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Title: GOP Operative Wants You Dead
Source:
KOS
URL Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/3/155333/1545
Published: Aug 4, 2006
Author: Grand Moff Texan
Post Date: 2006-08-04 01:44:51 by ...
Keywords: None
Views: 286
Comments: 17
You and pretty much everyone else you know. Everyone who isn't already a part of his death-cult, that is. For them, the end of the world is a good thing. He wants the US to bomb Iran, not to advance US interests, but to destroy them, along with the rest of the world. He wants to light the fuse that will ignite Armageddon. It's hard to understand the thinking of a murderous cult, like Jonestown or the Branch Davidians, but here they are among us, in San Antonio in fact, operating freely while we fight religious extremism abroad. That, it seems to me, is a severe case of misplaced priorities. By Sarah Posner, AlterNet. Posted August 3, 2006. Some influential evangelical leaders are lobbying for an attack on Iran. But it's not about geopolitics -- it's about bringing about the End Times. ... Bush and other leading Republicans have lined up behind a growing movement of Christian Zionists for whom a European Antichrist figures prominently in an end-times scenario. So they should be forced to explain to the rest of us why they're courting the votes of people who believe our allies are evil incarnate. Could it be that the central requirement for their breathlessly anticipated Armageddon -- that the United States confront Iran -- happens to dovetail so nicely with the neoconservative war agenda? At the center of it all is Pastor John Hagee, a popular televangelist who leads the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. While Hagee has long prophesized about the end times, he ratcheted up his rhetoric this year with the publication of his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," in which he argues that a confrontation with Iran is a necessary precondition for Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. In the best-selling book, Hagee insists that the United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West. Shortly after the book's publication, he launched Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which, as the Christian version of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he said would cause "a political earthquake." In a civilized world, mad dogs are euthanized, not canonized. The support is not for the present conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon. The call is for expanding that World War to include Iran. While the crisis at the Israel-Lebanon border drew more mainstream media attention to CUFI's activities, Hagee's supporters have long known that leading Republicans are listening. Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a prominent Jewish ally of the evangelical right (and friend of Jack Abramoff) has said that Hagee "without question, yes, absolutely" has the ear of the White House. Hagee's annual Night to Honor Israel at his church has drawn prominent Republicans, including Tom DeLay, who was the keynote speaker in 2002. Why is the GOP doing this? Because Gay Marriage is soooooooo 2004. And that's the only reason: While Washington insiders wonder what it means when Republicans like Mehlman and presidential aspirants Gingrich and McCain finger Iran as the central player in an epic clash of civilizations, Hagee already has spent months mobilizing the shock troops in support of another war. As diplomats, experts and pundits debate how many years Iran will need to develop a viable nuclear weapon, Hagee says the mullahs already possess the means to destroy Israel and America. And although Bush insists that diplomatic options are still on the table, Hagee has dismissed pussyfooting diplomacy and primed his followers for a conflagration. The GOP will use a network of things that look like churches, at least on paper, but which are more like a sort of decentralized 24-hour Nuremburg Rally (ironically 'supporting Israel,' if only for their own reasons). These "churches" are the GOP's one-stop shopping solution for mobs that can be pointed at any victim, and away from the disasters of GOP rule. ... For Hagee's new project, his influence in Washington is probably less important than his influence over his audience. With the clout of his listeners, he can serve Bush administration hawks by firing up grassroots support for a military strike against Iran. Over 700,000 people purchased his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," and countless more have heard him promote it on Christian radio and television programming. Dramatic, doomsday advertising has been heard by listeners of Christian media as well as on Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly's radio programs. The pages of "Jerusalem Countdown" provide a peculiar mix of biblical prophecy, purported inside information from Israeli government officials and a mixed-up, pared-down lesson in nuclear physics. Propaganda, in order to be effective, must exploit something already present in the audience's mind. You cannot teach and polemicize at the same time. In order to hijack Iran and crash it into the Democrats, therefore, Hagee must exploit his audience's lust for a worldwide orgy of death. When addressing audiences receptive to Scriptural prophecy, however, Hagee welcomes the coming confrontation. He argues that a strike against Iran will cause Arab nations to unite under Russia's leadership, as outlined in chapters 38 and 39 of the Book of Ezekiel, leading to an "inferno [that] will explode across the Middle East, plunging the world toward Armageddon." In Hagee's telling, Israel has no choice but to strike at Iran's nuclear facilities, with or without America's help. The strike will provoke Russia -- which wants Persian Gulf oil -- to lead an army of Arab nations against Israel. Then God will wipe out all but one-sixth of the Russian-led army, as the world watches "with shock and awe," he says, lending either a divine quality to the Bush administration phrase or a Bush-like quality to God's wrath. But Hagee doesn't stop there. He adds that Ezekiel predicts fire "upon those who live in security in the coastlands." From this sentence, he concludes that there will be judgment upon all who stood by while the Russian-led force invaded Israel, and issues a stark warning to the United States to intervene: "Could it be that America, who refuses to defend Israel from the Russian invasion, will experience nuclear warfare on our east and west coasts?" He says yes, citing Genesis 12:3, in which God said to Israel: "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you." That's right: the bible not only predicts but sanctions attacks on America, according to a pastor who pretends to be an American. This is what he wants for Iranians, and this is what he wants for Americans. Why is this man still walking around free? If I advocated the nuking of America's (rather blue) coasts, I'd disappear tomorrow. The answer is that this terrorist is an ally of the adminsitration, much like the MEK. We aren't fighting a war against terror, they are fighting a war for terror, for the monopolization of terror. GOP Operative Wants You Dead
by Grand Moff Texan
Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 12:53:33 PM PDT
This man wants you dead. Lobbying for Armageddon
Sound like Ahmadinejad in reverse? Aside from their putative difference in creeds, I see no difference between this so-called pastor and Ahmadinejad at all. They both believe that worldwide slaughter is a really good idea. At CUFI's kick-off banquet at the Washington Hilton, attended by over 3,500 members, Republican support for both Hagee's effort and his drumbeat for war with Iran were on full view. Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman told the group that "no regime is more central to the global jihad" than Iran. Just two days before, Newt Gingrich and John McCain made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows to sound the same message, leading Benny Elon, a member of the Israeli Knesset, to comment to the Jerusalem Post that their remarks originated with Hagee. Rick Santorum and Sam Brownback also addressed the group, and Bush sent words of support to the gathering. Republicans, and even some Democrats, spoke at CUFI events to show their "support for Israel." But while public and media attention was on the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Hagee's focus continued to be on Iran.
