SLOUCHING TOWARD BETHLEHEM

THE SECOND COMING W.B. Yeats 1920

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert,
A shape with lion body and the head of a man.
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Yeat's nightmarish vison of the Apocalypse unfolded with the rise of Nazi power in Europe and it is freshly renewed now in the advent of American Empire. Then, as now, the worst are full of passionate intensity. Then as now there is to be a 'New World Order' (George Bush senior)

The Second Coming, however, is not about the renewed avatar of Jesus. It is in essence the explosion of the beast, once again evil incarnate. This time it says its name is the 'Fire of Freedom.' Once again it will incinerate the earth, and its name is America. The heart of its flame is radical evangelical Christanity. And, we dear souls will be vexed to nightmare by its rocking cradle. It won't be the baby Jesus. Suprise! Look on the monster's face of Rosemary's baby.

Many Americans, aproximately fifty percent of us, while disturbed by the corruption of George Bush's first election, were too lulled by the comforts of life to take seriously the growing alarm from those to the left of us. Now with the Bush juggernaut in full manifest destiny we echo millions of those like us in 1920's Europe and realize our lives are suspect. We creep with a dark troubled sense that every thing we assumed about our democratic culture and governance is changing forever and not for the best.

The change could be seen as early as the Reagan era, but its full insidious momentum began with the new world order of pere Bush I. During the seventies the formidable union of Saudi royals and the Bush family created, literally, the greatest transfer of wealth in history. In exchange for military protection the Saudi's gave to America carte blanche through the Bush's and their emmissaries hundreds of billions of dollars in pure power.

It is known that the Saudi's own aproximately one trillion dollars worth of America in banks, credit companies, energy companies, land, refineries, transportation entities and more. The Saudi family of Bin Ladin, one of the wealthest in the world, have been an integral part of the investment plan since the beginning. Is it any wonder that when American airspace was closed down after the 9/11 attack that the only planes flying were carrying Bin Ladins out of the country courtesy of George Bush?

What is happening now in America is not just a threat to its traditional democratic foundations it is a complete dismanteling of it. Unless stopped what is destined to replace it is Christian Reconstruction and/or Dominionism. This view of government was formed in the middle of the last century By John Rushdoony. Its view is that Christian governments, namely the United States and its vassals, shall have dominion over the world and its resources. As Pat Robertson phrased it in 1984, "the mandate is to rule the world for God"

In 1984 many of us thought crackpot dominionists like Robertson could hardly be seriously considered. Now they occupy all levels of the judiciary, military, and ecomomic spheres of America. What stands in their way is over two hundred years of Constitutional law. In its place is the desire to establish Bibilical law where an authoritarian male theocracy will triumph. The Roverian philosophy that now dominates influence in Washington is in fact one with the Islamic fundementalism that opposes it. This is a holy war between totalitarian religious elites.

In this emerging American theocracy liberals, gays, feminists, non Christians, and all others are slated for conversion or destruction. Already the Bushies have declared that low yield atomic weapons are an option for taking the world to Zion in praise of the Lord. Invading weak but strategic states like Syria and Iraq will serve as practice. Most likely Bush will get Israel to do its dirty work on Iran. Iran remains the single greatest obstacle to tactical domination of the middle East and its treasures of fossil fuels.

The Christian zealots that have lifted Bush to supremacy believe that the end times as propheticized by the Bible are upon us, and that a Rapture will precede the Tribulation we sinners will be left to endure. Although millions believe this rubbish, it has not occured to them that according to the end times nonsense less than two hundred thousand will actually be chosen. Oh well!

A staggering 59% of Americans (according to a 2002 TIME/CNN poll) now believe that the end times are at hand. Before the Nazi's came to power people thought that they were a lunatic fringe--much to history's everlasting regret. Its happening again, only on a far grander scale and inconceivably more destructive .

The people behind Bush's endless military assult on Satan in the Middle East are the creators of the Project for the New American Century. Their plan is for nothing less than securing total U.S. global domination. Their imprint can be found behind the overthrow of every democratically elected government since Reagan.

