"Seeking the evil one"
Printed on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 @ 11:52:56 CST
http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1906

By John Chuckman


(YellowTimes.org) -- Imagine a fundamentalist tent-meeting somewhere on
the dusty plains of Oklahoma or Texas without the Devil? A spluttering
preacher at the pulpit with nothing about which to shout and frighten
people? Preaching the actual teachings of Jesus - so far as we know
them, about peace and toleration - wouldn't cover rental payments on the
tent and electric organ.

That little thought-experiment offers genuine insight into the nature of
American fundamentalism as well as insight into the terrible new era of
perpetual war ushered in by that fine Christian gentleman, George Bush.

There is little doubt that the nature of a person's religious universe
shapes and orders his or her understanding of the physical one. We know
the Catholic church for centuries fought scientific discovery, certain
that questioning ancient preconceptions about nature also questioned
aspects of the supernatural. This way of looking at things continues
into the twenty-first century, especially in the gulag of creepy places
that is George Bush's America, places where they discuss topics like the
Mark of the Beast in hushed tones.

It was that sly, clever Voltaire who declared, "If there were no God, it
would be necessary to invent him." A slight altering of his words
tailors them to the American experience. Simply remove the word God and
put Devil in its place, for, although America is sometimes called a God-
fearing nation, Devil-fearing is nearer the truth.

For many years, America enjoyed the blessing of having Communism against
which to rage and threaten. It made for a balanced, harmonious universe:
America as God's Kingdom, ready with sword and buckler to defeat the
Evil One, and all those other nations out there providing an unsaved mob
to fill America's tent and contribute to the mighty battle.

Communism as Evil One played to rave reviews for decades, but all good
things do come to an end, including the planet itself if you embrace the
tortured, perhaps psychotic, visions of the Book of Revelation.

America's new Official Evil One is a little difficult to define, but
some ambiguity likely serves the cause well. After all, those Americans
who believe in speaking in tongues, as does the current Attorney General
of the United States, don't specify the languages. Any babble will do.
It is clear, however, that America's new Great Awakening has to do with
Islam and people wearing strange headgear. In the humble, but direct,
language of places like the Midwest and Texas, it's about turban-heads.
Unlike godless Communists, this newly discovered slithering mass of evil
believes in God, but it might just as well not since it calls him by the
wrong name and reads the wrong holy book.

Well, burning people alive was a specialty of the competing churches in
Europe after the Reformation, a charming custom that Puritans brought to
the land that would become America. The practice has gone through many
changes and refinements, and it is jealously retained by America's Hi-
tech Army of Roundheads. As I write this, they are using helicopter
gunships to burn and blow up women and children in Fallujah.

I came across a fascinating passage in Richard Rhodes' excellent
history, The Making of the Atomic Bomb:

"One of Roosevelt's first acts was to appeal to the belligerents to
refrain from bombing civilian populations. Revulsion against the bombing
of cities had grown in the United States since at least the Japanese
bombing of Shanghai in 1937. When Spanish Fascists bombed Barcelona in
March, 1938, Secretary of State Cordell Hull had condemned the atrocity
publicly.As war approached, revulsion began to give way to impulses of
revenge."

America, as we know, went, in a short time, from revulsion at someone
else's bombing to fire-bombing a number of cities and atomic-bombing two
others. Before the ashes had cooled on a million or so innocent victims
of air raids, that nest of vipers, the Communists, was released on the
world. A long series of bloody, largely pointless, conflicts culminated
in the holocaust-bombing of Vietnam and Cambodia. Hell, what's a few
million peasants when they might be demon minions of the Evil One?

[John Chuckman is former chief economist for a large Canadian oil
company. He has many interests and is a lifelong student of history. He
writes with a passionate desire for honesty, the rule of reason, and
concern for human decency. He is a member of no political party and
takes exception to what has been called America's "culture of
complaint" with its habit of reducing every important issue to an
unproductive argument between two simplistically defined groups. John
left the United States as a poor young man from the South Side of
Chicago when the government embarked on the murder of millions of
Vietnamese in their own land because they happened to embrace the wrong
economic loyalties. He lives in Canada, which he is fond of calling "the
peaceable kingdom."]

