CHURCH & STATE
by Neal Pollack

Wake up, people! It's worse than you imagined! The United States of America
has been hijacked by religious nutballs who are trying to bring about the end
of the world! We have to stop them now! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
Wolf! Wolf!

A lunatic Christian cult has the run of the White House and the ear of the
president. What do they want? The end of the world. Be afraid.

We're currently living through Ronald Reagan's canonization as a secular saint.
It's tempting to say that the Reagan administration was a religious preface to
the White House reign of Captain End Times. Reagan was certainly a
millenialist. He opened the White House to fundamentalist Christians. But that
mostly electoral strategy. The man didn't go to church. And even if Reagan
believed in Armageddon, he didn't actively try to bring it about. You can't say
the same about George W. Bush.

I'm certain I speak for many people of faith who feel strongly about the
president when I say that I'm deeply offended that religious belief and the
awesome power of prayer have been hijacked for no higher end than the
furtherance of one man's political career, particularly when that career is
buttressed by a base of support whose political agenda is closer to the Taliban
than to the Founding Fathers. Despite what George W. Bush might think, God does
not want him to be president. God does not speak to him directly. At least my
God doesn't

Neal Pollack
http://www.thestranger.com/2004-06-10/feature2.html

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