Election and Religion :America

Marking the celebration of 60th birth anniversary of Israel the American President George Bush said in Jerusalem on Thursday May 15, 2008 that the Jewish state would be a flourishing democracy when it celebrates its 120th anniversary. His party’s nominee for the forthcoming election John McCain said that he would win the war in Iraq in four years and bring back the American troops in 2013. Why they are so optimistic and self assured? The answer is religion, and in essence the doctrine of premillennial dispensationalism.

There is plenty of proof that religion is ascendant in America as never before even at the time when the founding fathers had established the city of god on the rock. The world owes to the United States of America the invention of the concept of fundamentalism. The religious right are on the rise. Their voice is heard with rapt attention and thunderous applause. On February 26, 2008 the Christian preacher Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus and author of Silent No More remarked that the prophet of Islam was inspired by demon spirits and not by the living god. He called Islam a false religion, an antichrist religion. He reminded his guest of the occasion, the Republican nominee John McCain, and others that it was the historic duty of the US to destroy Islam. Through this kind of vociferous vitriol Parsley wanted to stagger his audience, he said. What he spoke and wrote in a chapter titled “Islam: The Deception of Allah” of his book is truly staggering:

“I cannot tell you how important it is that we understand the true nature of Islam, that we see it for what it really is. In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore.” He goes on to say: "It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492…Columbus dreamed of defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began America." And this: "Allah was a demon spirit."

What is astonishing is that McCain embraced and praised Parsley. Neither did he protest nor did he condemn him. This is the same man who in 2000 election tried for nomination and had called Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as "agents of intolerance." In 2004 Parsley’s evangelical followers in Ohio voted Bush for reelection. McCain sees the inevitability of the evangelicals including the Texas televangelist Reverend John Hagee who has called the Catholic Church as “the great whore” and a “false cult system”. Their antagonism to Islam and unflinching albeit uncritical support for Israel leads many to indulge in innuendos about Obama, Osama and the Somali Muslim ancestry of the former. Even so Obama is a friend of the stalwart ally that is Israel. Otherwise also no

one can dare to criticize Israel on crucial matters. Look at how the mainstream Americans ignore and berate the senior ombudsman and former President Jimmy Carter in his struggle to bring peace to the Middle East. His meeting Hamas leaders has not gone down well with the administration and the political leaders.

The overwhelming concern for Israel is because the evangelical Christians have enormous influence on the election outcome. They want Israel to be not just strong but dominating. President Bush was elected because of their support. Once John McCain had called the radical preachers as intolerant but now he is currying favour with them because he knows that he would need them to win.

According to the millennial dispensationalism doctrine there will be ingathering of the Jews of the world in Israel. Israel will reign supreme from the Nile to the Euphrates. The Jews will destroy the Dome of Rock [Aqsa mosque] to rebuild the original temple of Abraham. They would accept Christianity. There would be the Second Coming of Christ who would destroy the antichrist [read Muslims, in the context of the evangelicals of today]. This would be the last but one stage of the Biblical history. In the end all those who are redeemed would be swept away up to the heaven. Christ would rule a millennium thereafter. The religious right view this essential for their ultimate salvation.

When Bush attacked Obama without naming him he said that talking to ‘radicals’ and ‘terrorists’ is like the appeasement of Nazis in 1939. Hamas and Hezbollah are the new avatars of the antichrist. The implication is loud and clear. There would be no peace in the Middle East. Endorsing Obama, John Edwards spoke of tearing down walls that divide the Americans in matters relating to war and the Middle East. Would the man he has endorsed be able to do that?