Among the powers that be are: Dick Cheney, U.S. Vice President; Donald Rumsfeld, Secetary of Defense; Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secetary of Defense; Peter Rodman, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs; Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State; John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security; Elliot Abrams; James Woolsey, Lewis Libby and scores of lesser professional dominion subordinates. One of the best sources to quickly get a grasp of the enormous change that has happened since Bush Jr.s election can be found in the Sojourners magazine (found on the web through Goggle). Two other excellent sources of the Bush dominion plan for America can be found in Kevin Phillip's book, 'American Dynasty' and Craig Unger's 'House of Bush--House of Saud.'

The complexity of current American History is formidable, but the general picture of democracy's demise in the U.S.A is still possible to grasp by reviewing informed sources in cyberspace. It is only a matter of time before Bush and those that follow him began to dismantle the one last road to freedom--the Internet. In the name of the Patriot Act it is almost assured that control will be imposed and for the Bushies--sooner than later.

Our concern in this small forum is to take a closer look at the religious zealots that have captured America in the name of Zion and the Apocalypse. The religious terminology can be daunting and it is helpful to sort it out a bit. Many evangelicals, for example, are extremely upset over the implications embraced by their dominionist brothers and sisters.

Evangelicals have in general undergone an experience referred to as 'born again.' According to historian Mark Noll the chief characteristics of evangelicals are: a very strong belief in the Bible as the primary religious authority; a commitment to the practice of conversion. The third characteristic is 'activism' or 'witnessing' to other people about the Christian message of 'salvation.' Forth, and central to all the other beliefs is the 'death' and 'ressurection' of Christ. Even among traditional evangelicals, who adhere most closely to the New Testement, the powerful perversion of 'Jesus' theology is disturbing.

Concentrating on evangelical dominion theology one turns to George Grant, a major dominionist writer. In 'The Changing of the Guard, Biblical Principles for Political Action' Grant writes: "Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ--to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness in World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less...Thus Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land--of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ."

Central to the implementation of building the Kingdom of God on earth is implementation of Biblical law. The reconstruction of America has started and is advancing rapidly with the reelection of George Bush. The number three ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, Rick Santorum, is just such an evangelical reconstructionist.

Santorum's views are close to those of Gary North, a prolific reconstructionist writer: "So let us be blunt about it: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and religious liberty of the enemies of God."

Santorum believes that homosexuality and adultery should be illegal and criminalized. Further, along with his friends on the Supreme Court we expect the attempt to criminalize aproximately 30 million gay Americans. It begins with the Amendment to prevent 'so-called' gay marriages and will eventually find institutionalized discrimination in housing, employment, and complete banning of teaching positions. It is not illogical to assume that reservations for the containment of gays will ultimately happen.It happened to Jews in germany and the paradigm is virtually the same.

Biblical law in the hands of these fanatics is as cold and final as a gravestone. Capital punishment will be the rule just as it is in Saudi Arabia. It is no suprise that under George Bush, Texas executed more criminals in one year than most states combined. There will be a minimal national government and an enormous armed military force filled with the semi-illiterate sons and daughters of the disenfranchized and working poor.

Unbelievers will simply not be employed. Civil rights will cease to exist in America and the two hundred years of finely tuned law will be crumbled into pieces, like the clay idols these extremists think them to be. Women will be subordinated in all but the top ranks of the ruling corporate elite.

Public schools will be abolished or financially starved to death. Abortion will be punishable by death and those unfortunate unwanted children born into such a world will be totally dependent on the mercy of faith based iniatives. The latter is a particularly grim prospect for tens of millions of innocents since even now these Jesus evangelicals despise the poor and are working overtime in Congress to dismantle social service programs.

This fantastic senario might seem the substance of science fiction, but it is here now and making incredible advance. Bush and his 'deus machina' feel that they are the exclusive mandate of God and are going to implement their dominion prophesies, creating a hell on earth and fulfill their own beliefs in the End Times and Armageddon.

We have only brushed the surface of this monumental movement in history and will return to it often in the future exploring various ramifications of the changes to come. 'Pontificating Rhythms'(Feb. 26) was the first of our attempts in this direction. For the thirsty and ambitious the following site is an excellent beginning---http://theocracywatch.org

It is now our belief that those ascending to complete control of America are in every sense antidemocratic, un American, traitors and the anti-Christ they prophesize. We hope that our friends in 'Old Europe' and Canada will be generous in providing that garage space or outbuilding for our exile when we must escape over the border with a burlap bag of meager belongings and pounding hearts. Read Margaret Atwood's 'The Hand Maiden' and weep with us as we sit on the banks of Babylon and remember the true Zion.