John Chuckman encourages your comments:

"Seeking the evil one"
Printed on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 @ 11:52:56 CST
http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1906

By John Chuckman


(YellowTimes.org) -- Imagine a fundamentalist tent-meeting somewhere on
the dusty plains of Oklahoma or Texas without the Devil? A spluttering
preacher at the pulpit with nothing about which to shout and frighten
people? Preaching the actual teachings of Jesus - so far as we know
them, about peace and toleration - wouldn't cover rental payments on the
tent and electric organ.

That little thought-experiment offers genuine insight into the nature of
American fundamentalism as well as insight into the terrible new era of
perpetual war ushered in by that fine Christian gentleman, George Bush.

There is little doubt that the nature of a person's religious universe
shapes and orders his or her understanding of the physical one. We know
the Catholic church for centuries fought scientific discovery, certain
that questioning ancient preconceptions about nature also questioned
aspects of the supernatural. This way of looking at things continues
into the twenty-first century, especially in the gulag of creepy places
that is George Bush's America, places where they discuss topics like the
Mark of the Beast in hushed tones.

It was that sly, clever Voltaire who declared, "If there were no God, it
would be necessary to invent him." A slight altering of his words
tailors them to the American experience. Simply remove the word God and
put Devil in its place, for, although America is sometimes called a God-
fearing nation, Devil-fearing is nearer the truth.

For many years, America enjoyed the blessing of having Communism against
which to rage and threaten. It made for a balanced, harmonious universe:
America as God's Kingdom, ready with sword and buckler to defeat the
Evil One, and all those other nations out there providing an unsaved mob
to fill America's tent and contribute to the mighty battle.

Communism as Evil One played to rave reviews for decades, but all good
things do come to an end, including the planet itself if you embrace the
tortured, perhaps psychotic, visions of the Book of Revelation.

America's new Official Evil One is a little difficult to define, but
some ambiguity likely serves the cause well. After all, those Americans
who believe in speaking in tongues, as does the current Attorney General
of the United States, don't specify the languages. Any babble will do.
It is clear, however, that America's new Great Awakening has to do with
Islam and people wearing strange headgear. In the humble, but direct,
language of places like the Midwest and Texas, it's about turban-heads.
Unlike godless Communists, this newly discovered slithering mass of evil
believes in God, but it might just as well not since it calls him by the
wrong name and reads the wrong holy book.

Well, burning people alive was a specialty of the competing churches in
Europe after the Reformation, a charming custom that Puritans brought to
the land that would become America. The practice has gone through many
changes and refinements, and it is jealously retained by America's Hi-
tech Army of Roundheads. As I write this, they are using helicopter
gunships to burn and blow up women and children in Fallujah.

I came across a fascinating passage in Richard Rhodes' excellent
history, The Making of the Atomic Bomb:

"One of Roosevelt's first acts was to appeal to the belligerents to
refrain from bombing civilian populations. Revulsion against the bombing
of cities had grown in the United States since at least the Japanese
bombing of Shanghai in 1937. When Spanish Fascists bombed Barcelona in
March, 1938, Secretary of State Cordell Hull had condemned the atrocity
publicly.As war approached, revulsion began to give way to impulses of
revenge."

America, as we know, went, in a short time, from revulsion at someone
else's bombing to fire-bombing a number of cities and atomic-bombing two
others. Before the ashes had cooled on a million or so innocent victims
of air raids, that nest of vipers, the Communists, was released on the
world. A long series of bloody, largely pointless, conflicts culminated
in the holocaust-bombing of Vietnam and Cambodia. Hell, what's a few
million peasants when they might be demon minions of the Evil One?

[John Chuckman is former chief economist for a large Canadian oil
company. He has many interests and is a lifelong student of history. He
writes with a passionate desire for honesty, the rule of reason, and
concern for human decency. He is a member of no political party and
takes exception to what has been called America's "culture of
complaint" with its habit of reducing every important issue to an
unproductive argument between two simplistically defined groups. John
left the United States as a poor young man from the South Side of
Chicago when the government embarked on the murder of millions of
Vietnamese in their own land because they happened to embrace the wrong
economic loyalties. He lives in Canada, which he is fond of calling "the
peaceable kingdom."]

John Chuckman encourages your comments:

"Seeking the evil one"