Jesus Plus Nothing
December 01, 2004
“You guys are here to learn how to rule the world.... We elect our leaders. Jesus elects his.” -- David Coe
Jesus Plus Nothing, Harper's, March 2003
Jeffrey Shartlet's article for Harper's is a first person account of life inside Ivanwald, a community tucked discretely within a Washingtion DC neighborhood, where aspiring young men learn how the Lord works--and governs--in mysterious ways. These young men are not wayward youth or troubled souls, however. They are part and parcel of the political elite, training and yearning for positions of privelege within the United States government or the numerous conservative think tanks that feed off the Beltway and corrode the media. They are the creme de la creme, The Best and The Brightest, the cult of the everpresent. Their mentors are savvy political operatives with satchels full of agenda. Their patrons are smooth operators. In this rarefied atmosphere a man like former Attorney General Ed Meese regularly leads prayer breakfasts and folks like Doug and David Coe advise politicians on matters both esoteric and concrete.
Take congressman Todd Tiahrt:
[Tiahrt] wanted to know the best way “for the Christian to win the race with the Muslim.” The Muslim, he said, has too many babies, while Americans kill too many of theirs.Doug agreed this could be a problem. But he was more concerned that the focus on labels like “Christian” might get in the way of the congressman's prayers. Religion distracts people from Jesus... and allows them to isolate Christ's will from their work in the world.
“People separate it out,” [Coe] warned Tiahrt. “'Oh, okay, I got religion, that's private.' As if Jesus doesn't know anything about building highways, or Social Security. We gotta take Jesus out of the religious wrapping.”
“All right, how do we do that?” Tiahrt asked.
“A covenant. Like the Mafia... Look at the strength of their bonds.” He made a fist and held it before Tiahrt's face....
“See, for them it's honor. For us, it's Jesus.”
Mysterious ways, indeed. Christ is much more than your spiritual light and savior; He understands pork barrel projects, the privatization of Social Security, and the code omerta. Men like Tiahrt concern themselves with producing enough able-bodied soldiers for the Great Conflict. Men like Coe concern themselves with producing the pro-life vote for the Great Election. Meanwhile, millions of Americans believe their vote helped take the moral high ground.
Among some conservative Christians, there is a belief that President Bush received a "moral mandate" to win the recent presidential election — and they are calling on him to act on their agenda now."I believe Our Lord elected our president and I believe he put him in office and it is my prayer that he will sustain him in office," said one woman at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Another was asked if she believed that God intervened in the election. "Absolutely," she said.
"Values" voters delivered for the president, and the president must now deliver for them — especially in the courts, said Gary Cass, head of a grassroots political organization affiliated with Coral Ridge, called the Center for Reclaiming America.
"It's about the next 40 years and how the courts are going to affect the world in which my children and grandchildren are going to be raised in," he said.
This suggests nothing more than a radical transformation of the American system. And this view is hardly isolated. Numerous articles and broadcasts since the election have echoed these themes as the media have suddenly become infatuated with the "values divide." The ABC report sums it all up nicely by stating, "[Evangelists] believe that if their agenda is not implemented quickly — if their concerns are not addressed in a timely fashion — God will be angry."
If God is anxious to transform America, He must be downright giddy with developments in the Middle East, where all those muslims are busily having babies. In Iraq, God must be most pleased withe Bush Administration's efforts to win the hearts and minds. In the Harper's article Shartlet quotes a former senator speaking on the situation in Rwanda, then as now an incredibly unstable and dangerous place, as one where the combatants should "stop worrying about who gets the oil and the diamonds and start worrying about who gets Jesus... 'Power sharing is not going to work unless we change their hearts.'" This echoes Ann Coulter's infamous post-9-11 outburst that America's mission in the world should be to invade, depose, and convert. Leave the "worldly" stuff, like resources and government structure, to the management teams and contracted multinationals. The President and his military have embarked on a divine mission.
It doesn't seem to be playing that way in the countries where this mission is being carried out, of course. According to a recently released report by the U.S. Department of Defense Defense Science Board:
Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing, support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states. Thus, when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy.
The next 40 years look worrisome, all right. But the concepts expressed by those who claim a mandate for the world's future are hardly the stuff of deep thought or even thoughtful compassion. It's time to turn these discussions on their head and present true alternatives. Time to get over the disappointment of Kerry's defeat and get beyond the two-party thought machine. In the next few weeks Ritual Reality will explore ways of doing just that.
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