries and founder in 1981 of the Council for
National Policy (CNP – see below).
Ø
Gary Bauer – President of Family Research Council; founder and chairman of
Campaign for Working Families; chairman of Citizens Committee to Confirm
Clarence Thomas (1991).
Ø
Bill Bright – Founder of the Campus Crusade for Christ, which has 24,000
full-time staff members and more than 500,000 trained volunteers serving in 191
countries.
Ø
James Dobson – Originator of "tough love" family practices and host of the radio
ministry, Focus on the Family, heard daily on more than 3,000 radio
facilities in North America and in 15 languages on approximately 3,300
facilities in over 116 other countries. It is estimated that his commentaries
are heard by more than 200 million people every day, with 2.3 million
subscribers to his 10 monthly magazines.
Ø
Ron Godwin – Former Liberty University professor, Moral Majority and CNP member;
in 1987 appointed senior vice president of the Washington Times Corporation. The
paper is owned by arch-conservative cum new messiah, Sun Yung Moon, also a
Roundtable benefactor.
Ø
Robert Grant – Founder/Chairman of the Board, Christian Voice, a political
action group composed of largely Pentecostals, which operated out of the
Heritage Foundation; president, American Christian Cause; chairman of American
Freedom Coalition; Coalition for Religious Freedom; co-publisher, Presidential
Biblical Scoreboard and the Candidates Biblical Scoreboard.
Ø
Alan Keyes – African American conservative talk show host of The Alan Keyes
Show: America’s Wake-up Call (1994-99) on WCBM Radio in Baltimore and
simulcast on America’s Voice/Political News Talk satellite and cable TV network.
America’s Voice is on 66 cable systems. (As an ambassador to the UN, Keyes
promoted the Reagan policy of opposing sanctions against South Africa’s
apartheid regime.)
Ø
Dr. D. James Kennedy – Founder (1974), Coral Ridge Ministries. Airs on more than
600 stations, four cable networks, and to 145 nations and 125 ships at sea on
the Armed Forces Network. It is available to 73 per cent of the nation’s
television households and has the greatest number of TV station affiliates of
any religious programme in the US. Other Kennedy broadcasts include Truths
That Transform, which airs on more than 700 radio facilities across America,
and The Kennedy Commentary, which is heard on nearly 500 radio
facilities. Altogether, nearly three million people listen weekly to CRM
programming on radio or television.
Ø
Pat Robertson – founder in 1960 of the Christian Broadcasting Network, which
provides programming by cable, broadcast and satellite to approximately 180
countries. It is seen in 96 per cent of the television markets in the United
States.
Ø
Ralph Reed – As executive director of the Christian Coalition in the 1990s, he
built one of the most effective grassroots organisations in modern American
politics. During his tenure, the organisation’s budget rose to $27 million, and
its membership to two million members and supporters in two thousand local
chapters. He was a senior advisor to the campaign of George W. Bush in 2000 in
both the primaries and the general election.
Ø
Phyllis Schlafly – Founder in 1972 of the Eagle Forum to support the
"pro-family" (i.e. Anti ERA) movement. Schlafly’s three-minute commentaries
(running since 1983) are heard daily on 460 stations. Her radio talk show called
Phyllis Schlafly Live (running since 1989) is heard weekly on Saturdays
on 45 stations.
Ø
Paul Weyrich – A founding president of the Heritage Foundation. Founder and past
director of the American Legislative Exchange Council in 1973, whose agenda
included rolling back civil rights, challenging government restrictions on
corporate pollution, limiting government regulations of commerce, and
privatising public services. Weyrich also chairs National Empowerment
Television (NET), a closed-circuit satellite programme for activists
across the US.
Other groups represented on the Roundtable included:
Ø
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
Ø
Moral Majority (which Ed McAteer, along with Howard Phillips (founder &
chairman, The Conservative Caucus in 1974), Richard Viguerie (arch-conservative
co-founder of The Conservative Caucus), and Paul Weyrich, helped Jerry Falwell
to start)
Ø
Church League of America
Ø
National Religious Broadcasters
Ø
Plymouth Rock Foundation
Ø
National Association of Evangelicals
Ø
Gideon Bible
Ø
Wycliffe Bible Associates
Ø
Intercessors for America
This is but a partial listing of the vast network of
conservatives and evangelicals who began in the mid-seventies to make a
concerted effort to infuse government in America with conservatism and
evangelical Christian Morals. Ronald Reagan was their first major success.
