Getting Raptured is big business among an estimated 600 million Christian Evangelicals in the world, and they represent America’s largest religious group. Getting Raptured is, indeed, the final solution. The three Abrahamic religions flirt with this apparently ineradicable meme in their eschatology, and now, more than ever, in their politics. In fact, The Rapture has threatened to rise from the deserts of the Middle East as a self-fulfilling prophesy. We ignore it at our peril.
The only person I know of who identified Christian Fundamentalism as totalitarian in nature was Christopher Hitchens, and he wrote brilliantly about the consequences of its theological retreat from reason.
“Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice – and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations.” – Christopher Hitchens
Hitchens was an iconoclast, and I fear, possibly our last iconoclast. And I think we ignore that at our peril as well. We’ve become so galvanized in our belief systems that few are inclined to cross the imaginary red lines that separate personal philosophy from religious zealotry; reasonable negotiation from political tribalism; and democracy from totalitarianism.
Like everything eschatological in America, opinions differ concerning when, how, and for whom the Rapture will be reified.
This dark aspect of the Abrahamic religious canon became almost mainstream in America as it emerged from the revival tents that Sinclair Lewis satirically depicted in his 1927 book entitled: “Elmer Gantry”. Lewis wrote about the fictional Gantry – an itinerant evangelist who preached the Gospel to believers while personifying the very sinner he sought to expel from society. The banalities prescribed in those revival tents have become literal truths today as worshipers pray for a new refrigerator, a miraculous cure for cancer, or a letter from Publishers Clearing House granting $7,000 a week for life . . . if you’re chosen. Today’s Prosperity Gospel represents the literal apotheosis of this canon of beliefs purportedly inspired by God, the developer of the universe. And guess who sings that same hymn? Our delusional local developer in chief: Donald John Trump – currently impeached and awaiting conviction in the Senate, while erratically playing the role of the Sword of Armageddon to his infatuated followers.
Thomas Jefferson famously said: “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg”.
So, what are these Christian Evangelical leaders doing when they insert their personal religious beliefs into our secular public schools? And what does Trump mean when he promises to remove the 1954 Johnson Amendment from the US tax code which prohibits all 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates?
Opposition to theocracy is codified in our Constitution in the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. In addition to codifying laws that guarantee the freedom of religion, it also specifically protects the freedom – from – religion. But this Evangelical movement has now inveigled its way into American politics and governance to such a degree that it now wields a powerful sword in establishing domestic policy. Its crusades can be seen in the form of the Pro-Life Movement, and Trump’s Muslim Ban. It is emboldened because it holds the view that its beliefs are beyond accountability. And they are.
The ACLU has objected to the State Department Investigator General concerning Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo’s October 2019 speech entitled: “Being a Christian Leader”, pointing out that his use of his position as a high government official to promote his own personal religious views is a violation of his oath. Pompeo even placed his speech on the State Department’s website. The ACLU cites Attorney General William Barr’s own problematic speech at University of Notre Dame Law School in South Bend, Indiana, for the same reason.
So, as Trump’s portentous trial in the Senate commences, a secular nation echoes Benjamin Disraeli, Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister, when he said: “We are prepared for the worst, but hope for best.” And we urge Senate Republicans to heed these words of Cristopher Hitchens:
“If you have a political loyalty, you may be offered a shady reason for agreeing to a lie or a half-truth that serves some short-term purpose. Everybody devises tactics for getting through such moments; try behaving as if they need not be tolerated and are not inevitable.”
Deborah Long is a Principal at Development Management Group, Inc. and founder of several non-profit charitable organizations. If you find her perspectives interesting, provocative, or controversial, follow her at: https://www.facebook.com/debby.long.98499?ref=br_rs
Deborah Long is a Principal at Development Management Group, Inc. and founder of several non-profit, charitable organizations. If you find her perspectives interesting, controversial, or provocative, you can follow her at: https://www.facebook.com/debby.long.98499?ref=br_rs