What the hell happened? by Carol Wolman
Kerry supporters all over the world are shaking their heads and wondering how Bush, with his terrible track record, could possibly have won a second term. Even given massive machine fraud, how could so many American citizens vote against their own self-interest? Bush has hurt American pocketbooks, American wilderness, American image and friendships abroad, and above all, American security.
Sober analysts are starting to realize that morality, defined as disapproval of certain sexual behaviors and of abortion, are more important than truth, love, and survival to the voters who call themselves Christians, believe themselves to be Christians, and vote for Bush.
These citizens take a passage like the following,
Their minds are occupied with earthly things.
But our citizenship is in heaven,
and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Phillipians 3: 19-20
and accept the interpretation of their false prophets, believing that a vote for Bush hastens the coming of Jesus.
Jerry Falwell, Franklin Graham, Tim LaHaye and their ilk have been preaching for decades that we are in the End-time, life on planet earth is doomed, and when Jesus comes, the elect will be transported to heaven. Millions of Americans believe this, and so don't care about Bush's earthly depredations, as long as he talks the heaven talk.
It's one of the most monstrous and cruelest scams ever visited upon humanity. The wolves in sheeps' clothing prey upon the deep terror of nuclear holocaust that we all carry. The mushroom cloud is indelibly imprinted in the center of human consciousness- Condi used it brilliantly to goad the Congress into accepting the invasion of Iraq.
Bush promises a fortress America, bristling with nuclear weapons and ineffective missile defenses, and promises to bully the rest of the world into submission. Having provoked vicious hatred, and carelessly allowed all sorts of weaponry to fall into terrorist hands, Bush promises to protect America from those who hate us.
His voters half believe that Bush will protect us, and half believe that it doesn't matter, that nuclear war is inevitable but they will be spared- they call themselves "dispensationalists". Because their fear is so deep, they are highly irrational, and have lost all common sense.
They believe they are like the early Christians to whom Paul was writing. Those people were persecuted mercilessly, and Paul was telling them to accept the suffering that goes along with preaching love and peace in a corrupt empire. They were the empire's victims, not its supporters.
The Bush administration is like the Pharisees against whom Jesus was always railing - pious rulers whose religion is all show and no substance, hypocrites who preach goodness while they steal and kill.
We ARE in some sort of end-time- it's the end of wilderness, of frontier, of unlimited resources. Bush's re-election means it will get worse before it gets better. We do need the return of Jesus, meaning a global surge of Christ-consciousness, which I understand as knowing that we are all one, and that only loving our neighbors can preserve life on earth.
Those of us who carry this vision within us may be in for a rough time at the hands of the "Christian" establishment. Those of us who believe that Jesus never condemned abortion or homosexuality, but did condemn pursuit of wealth and power, lying, indifference to the poor, hatred, and many other traits of the Bush administration, are going against the wealth and power of the new theocracy.
Our hour of trial is coming. Let us take heart and embrace the spirit of love.
In the name of the Prince of Peace, Carol Wolman
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