Is Bush Delusional?
Posted: 3/10/2003 11:01:46 PM
By: Comfortably Anonymous
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Topic: News: Middle East
MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY


"We are lived by forces we scarcely understand," wrote W.H. Auden. What forces live us now as America again torques toward war?

George W. Bush is certainly the plaything of such forces as the geopolitics of oil but it seems that he is susceptible to other even darker archetypal concerns. Let me be blunt. The man is delusional and the shape of his delusion is specifically apocalyptic in belief and intent. That Bush would attack so many vital systems on so many fronts from foreign policy to the environment may seem confusing from the point of view of realpolitik but becomes transparent in terms of the apocalyptic worldview to which he subscribes. All systems are supposed to go down so the Messiah can come and Bush, seemingly, has taken on the role of the one who brings this to pass.

The Reverend Billy Graham taught Bush to live in anticipation of the Second Coming but it was his friendship with Dr. Tony Evans that shaped Bush's political understanding of how to deport himself in an apocalyptic era. Dr. Evans, the pastor of a large Dallas church and a founder of the Promise Keepers movement taught Bush about "how the world should be seen from a divine viewpoint," according to Dr. Martin Hawkins, Evans assistant pastor.

S.R. Shearer of Antipas Ministries writes, "Most of the leaders of the Promise Keepers embrace a doctrine of 'end time' (eschatology), known as 'dominionim.' Dominionism pictures the seizure of earthly (temporal) power by the 'people of God' as the only means through which the world can be rescued.... It is the eschatology that Bush has imbibed; an eschatology through which he has gradually (and easily) come to see himself as an agent of God who has been called by him to 'restore the earth to God's control', a 'chosen vessel', so to speak, to bring in the Restoration of All Thingss." Shearer calls this delusion, "Messianic leadership"-- that is to say usurping the role usually ascribed to the Messiah.

In Bush at War Bob Woodward writes, "Most presidents have high hopes. Some have grandiose visions of what they will achieve, and he was firmly in that camp."

"To answer these attacks and rid the world of evil," says Bush. Grandiose visions. Woodward comments, "The president was casting his mission and that of the country in the grand vision of Gods Master Plan."

In dominionism we can see the theological source of Bush's monomania. Not to be distracted by the fact that he lost the popular election by a half a million votes, that the Joint Chief of Staff at the Pentagon were so concerned about his plans to invade Iraq that they leaked their unanimous objection, that he has systematically alienated much of the world, that roughly seventy percent of Americans remain unconvinced of the imminent threat of Saddam Hussein and the same percentage object to war if there will be significant American casualties--none of this is in the least relevant. He believes his mandate toward action is from God.

As humans we live within stories. Some stories, like apocalypse are thousands of years old. The scriptured text that informs Bush understanding of and enactment of the End of Days (Revelations 19) depicts Christ returning as the Heavenly Avenger. Revelations is the only New Testament book that justifies violence of any kind, and this it takes to the limit: Christ himself the agent of mass murder.

"I saw heaven open and there before me was a white horse who is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war...He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood and his name is the word of God...Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the Nations. And I saw an angel standing in the sun who cried in a low voice to all the birds flying in midair--come gather together for the great supper of God, so you may eat the flesh of kings, generals and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great."
Such is "the glory of the coming of the Lord." Truth, carnage, and the ecstasy of vultures. In a ruined world the Messiah slays the antichrist and creates "a new heaven and a new earth." The dead are judged, the Christians saved and the rest damned to eternal torment. The New Jerusalem is established and the Lord rules it "with an iron scepter."

It is not inconceivable that Bush is literally and determinedly drawn, consciously and unconsciously, toward the enactment of such a scenario, as he believes, for God's sake. Indeed the stark relentlessness of his policy in the Middle East suggests as much.

It dishonors the profundity of the Christian tradition if one doesn't note that Revelations has always been a rogue text. Because of its association with the Montanist heresy (which like contemporary fundamentalists took it to be literal rather than allegorical) it was with great reluctance that it was made scripture three centuries after the death of Christ. Traditionally attributed to St. John, most Biblical scholars now recognize its literary style and its theology has little in common with John's gospel or his epistles and was likely written after his death. Martin Luther found the vindictive God of Revelations incompatible with the gospels and relegated it to the appendix of his German translation of the New Testament instead of the body of scripture. All the Protestant reformers except Calvin regarded apocalyptic millenialism to be heresy.

But Revelations is also a rogue text because it is unmoored from its origins, which are far from Christian. It is a late variant on a story that was pervasive in the ancient world: the defeat of the wild and the uncivilized by a superior order upon which a New World would be established. Two thousand years before Revelations depicted Christ slaying the antichrist and laying out the New Jerusalem, Marduk slayed Tiamat and founded Babylon.

This pagan myth recycled as a suspiciously unchristian Biblical test found new credence in the 19th century when John Darby virtually revived the Montanist heresy of investing it with a passionate literalism. Given to visions (he saw the British as one of the ten tribes of Israel) Darby left the priesthood of the Church of Ireland and preached Revelations as both prophecy and imminent history. In this he inaugurated a lineage in which Bush's mentors, the Reverend Billy Graham and Dr. Tony Evans are recent heirs. Revelations is much beloved by Muslim fundamentalists and like their Christian compatriots they also thrill to redemption through apocalypse. Jewish fundamentalists of course do not believe in Revelations but have nonetheless made common cause with the Christian Right. "It's a very tragic situation in which Christian fundamentalists, certain groups of them that focus on Armageddon and the Rapture and the role of a war between Muslims and Jews in bringing about the Second Coming, are involved in a folie a deux with extremist Jews," said Ian Lustick, the author of For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. The Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition (and yes it is a single tradition) is being led by its fringe into the abyss and the rest of us with it.