George W. Bush is their crowning achievement.
From religious ideology to political action
Dissatisfied with efforts of the Conservative Caucus and the
Religious Roundtable, John Birch Society leaders Rep. Larry MacDonald, (D-Ga.)
and William Cies recruited Tim LaHaye, and, using funding provided by
conservative millionaires Nelson Bunker Hunt and T. Cullen Davis founded the
Council for National Policy (CNP) in 1981. Among the earliest recruits to the
CNP were brewer Joseph Coors, Louisiana State Rep. Woody Jenkins, and a young
marine major on the staff of the National Security Council named Oliver North.
By 1984, the CNP had 400 members who were and are (the organisation maintains a
membership of about 500) a Who’s-Who in American conservative politics.
There was a tremendous overlap in membership between the
Religious Roundtable and the CNP. But in addition to its evangelical members,
the CNP also had strong associations with members of government. Nationally
elected officials who were or are members of the CNP include Rep. Dick Armey
(R-TX), Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), Rep. Steve Stockman
(R-TX), Rep. Jack Kemp (R-NY) Rep. Bob Dornan (R-CA), Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK),
Rep. Barbara Vucanovich (R-NV), Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-NC) Sen. Jesse Helms
(R-NC), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), and Sen. Don Nickles
(R-OK). (For a complete list of current and former members of the CNP see
http://watch.pair.com/cnpdbase.html)
In addition to elected officials, appointed officials in the
government, including former Attorney General Ed Meese, Attorney General John
Ashcroft and Health and Human Services head Tommy Thompson, have been associated
with the CNP. In 1995 senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole addressed the
CNP and in 1999 Texas governor George Bush addressed them as well (the text of
his comments have never been released), in September of 2003, candidate for
governor of California state, Sen. Tom McClintock left California to address the
CNP meeting in Colorado. Clearly the CNP has become a power broker in electoral
politics in the United States.
In part this is because the CNP brings a tremendous amount of
money to the table. By 1998 the CNP had contributed more than two million
dollars to individual representatives and senators with the greatest amount –
more than $200,000 – going to CNP member Jesse Helms. This large sum pales
though in comparison to the more than 50 million that has been contributed by
political action committees associated with the CNP in the period ending in
1998. (For a complete listing of contributions up to 1998 see http://garciapublicaffairs.com/CNP$$.htm)
The contributions, amounting to further tens of millions,
continued in the 2000 and 2002 election cycles and continue in the 2004 cycle.
(Track contributions by industry or interest at http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/alphalist.asp)
This remarkable marriage of evangelism and politics was made all
the more potent by its lack of a counterpart among moderates or liberals. As
unions became businesses or were busted by the government and traditional
constituencies gained more independence, the voting base that had once existed
for liberals and moderates deteriorated, leaving little in the way of meaningful
opposition to the conservative’s grassroots campaign. September 11, 2001 and the
conservatives ruthless exploitation of it sealed the deal.
Evangelism and government policy
Consider this: "During the more than half century of my life, we
have seen an unprecedented decay in our American culture, a decay that has
eroded the foundations of our collective values and moral standards of conduct.
Our sense of personal responsibility has declined dramatically, just as the role
and responsibility of the federal government have increased. The changing
culture blurred the sharp contrast between right and wrong and created a new
standard of conduct: ‘If it feels good, do it’. And ‘If you’ve got a problem,
blame somebody else’."
This statement, made by George Bush in 1999, is standard
neo-conservative religio-political rhetoric. It was made to play to the
evangelicals that Karl Rove had been lining up since 1994. As was this:
"...government should welcome the active involvement of people who are following
a religious imperative… because I know that changing hearts will change our
entire society."
For a good idea of what the inclusion of "people who are
following a religious imperative" in the formation of government is, one need
look no further than the Texas Republican Party platforms for the last six years
(http://www.rlctx.net).
These documents read like they were written by RJ Rushdoony (a
CNP board member whose Christian Reconstruction movement believes that society
should be "reconstructed" to conform to biblical laws. (For a complete
discussion go to http://www.religioustolerance.org/reconstr.htm) Among other
things the platforms advocate:
Ø
The elimination of Supreme Court review of laws regarding abortion, religion or
anything else related to the Bill of Rights. In these areas, Congress should be
allowed to pass any laws it wishes.
Ø
The elimination of the wall of separation between Church and State.
