Praise the provider
"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
2 Chronicles 7:14
When George W. Bush was sworn into office in January 2001, he placed his right hand on an old copy of the Bible that had been used in the same ceremony in 1789 by George Washington. His re-election was widely credited to the millions on the religious right who wanted him back in the White House precisely because of his commitment to the Good Book. The President is said to be up before dawn each day to study the scriptures and decipher their meaning.
His spiritual adviser, Dr. Richard Land, represents the largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptists. Last year he released a book entitled, 'Real Homeland Security: The America God Will Bless' (Broadman & Holman Publishers). In it Dr. Land introduced his readers to the conditions God has placed on specific Christians in America so that the country may receive His blessings, defeat world terrorism and continue to enjoy the levels of consumption that is its unalienable right.
Big footing
In 2002, a World Wildlife Fund report provided an ecological 'consumption footprint' for each country based on factors such as a nation's consumption of grain, fish, wood and fresh water, along with its emissions of carbon dioxide from industry and cars. The report provided an ecological 'footprint' for each country by showing how much land is required to support each resident. America's footprint was 12.2 hectares per head of population compared to Western Europe at 6.28ha, Poland at 4.6ha per head and Ethiopia, the poorest, at 2ha.
To Americans, consumption and religion are very important. Between 65 percent to 70 percent regularly attend church, more than the 55 percent in Poland; 28 percent in Canada; and 14 percent in West Germany. However at this moment in time there is a tremendous division which runs through states; through institutions and through families between the exponents of Judeo Christian values and the post-modernists.
Fundamental differences
Unfortunately those who espouse Judeo Christian values differ in their interpretations-even within the Baptist community. There are the Southern Baptist who believe that God intended races to be separate and Northern Baptists who say that God does not condone treating one race as superior to another; there are Particular Baptists who believe that redemption is limited to a chosen few and General Baptists who believe that anyone can be saved who atones for their sins; and then there are the differences between fundamentalists and moderates and evangelists.
Although all sides see the Bible as the central authority fundamentalists believe the history and religious teachings to be without error (literal) while the moderates believe that only religious truths (as interpreted by them) to be without error. Fundamentalists also have a tendency to be very strict; intolerant; very judgmental and many do not want to associate with other Christians who don't agree with them. Often fundamentalists will even want to separate themselves from people who refuse to separate themselves from people who they don't agree with. Evangelists are said not to be like that-at least not to the same degree.
Conversion factors
However all Baptists agree that to be a member of their ranks one has to be 'converted' or 'born again'. The fundamentalists insist that this conversion is a sudden, climactic, orgasmic event; whereas the evangelists admit to the possibility that it may be a gradual process with a degree of foreplay.
Dr. Richard Land, who is an adviser to President Bush, and has the presidential cufflinks to prove it, is an evangelical Southern Baptist with a fundamentalist flavor who believes that the Bible is the word of God and that within it God has made promises to man, both unconditional and conditional.
God's unconditional promise is that the land of Israel belongs to the Jews forever and therefore Dr. Land would have sent 500,000 troops into Iraq.
The 'right' path
To Dr. Land and America, God has made a conditional promise. What God has said is: "If my people do this and that in the correct manner then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land." In this context "my people" refers only to those who are 'born again' and within the boundaries of the USA. Provided that the believers in the USA fulfill certain conditions as demanded by God and interpreted by Dr. Land the their 'consumption footprint' will continue. But there is only one 'right' ritual.
In our time on this Earth we have managed to change the World but not ourselves. Our psychology is the same as it has always been. We need rituals and ceremonies; sacrifice and atonement in order to placate the forces that we do not understand or to plead with them to provide us with what we desire.
The Peruvian path
In 1987 a civilization was uncovered in northern Peru, the Moche, precursors of the Incas. Their pyramids, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon, rivaled those of Egypt. Their art, pottery, jewelry and technological prowess was on a level of sophistication that matched anything discovered about the past to date. Their star had been in ascendance for over 500 years but had vanished suddenly around 650AD. The most recent explanation is as follows.
The ocean-atmosphere system of the Pacific known as the El Nino changed. 30 years of above average rainfall produced torrential rain and floods. This was followed by 30 years of drought. But these adverse weather conditions did not destroy the Moche. They destroyed themselves through internecine warfare in arguments over the rituals and ceremonies required to placate the Gods and in competition for scarce resources.
But Modern Man is more educated; more intelligent; more scientific and carries insurance.
Trials and tribulations
Just in case Dr. Land's rituals are not obeyed and his congregation is unable to placate the deity then only a seven year period of 'tribulation' will occur after which born-again Christians who have died will have their bodies reconstituted and will ascend through the air, and meet Jesus Christ in the sky. They will be followed by a second mass migration of the born-again who are currently living. Pilots will disappear from planes, truck drivers from their trucks; people from automobiles, etc. This is known as the 'rapture' when only true believers will obtain their just rewards and ascend into the arms of the Lord and to a nirvana of consumption.
For the rest of us, for those mortals that are not chosen, Christ will return leading an army on horseback and will exterminate one third of the earth's population in a massive genocide on the scale only once before experienced-that of the flood at the time of Noah. Cycles repeat.