The world has been readied for the fire but the critical element is the Bush Administration. Never in the history of Christendom has there been a moment when this rogue element has carried anything like the credibility and political power that it carries now.

All proceeds from the publication of this essay go to the Nganga Project.


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Is Bush Delusional?
Posted: 3/10/2003 11:01:46 PM
By: Comfortably Anonymous
Times Read: 2,219
0 Dislikes: 0
Topic: News: Middle East
The Charismatic movement is one of the oldest and most dangerous phenomena in the history of the Church. This movement's rather controversial theological views stir until this day many violent discussions among the different churches. Many rational Orthodox theologians and believers accuse it of corrupting the true Christian faith and contradicting the traditions inherited from the Apostles and early Fathers. Not to mention that many "Christian" sects are using the practices it introduces to pull the simple-minded into their ideas, and to gather as many people as possible, in an age where humanity is sinking in the "latitudinarism" of modern religion, and the rise of individual faith and naïve personal beliefs in opposition to the faith of the Church and its saints throughout the ages.

A man called Montanus founded one of the oldest charismatic cults in Christianity. His heresy threatened the Church to a degree so grave that the Holy Fathers raged a ferocious war against it, and called for local councils to excommunicate it, despite its strict pietism, emphasis on what it called "prophecy" and some gifts. Nevertheless, the heresy spread throughout Asia Minor and northern Africa.

Montanism started in the village of Ardabau near Mysia in Phrygia, in the second half of the second century. Montanus, who was a priest of the ecstatic cult of Cybele before converting to Christianity, began prophesizing in the year (172 AD). He taught his followers that second marriages were acts of adultery that must be avoided, enforced strict fasts, taught of non-forgiveness to those who fell in great sins, and despised arts and science. Because this heresy was characterized with prejudice and strictness, it brought Montanus many enthusiastic followers. Montanus later dedicated many people to carry on his charismatic work; the most famous among those were the prophetesses Priscilla and Maximilla, and the prophets Alexipias and Theodoritus.

Montanism continued spreading until it reached Leon in the time of Elvuthreius Bishop of Rome (174 - 189). It is also mentioned that Montanism became very powerful in Ankara, the capital of Galatia. Before 190 the heresy had already reached Antioch, forcing its Bishop Serapion (190 - 211; the ninth bishop after Saint Peter the Apostle) to send a letter to the hierarchs Kryxus and Pontius containing signatures of various bishops in the Church excommunicating Montanism. The heresy reached Rome probably in the year 200, and many discussions were held with its followers (Such as that held between Proclus the Montanist and Ghayus in the time of Zephyrinus Bishop of Rome 198 - 217). The Canon of Moratori (the oldest list of authorized New Testament books, written in Rome between 170 - 180) mentions Montanism among heresies and rejects its teachings and writings.

The oldest reference to Montanism is in the "Ecclesiastical History" by Eusebius of Caesarea (+ 340). The writer quotes from one of the early Fathers that the prophecies of Maximilla never came true, even thirteen years after her death. And that just because Montanism has martyrs does not mean that they hold the truth, because even heretics have their own martyrs. It is clear from this reference that one of the greatest arguments between Montanists and the Church in Asia Minor was whether a real prophet prophesies in a state of hallucination and frenzy.

In the "Refutation of Heresies" by Hippolytus of Rome (217 - 235) Montanists are criticized for preferring their prophets and holding them above Christ, the Apostles, and every gift, and for not investigating the teachings they receive. In a different section he points to the fact that there are no differences between Montanists and Orthodox Christians on creation and Christ. Their error, in his opinion, lies in relying on their prophets' words rather than the Gospels, and enforcing new practices that disagree with tradition.

Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus (215 - 403) wrote in his "Panarion" a whole chapter on Montanism using ancient documents. He says that Montanists receive the Holy Bible in all, the resurrection of the dead, and the Trinity; but they mislead in their teachings on gifts. He mentions Montanist books, the verses they use, and the Church's refutation of them, and reveals the fundamental question of whether it is possible to rely on a person who prophesizes absent-mindedly.

Modern charismatic groups acquired a great deal from the experiences of their predecessors, directly or indirectly. The spreaders of these ideas preach themselves as divine mediators and carriers of superior gifts, as if these are granted through them, although they are numbered in the hundreds and contradict each other's doctrines.

Benny Hinn is a modern charismatic whose shows are broadcasted all over the world to serve the charismatic Protestant propaganda. His "holy" power has been criticized and studied by parapsychologists. Many healers follow his footsteps in the religious media, and spread dangerously in the United States and elsewhere. On the other hand, we have Emiliano Tardif, a Catholic charismatic whose visits to many European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries strengthened a new charismatic wave within the Catholic Church, in opposition to the charismatic Protestant movement in those countries; nevertheless, he has been criticized bitterly by some rational Catholic theologians.

We can name hundreds of healers and movements with such practices: The Children of God, the Mormons, the Amish, the "new thought" groups, many Baptist sects, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many other fundamentalist cults that surround us. Our Church in the Middle East suffers today from this growing disease, which is supported by Christian Zionist organizations and Israeli media.

History shows that most of these movements rely on clever individuals who exploit religion to make a fortune, attract followers, and to enjoy the ability to control the public. In doing so, they deprive Christianity of everything that is truly significant. Nevertheless, many of its misled followers have great love for God, which needs to find the correct way to be expressed, and no way is greater, nor holier, than the Orthodox way.

By Abraham Aboud
Saint Andrew Orthodox Church - Riverside, CA
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