Most sane people, be it in America or around the world, are in no rush to see the end of the world. Nor are they eager to see the Middle East explode in war. The term "sane people," in my view, rules out extreme evangelical Christians who cling to a bizarre reading of the Bible - a book totally composed by unknown authors who lacked any modern knowledge - that makes them want the world and life as we know it to end. They want the "End Times" to Armageddon to come. And to make this happen, they need a war in the Middle East involving Israel even though it would mean all but a few members of the Jewish nation perish. Frighteningly, two such evangelicals are in positions of power that make their lunacy very dangerous: Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo. Both are in tight communication with some of the most extreme Christian dominionists who, despite occasional disavowals when exposed by the media, want a theocracy in America. These zealots are anti-LGBT, want women in subordinate roles to men, and would impose their beliefs on all Americans. A piece in
New Republic looks at Pence and Pompeo's disturbing alliances. Here are excerpts:
Last
Friday, a day after Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani and nine others were
killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq, the Christian Zionist advocacy group
Christians United for Israel emailed its millions of supporters to praise President
Trump’s move. “This Decisive Action Will Save Countless Lives,” read the
subject line, echoing the assessment delivered that morning by Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo on Fox and Friends.
Pompeo
and Pence reportedly were the top officials pushing Trump to kill
Soleimani. They’re also devout evangelicals and major allies of CUFI. This is not a coincidence. While the
organization is best known for its unflagging “support” for Israel—that is, for
Israel’s expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank and protracted
erasure of the possibility of a future Palestinian state—it has, since its
founding in 2006, depicted Iran as an existential threat to Israel.
Televangelist
John Hagee launched CUFI in 2006, calling for military action against
Iran, then led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom Hagee compared to Hitler.
At the time, Hagee had been claiming that Iran would soon “have the nuclear
capability to make a bomb, a suitcase bomb, a missile head, or anything they
want to do with it.” That was untrue, given contemporaneous expert assessments
of Iran’s projected nuclear advances. But for Hagee, a more militaristic
approach was necessary in order to avert “an American Hiroshima.”
In
his 2006 book, Jerusalem Countdown, Hagee imagined an elaborate
scenario in which a U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran would trigger an
“inferno [that] will explode across the Middle East, plunging the world toward
Armageddon.” Faced with scrutiny over his apocalyptic theology, he strained to
create a discrete image for his new political organization, insisting that his
extensive writings on biblical prophecy about the Rapture and Second Coming
were distinct from CUFI’s lobbying agenda. But it was a rocky start for the
organization. In 2008, while running for president, John McCain first accepted,
then rejected, Hagee’s
endorsement. The rebuff was seen as damaging to the political neophyte and a
brave stance by McCain against fringe elements within the GOP’s evangelical
base. At CUFI’s annual Washington Summit, held just two months later, only three
members of Congress attended.
But one of those
three members was a certain congressman from Indiana: Pence. He continued to
maintain close ties with the organization, and in 2014 CUFI paid for then-Governor Pence and his wife to travel to
Israel to celebrate Christmas. With Pence as vice president, Hagee’s star has
risen even more. He has claimed a role in convincing Trump to move the American
Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, . . . . Hagee delivered the benediction at the embassy dedication, a day
Hagee described as “nothing short of a divine miracle!”
On matters of
Iran, too, there has been a seamless relationship between CUFI and the Trump
administration. In 2017, just a few months into Trump’s presidency, Pence addressed the CUFI Washington Summit, assuring attendees
that “President Trump has put Iran on notice: America will no longer tolerate
Iran’s efforts to destabilize the region and jeopardize Israel’s security,” and
promising that under Trump, “the United States of America will not allow Iran
to develop a useable nuclear weapon.” Trump’s subsequent actions have only
elevated the specter of chaos in the region. . . . . and yet, his evangelical supporters
consider this one of his top accomplishments.
Pompeo, in a
political career spanning three terms in the House of Representatives, a brief
stint as CIA director, and now, as the country’s top diplomat, has promoted intertwining his Christian faith with his public
service. But he has scoffed at charges that evangelicals promote theocracy. In
a March 2019 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, while
visiting Israel, Pompeo was asked whether Trump “has been sort of raised for
such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people
from the Iranian menace?” “As a Christian,” Pompeo replied, “I certainly
believe that’s possible.” . . . and then thanked God for President Trump—“an
immovable friend of Israel.” “We’ve implemented the strongest pressure campaign
in history against the Iranian regime,” Pompeo said, “and we are not done.”
Personally, if one is a science denying, theocracy supporting evangelical, you should not be allowed to hold any important political position, not because of your "faith" but rather due to you dangerous embrace of ignorance.
