February 1, 2005
MAKING THE NEW YORK TIMES LOOK REASONABLE
There Is No Tomorrow (Bill Moyers, The Star Tribune, 1/30/05)
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.This article has been fisked from one end of the blogosphere to the other, and by better writers than me. There is, though, one point I haven't seen made that has me laughing out loud every time I see this piece quoted: Let's say that a cabal of apocalyptic Christians looking to imminentize the eschaton were in control of the government. Is it really their environmental policy that would be at the top of the list of things to worry about? "Well, I can't get behind this atomic war in the middle east, and I don't know why they're sending billions to the Agriculture Department for this Project Red Calf, whatever that is, but what really bothers me is that they want to let snowmobiles back into the national parks."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.
Remember James Watt, President Ronald Reagan's first secretary of the interior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever-engaging Grist, reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, "after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back."
Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn't know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the Bible is literally true - one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate. In this past election several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index.
That's right - the rapture index. Google it and you will find that the best-selling books in America today are the 12 volumes of the "Left Behind" series written by the Christian fundamentalist and religious-right warrior 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.
Its outline is rather simple, if bizarre (the British writer George Monbiot recently did a brilliant dissection of it and I am indebted to him for adding to my own understanding): Once Israel has occupied the rest of its "biblical lands," legions of the antichrist will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon.
As the Jews who have not been converted are burned, the messiah will return for the rapture. True believers will be lifted out of their clothes and transported to Heaven, where, seated next to the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer plagues of boils, sores, locusts and frogs during the several years of tribulation that follow.
I'm not making this up. Like Monbiot, I've read the literature. I've reported on these people, following some of them from Texas to the West Bank. They are sincere, serious and polite as they tell you they feel called to help bring the rapture on as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. That's why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. It's why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelations where four angels "which are bound in the great river Euphrates will be released to slay the third part of man." A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed - an essential conflagration on the road to redemption. The last time I Googled it, the rapture index stood at 144 - just one point below the critical threshold when the whole thing will blow, the son of God will return, the righteous will enter Heaven and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire.
So what does this mean for public policy and the environment?
Imagine the headlines, "World To End, Trees Hardest Hit."
MORE: In the comments, Mike Morley makes a great point: It is leftists who believe that government should be used to bring about heaven on Earth, and who end up, all too often, creating hell on Earth. It is Bill Moyers who is immanentizing the eschaton, not George Bush.
Posted by David Cohen at February 1, 2005 4:14 PMLet's give Bill Moyers credit. If you're going to proffer this theology, the Star Tribune is the place to do it.
Posted by: AllenS at February 1, 2005 4:56 PMAli: The eschaton is the end of all things; also, Judgment Day.
People who want to immanentize the eschaton look to what the Bible says are the conditions at the time of the Messiah's coming or recoming and try to bring those conditions about.
Thus, on Judgment Day the Temple must exist and in order for the Temple to be rebuilt, a red calf without flaw must be sacrificed, so they are trying to breed a flawless red calf. The left also accuses them of trying to start a nuclear war in the middle east.
The Catholic Church considers immanentizing the eschaton to be sinful.
Posted by: David Cohen at February 1, 2005 5:10 PM"by better writers than me"
than I. OJ. than I.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at February 1, 2005 5:11 PMActually, what I described is "imminentizing" the eschaton, i.e., trying to make it imminent.
Immanentizing the eschaton is trying to create heaven or hell on Earth, rather than waiting for the world to come, i.e., making it immanent.
Posted by: David Cohen at February 1, 2005 5:13 PMBill Moyers has lasted longer than Tony Orlando and Dawn with just one song.
In 1964, it was those evil Republicans were going to blow up the world, i.e. the little girl with the daisy ad. In 2004, Bill Moyers tells us that the GOP is trying to create conditions in the Middle East that will bring on the destruction of the world.
Even the guy who did the 'You can call me Ray, You can call me Jay, ...' act had more material than Moyers.
Posted by: Bart at February 1, 2005 5:38 PMAli,
Jonah Goldberg had a fun article about immanentizing the eschaton a few years ago.
Posted by: Ed Driscoll at February 1, 2005 6:04 PMNo, Robert, me.
Posted by: David Cohen at February 1, 2005 6:14 PMSorry OJ: David: Consider yourself reproved.
P.S. There is a rapture index. Ysterday it was at 155.
Rav said that all the calculated dates of redemption have passed, and the matter now depends upon repentance and good deeds. Sanhedrin 97B
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at February 1, 2005 6:22 PMMoyer and Co. are hung up on trees and the like because that is their religion. Having progressed all the way back to the Stone Age, they worship the Earth and the spirits of things upon the Earth.
Posted by: Lou Gots at February 1, 2005 7:47 PMThose who seek to immanentize the eschaton, be they misguided believers or Bill Moyers (who is immanentizing like there's no tomorrow in this essay), conveniently ignore Matthew 24:36 -- "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."
Posted by: Mike Morley at February 1, 2005 8:06 PMEscatology is fascinating! However, studying and seeking to unlock the mysteries of (or attempting to "launch") the the "end time" is of far less value than say, blogging on the internet. It is an empty, foolish and vain endeavor. The final consumation of all that is promised in the Old and New Testaments concerning the Kingdom of God WILL come to pass. It will, however, all happen in God's own sweet time. I have a quote by Billy Graham, which I can't locate at the moment about living in expectation of Jesus' immanent return while at the same time making plans for ministry/faithful living as if his return were a long way off. At any rate, it could happen tonight, or it could happen 10, 100, 1000 or 10000 years from now. No one knows. When it does happen, it will be quite a day!
Posted by: Dave W. at February 1, 2005 10:29 PMDavid: You are herby sentenced to write on the blackboard 1,000 times: "No, Robert, it was I."
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at February 2, 2005 2:23 AM"Hereby." And "by better writers than me" is correct. "By" governs "me" just as much as it does "better writers."
Posted by: Grammaticus at February 2, 2005 9:26 AMSaxo baby: A typo I will confess to. I got a D- in typing class back in the Administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower. However, I think I was correct about the sentence. The by is part of a passive voice construction and does not create an object.
David wrote:
"This article has been fisked from one end of the blogosphere to the other, and by better writers than me"
Let us simplify it a bit first.
This article has been fisked by better writers than me.
Since this sentence is highly elided we need to expand it in order to understand it.
This article has been fisked by [writers] [who are] better writers than me.
It still doesn't read properly
Let us fully expand it.
This article has been fisked by [writers] [who are] better writers than [I am]me.
Just to show that the by is part of a pasive voice construction lets turn it around.
Writers, who are better writers than I am, have fisked this article.
QED. David. The sentence stands.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at February 2, 2005 9:29 PMBart; Let's not forget "My Candida" and "Knock Three Times". Okay, let's.
Believing that one can usher in the End Times is spiritual arrogance. It says "I am in control of God", or more succintly, "I AM God". How is that any different than the serpentine "Ye are as gods"?
In any other age, Bush's faith would have been unremarkable. But liberals have put their faith in the perfectability of Man through Statism. Or is it the perfectability of the State through Humanism? Whatever.
Posted by: Noel at February 3, 2005 6:04 AMIt will happen and I will let you know when it does, so stay tuned to me.
Posted by: YHWH at February 5, 2005 12:05 PM