Ø
The criminalisation of homosexual relations.
Ø
A constitutional amendment outlawing abortion of all kinds.
Ø
Treating homosexual people as child molesters who should not be allowed to visit
their children unsupervised.
Ø
The teaching of the biblical story of creation in science classes.
Reflecting conservative "free enterprise" interests, these
platforms also say that:
Ø
Social Security should be abolished.
Ø
The federal income tax should be abolished.
Ø
The federal minimum wage should be abolished.
Ø
The 10th amendment statement should be interpreted to restrict federal
intervention on a wide variety of fronts, from environmental protections to
voting rights.
Ø The United States should leave the UN.
While George Bush probably would not consider himself an
evangelist, it is clear that his domestic policies have been focussed on the
reformation of our society along strict lines in accordance with his religious
beliefs. Consider the above list and then think about what Bush, his party, his
administration and his counterparts in Congress have attempted to implement.
Consider President Bush’s declaration of National Sanctity of
Human Life Day on January 19, 2003 or the decision by his administration to
allow federal funds to be used to build centres where religious worship is held.
The past three years (2001-2004) have seen legislative success in taking the
first steps toward defining a foetus as a person with rights protected by the
Constitution. In the President’s 2003 State of the Union address he went even
further, coming very close to defining the human life as beginning at the moment
when sperm fertilises egg. In his January 2004 State of the Union address he
asked for a constitutional amendment codifying the religious concept of marriage
as sacrament restricted to heterosexual couples. Conservative legislators were
successful in including language in the No Child Left Behind Act supporting the
teaching of Creationism (re-framed as Intelligent Design) in school science
curricula. The Supreme Court has ruled that taxpayer dollars may be used to fund
religious education and has made a whole spate of decisions that support the
State’s right to exception from federal law. Bush has been very clear about his
desire to put another ultraconservative on the Supreme Court to further its
conservative judicial activism.
It is very clear that the political ground is being made fertile
for the seeds of a society ruled by fundamentalist Christian principles.
Evangelism in foreign policy
The last point of the Texas platform, regarding the removal of
the US from the United Nations, is consistent with old line Goldwater and John
Birch Society rhetoric. But, despite the long time relationship between the
religious Right and conservative political figures, in the international field
the Bush administration is proselytising from a different evangelical viewpoint
– that of the neo-conservatives who have taken control of the party in the years
since the Reagan administration. Although there are significant areas of
overlap, what we now see in foreign relations has to do with a single rigid
idea: the conviction that free market-based capitalistic democracy is the only
legitimate form of government. In the pursuit of belief he has demonstrated a
belief that America stands above the rest of the world.
Even before the attacks on September 11, the Bush administration
began to dismantle or reject treaties that would bind the United States to a
larger international community. The United States rejected the Kyoto Protocol to
curb greenhouse gases, withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, quit the
Land Mine Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and refused to support
or allow itself to be made subject to the International Criminal Court.
Following 9/11/01 and the government’s shift in focus from a war
on terrorism to unilateral intervention in Iraq, the attacks on internationalism
took on a much more vociferous tone. Bush said that the UN would be irrelevant
if it did not support his war agenda and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
referred to France and Germany, who opposed military action against Iraq without
UN endorsement, as "old Europe", and the newer potential members of the European
Union, such as Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, as "new Europe".
Rumsfeld also grouped Germany with such nations as Cuba and Libya because they
refused to support the US war on Iraq.
While to some this policy of instilling divisiveness amongst our
European allies makes no sense, in choosing to divide Europe into old and new,
Rumsfeld may have been consciously exacerbating tensions within the European
Union, straining to breaking point the ties of a more unified Europe to America.
Undermining Europe in this way would certainly have been consistent with
Cheney’s previously articulated policy of weakening any who would stand in the
way of US policy of democratic evangelism.
In 1992, in a draft planning document drawn up when he was
Secretary of Defense Cheney argued that the United States must "discourage the
advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to
a larger regional or global role." Cheney felt that America should "retain the
pre-eminent responsibility for addressing those wrongs which threaten not only
our interests, but those of our allies or friends…"
We see echoes of the Cheney policy in National Security Strategy
issued by the White House in September 2002. That document describes a will to
maintain whatever military capability is needed to defeat any attempt by any
State that might oppose the will of the United States or its allies, and to
discourage or prevent any potential adversaries from building up their own
forces to equal or surpass ours. Together, the Cheney memo and the National
Security Strategy outline the essence of the "Bush Doctrine": US global
domination. Within this doctrine, no power will be allowed to challenge American
leadership or, even "to aspire" to a role inconsistent with American policy – As
James Chase puts it "surely this is the authentic voice of American
neo-imperialism."