2 Chronicles 7:14
When George W. Bush was sworn into office in January 2001, he placed his right hand on an old copy of the Bible that had been used in the same ceremony in 1789 by George Washington. His re-election was widely credited to the millions on the religious right who wanted him back in the White House precisely because of his commitment to the Good Book. The President is said to be up before dawn each day to study the scriptures and decipher their meaning.
His spiritual adviser, Dr. Richard Land, represents the largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptists. Last year he released a book entitled, 'Real Homeland Security: The America God Will Bless' (Broadman & Holman Publishers). In it Dr. Land introduced his readers to the conditions God has placed on specific Christians in America so that the country may receive His blessings, defeat world terrorism and continue to enjoy the levels of consumption that is its unalienable right.
Big footing
In 2002, a World Wildlife Fund report provided an ecological 'consumption footprint' for each country based on factors such as a nation's consumption of grain, fish, wood and fresh water, along with its emissions of carbon dioxide from industry and cars. The report provided an ecological 'footprint' for each country by showing how much land is required to support each resident. America's footprint was 12.2 hectares per head of population compared to Western Europe at 6.28ha, Poland at 4.6ha per head and Ethiopia, the poorest, at 2ha.
To Americans, consumption and religion are very important. Between 65 percent to 70 percent regularly attend church, more than the 55 percent in Poland; 28 percent in Canada; and 14 percent in West Germany. However at this moment in time there is a tremendous division which runs through states; through institutions and through families between the exponents of Judeo Christian values and the post-modernists.
Fundamental differences
Unfortunately those who espouse Judeo Christian values differ in their interpretations-even within the Baptist community. There are the Southern Baptist who believe that God intended races to be separate and Northern Baptists who say that God does not condone treating one race as superior to another; there are Particular Baptists who believe that redemption is limited to a chosen few and General Baptists who believe that anyone can be saved who atones for their sins; and then there are the differences between fundamentalists and moderates and evangelists.
Although all sides see the Bible as the central authority fundamentalists believe the history and religious teachings to be without error (literal) while the moderates believe that only religious truths (as interpreted by them) to be without error. Fundamentalists also have a tendency to be very strict; intolerant; very judgmental and many do not want to associate with other Christians who don't agree with them. Often fundamentalists will even want to separate themselves from people who refuse to separate themselves from people who they don't agree with. Evangelists are said not to be like that-at least not to the same degree.
Conversion factors
However all Baptists agree that to be a member of their ranks one has to be 'converted' or 'born again'. The fundamentalists insist that this conversion is a sudden, climactic, orgasmic event; whereas the evangelists admit to the possibility that it may be a gradual process with a degree of foreplay.
Dr. Richard Land, who is an adviser to President Bush, and has the presidential cufflinks to prove it, is an evangelical Southern Baptist with a fundamentalist flavor who believes that the Bible is the word of God and that within it God has made promises to man, both unconditional and conditional.
God's unconditional promise is that the land of Israel belongs to the Jews forever and therefore Dr. Land would have sent 500,000 troops into Iraq.
The 'right' path
To Dr. Land and America, God has made a conditional promise. What God has said is: "If my people do this and that in the correct manner then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land." In this context "my people" refers only to those who are 'born again' and within the boundaries of the USA. Provided that the believers in the USA fulfill certain conditions as demanded by God and interpreted by Dr. Land the their 'consumption footprint' will continue. But there is only one 'right' ritual.
In our time on this Earth we have managed to change the World but not ourselves. Our psychology is the same as it has always been. We need rituals and ceremonies; sacrifice and atonement in order to placate the forces that we do not understand or to plead with them to provide us with what we desire.
The Peruvian path
In 1987 a civilization was uncovered in northern Peru, the Moche, precursors of the Incas. Their pyramids, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon, rivaled those of Egypt. Their art, pottery, jewelry and technological prowess was on a level of sophistication that matched anything discovered about the past to date. Their star had been in ascendance for over 500 years but had vanished suddenly around 650AD. The most recent explanation is as follows.
The ocean-atmosphere system of the Pacific known as the El Nino changed. 30 years of above average rainfall produced torrential rain and floods. This was followed by 30 years of drought. But these adverse weather conditions did not destroy the Moche. They destroyed themselves through internecine warfare in arguments over the rituals and ceremonies required to placate the Gods and in competition for scarce resources.
But Modern Man is more educated; more intelligent; more scientific and carries insurance.
Trials and tribulations
Just in case Dr. Land's rituals are not obeyed and his congregation is unable to placate the deity then only a seven year period of 'tribulation' will occur after which born-again Christians who have died will have their bodies reconstituted and will ascend through the air, and meet Jesus Christ in the sky. They will be followed by a second mass migration of the born-again who are currently living. Pilots will disappear from planes, truck drivers from their trucks; people from automobiles, etc. This is known as the 'rapture' when only true believers will obtain their just rewards and ascend into the arms of the Lord and to a nirvana of consumption.
For the rest of us, for those mortals that are not chosen, Christ will return leading an army on horseback and will exterminate one third of the earth's population in a massive genocide on the scale only once before experienced-that of the flood at the time of Noah. Cycles repeat.