Although Republicans would never admit it -- they claim their support for Christian Zionists like Hagee is based on their own support for Israel -- it is clear that they know they need the votes of this constituency to win. In the same way that Karl Rove courted conservative evangelicals in 2004 by appealing to their homophobia, Republican campaign rhetoric for 2006 and 2008 has already shown signs of playing to voters who have been hearing hype for a war with Iran for months -- at church.
Hagee wields "a very large megaphone" that reaches "a very large group of people," said Rabbi James Rudin of the American Jewish Committee, who has studied the Christian right for 30 years. With CUFI, the pastor has exponentially expanded the reach of his megaphone beyond his television audience. Thanks to the viral marketing made possible by the hundreds of evangelical leaders who have signed on to his new organization, his warmongering has rippled through megachurches across America for months. Hagee calls pastors "the spiritual generals of America," an appropriate phrase given his reliance on them to rally their troops behind his message.
"I wrote this book in April 2005, and when people read it, they will think I wrote it late last night after the FOX News report," says the author without a trace of irony. "It's that close to where we are and beyond."
Hagee speaks simultaneously to two audiences about Iran's nuclear capabilities: one that fears a terrorist attack by Iran and another that embraces a biblically mandated apocalypse. To impress the fearful, he mimics Bush's deceptions about Iraq's capacity to attack the United States with weapons of mass destruction, Condoleezza Rice's warnings of mushroom clouds, and Dick Cheney's dissembling about an alliance between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. Comparing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler, Hagee argues that Iran's development of nuclear weapons must be stopped to protect America and Israel from a nuclear attack. Preying on legitimate worries about terrorism, and invoking 9/11, he vividly describes a supposed Iranian-led plan to simultaneously explode nuclear suitcase bombs in seven American cities, or to use an electromagnetic pulse device to create "an American Hiroshima."
To fill the power vacuum left by God's decimation of the Russian army, the Antichrist -- the head of the EU -- will rule "a one-world government, a one-world currency and a one-world religion" for three and a half years. (Hagee adds that "one need only be a casual observer of current events to see that all three of these things are coming into reality." The "demonic world leader" will then be confronted by a false prophet, identified by Hagee as China, at Armageddon, the Mount of Megiddo in Israel. As they prepare for the final battle, Jesus will return on a white horse and cast both villains -- and presumably any nonbelievers -- into a "lake of fire burning with brimstone," thus marking the beginning of his millennial r
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#4. To: ... (#0)
Well this is all the proof I need to not go to the light. If this clown is there leading his rapture monkeys into the great beyond, I want to stay as far away from it as I can.
Richard W.
I believe in God but I am no so sure about the rapture. I am from the bible belt, the South, and when I say this in front of most Christians, I get a look you would not believe! I have a hard time believing that some will be taken out (the righteous) before the s**t hits the fan and only the unrighteous are left here to suffer. I thought all Christians had to suffer to enter the kingdom of God. If there is a rapture and all the "good" people are taken from this earth, does that not leave only the "bad" people here? Are they not already doomed to hell? What's the need for the mark of the beast and all the other scary s**t that's supposed to happen, why are the "bad" just not sent straight to hell? Or is hell here on earth? I know we could ask questions about the rapture, heaven, and hell for days and still not know the answers. I watched a show on the Mayan prophecies last night and according to the Mayan calendar, mankind meets her end on Dec. 21st, 2012. It seems all cultures and religions have their "doomsday" prophecies. That is what makes me believe that there is going to be an Armegeddon. Even with the distances between the cultures and countries, they all believed that there is an "end" to man's existence. What do you guys think?
#10. To: nc_girl_speaks_up (#8)
I really try and leave people’s religious beliefs to themselves…but….the Rapture folk are led by some very pro war-like hucksters. I’m so tired of their unflinching devotion to Israel that I feel the need to hurl.
Jesus told his disciples that He didn't know when He would return - only The Father knows. I tend to agree with your take on the tribulation/rapture matter. I believe that anyone calling for the mass slaughter of anyone is not of God.
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#7. To: TommyTheMadArtist (#4)
leading his rapture monkeys into the great beyond
#8. To: All (#7)
Replies to Comment # 8. If there is a rapture and all the "good" people are taken from this earth, does that not leave only the "bad" people here?
#12. To: nc_girl_speaks_up (#8)
End Trace Mode for Comment # 8.