Despite traditional conservative disdain for Bush’s imperial
policy, there is one area of overlap between the concerns of the religious
conservatives and neo-conservatives in the administration. That lies in the
United States policy regarding the Middle East. Here again we feel the fine hand
of Ed McAteer.
McAteer is what he refers to as a "Christian Zionist". In so
describing himself, McAteer is aligning with the fundamentalist concept of "premillennial
dispensationalism" which leads him to the conclusion that Israel must establish
a State in the Middle East so that the prophecy outlining the conditions for the
return of the Messiah can be fulfilled. As McAteer has said "I believe that we
are seeing prophecy unfold so rapidly and dramatically and wonderfully and,
without exaggerating, it makes me breathless."
In what can only be described as the strangest bedfellows in
politics, fundamentalist Christians, conservative Likudists and
neo-conservatives in the Bush Defense Department have joined together to put
pressure on the administration to avoid any action that is not directly premised
on the idea of the preservation of the State of Israel. McAteer has met with
Ariel Sharon and is a strong supporter of the Likud Party. Richard Perle (former
chairman of the Defense Policy Board) and Douglas Feith (undersecretary of
Defense for Policy) in 1996 developed a policy paper for the Likud party urging
it to repudiate the Oslo accords, reoccupy the territories and crush Arafat’s
government. From this partnership and its rationale arose American policy
regarding Iraq, a policy based in the idea that instilling a democratic
government in the Arab Middle East will secure Israel’s future.
Anyone who was surprised by former Treasury Secretary Paul
O’Neil’s revelation that planning for the attack on Iraq predated 09/11/01 has
simply not been paying attention. This idea of "regime change" has been around
since 1992, and was articulated clearly in a letter to President Clinton and
signed by Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz (deputy secretary of Defense), Perle, Feith
and Zalmy Khalilzad (nominated by President Bush in September 2003 as ambassador
to Afghanistan). "We urge you," the letter says, "to turn your Administration’s
attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam’s regime from power.
This will require a full complement of diplomatic, political and military
efforts." In this policy there is an alignment between the Christian Zionists,
who equate America’s "war on terror" with that of Israel, and the
neo-conservatives, even though McAteer’s group strongly opposes Bush’s "Road Map
to Peace" because it calls for ceding territory to the Palestinians. Relations
between the Christian Zionists and Wolfowitz remain tight and it is Wolfowitz
above all who was the architect of the Iraq strategy.
Although President Bush eschewed the notion of "nation building"
in the 2000 electoral campaign, he was either lying then or was easily swayed by
the neo-cons in the administration, following the attacks on 09/11/01, into a
policy of unilateral (if necessary) intervention into the sovereign State of
Iraq on the premise of its role in the "war on terrorism".
In June 2002, Bush argued that "a new regime in Iraq would serve
as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region."
In a speech at the American Enterprise Institute in February 2003, he defined an
ambitious role for America and "the civilised world" in the transformation of
the Middle East.
And in his 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush made
this clearly presumptive and predictive point: "all people have a right to
choose their own government, and determine their own destiny – and the United
States supports their aspirations to live in freedom." Though benign in context,
the message here is clear. The United States will move to impress democracy and
free market economics on the world.
This is the new evangelism: the Pax Americana. Similar to its
predecessor in Rome some 2000 years ago, its purpose is to unite the world,
albeit this time under the American concept of democracy.
These evangelistic efforts, both domestic and international,
have changed the face of America. And, despite the internecine struggles within
the Christian fundamentalists, the neo-conservatives and the "paleo-conservatives"
who insist that Goldwater had it right, it is a movement that is moving
inexorably forward. n
(Norman Council is a behavioural healthcare administration
professional, an assistant professor, elected representative in his hometown of
Lansdowne Pennsylvania and a freelance writer of fiction, poetry and political
commentary. His commentary pieces have been published by NPR, the
Philadelphia Inquirer and several smaller periodicals).
http://www.newtopiamagazine.net/content/issue15/features/evangelism.php
(Although this article published in Newtopia Magazine is
somewhat dated, its contents are no less relevant today.)
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