[Dialogue] America Struggles With Its Own Evangelical Taliban

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 by the Daytona Beach News-Journal
<http://www.news-journalonline.com> 

America Struggles With Its Own Evangelical Taliban 

by Pierre Tristam 

 

At this late stage of the Bush rapture, American evangelism is a lot like
the Exxon Valdez: Massive, sloshing with oily energy and not a little drunk
on its power as it steers through hazards of its own designs. The moment
evangelicals began tearing down the church-state wall, the rubble became
their shoals. The wreck will be ugly. It will take years to mend because, as
one of their own, Minnesota's Rev. Gregory Boyd, recently put it: "Never in
history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn't bloody and
barbaric. That's why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church
and state." Meanwhile, too much damage is being done by policies keyed to
the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" not to have lasting consequences abroad
and at home. 

The wreck's effects abroad are spreading. Remember William Boykin, the Army
lieutenant-general who went around Christian congregations after Sept. 11,
telling them how he knew that "my" God "was bigger than his" (one of Osama's
lieutenants), "that my God was a real God, and his was an idol"? Instead of
being relegated to sorting junk mail in a Pentagon basement, Boykin was
promoted to undersecretary of defense for intelligence -- including the
supervision of prison interrogations. It's "his" God against the jihadis now
in Iraq and Afghanistan, and apparently "his" God against the Constitution
or the Geneva Conventions. 

The evangelical assault on secular values at home is no less dangerous than
its Islamic variant. It's a difference of degrees, not substance. The
difference is hard to see when evangelicals eagerly thump for blood-letting
abroad or stage-manage it like Boykin and his crusading commander-in-chief
do. John Hagee is a Texas evangelical and leader of that hybrid known as the
Christian Zionist movement. He commands a huge following and the ear of
politicians, Bush among them. Earlier this month Hagee led a rally of 3,500
evangelicals at a Washington hotel, where he called Israel's attacks on
Lebanon a "miracle of God" and proof that Israel was doing God's work. Hagee
was quoted in The Wall Street Journal as saying that for Israel to show
restraint would violate "God's foreign policy statement" toward Jews. Bush
sent Hagee a message of praise for "spreading the hope of God's love and the
universal gift of freedom." 

When he's not thumping for Israel, Hagee raises money for Republican causes
and beats war drums in line with his clash-of-civilizations thesis. "This is
a religious war that Islam cannot -- and must not -- win," he wrote in a
recent book. He also sees the United States heading toward a nuclear
confrontation with Iran, itself a fulfillment of a joyful promise: "The end
of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching," he writes. "Rejoice and
be exceedingly glad -- the best is yet to be." In other words, war is a good
thing, rapturous and necessary and sealed with a kiss from God, as the world
edges toward Armageddon. The Bush presidency is that evangelical view's
self-fulfilling prophesy. Militants for Hezbollah, Hamas and the Taliban
speak the very same language. Only the roles are reversed. 

Gregory Boyd, author of those words in the first paragraph about every
Christian theocracy's sorry history, is the sort of evangelical who wants to
prevent a complete wreck. His profile appeared in the Sunday New York Times,
yang to Hagee's Journal yin three days earlier. Boyd wants evangelicals out
of politics, out of cheering for war and turning politics and patriotism
into "idolatry." "America wasn't founded as a theocracy. America was founded
by people trying to escape theocracies," he tells his Minnesota
congregation. Boyd, writes The Times, "lambasted the 'hypocrisy and
pettiness' of Christians who focus on 'sexual issues' like homosexuality,
abortion or Janet Jackson's breast-revealing performance," as well as the
claim the evangelicals alone know the right values. "All good, decent people
want good and order and justice," he says. "Just don't slap the label
'Christian' on it." 

Boyd and Hagee are the good cop and bad cop of American evangelism as it
pulpits its way to 50 million congregants and beyond. The bad cop is winning
right now. It's always easier to destroy than build. We should know. Boyd
and Hagee have their twins all over the world of Islam, where theocratic
thumping is the regressive rule. There, too, the likes of Hagee are winning.
But that's not our battle. It's Islam's to resolve, if it can. Our battle is
with our own domestic Taliban, if it doesn't sink us on those shoals first. 

Tristam is a News-Journal editorial writer. Email to: ptristam at att.net. 

C 2006 News-Journal Corporation 

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