[Marxism] Praying for empire - the justifying role of christianist ideology

["Jurriaan Bendien" <andromeda246@xxxxxxxxx>]

Military imperialism, Maureen S.G. Hawkins observes, "is only the first step
in establishing imperial hegemony--and an uneconomic one at that. It is
costly and, by itself, produces few long-term benefits for the colonizer.
Therefore, it must be
followed by strategies to persuade the colonized to accept their condition
and transfer their allegiance to their conquerors to ensure an uninterrupted
flow of benefits from colonized to colonizer without further military
intervention." (Journal of Irish Studies, Spring-Summer, 2003). This allots
an important role to the reshaping of culture, religion and language to fit
with imperialist interests. In a previous post, I already noted the
large-scale export of bibles and religious literature to Iraq, a country
where the overwhelming majority of the population is Islamic. But as Senator
Lieberman realises, the justification of imperialism is a battle on two
fronts: the colonised country, and the home front.

In this regard, it is interesting to trace out the campaign to sway American
public opinion in favour of war. Whereas no credible evidence linked Saddam
Hussein to 9/11 at all, the US administration nevertheless fomented a string
of provocative allegations in 2002, sending Rumsfeld and Powell around the
country with dire predictions for American safety. By autumn that year, the
Pew Research Center reported their ideological campaign had been very
successful. Two-thirds of Americans at that time believed that Hussein
"helped the terrorists in the September 11 attacks." This belief existed and
persisted despite the fact that, as Norman Solomon explained beforehand in
his book "Target Iraq", there was unanimous agreement among US spy agencies
that evidence linking Baghdad with the September 11 attacks, or any attacks
against Western targets since 1993 for that matter, simply did not exist.

"The Bush administration is marinated in oil,"  Ralph Nader noted soberly
while speaking on a February 26, 2003, National Public Radio programme. Over
forty of the top Bush administration officials were on boards of directors
of corporations, many in the energy sector.  In a revealing essay prior to
the assault on Baghdad (March 19, 2003) entitled "Corporate America Divvies
Up the Post-Saddam Spoils" Arianna Huffington also noted that "The Bush
Administration is currently in the process of doling out over $1.5 billion
in government contracts to American companies lining up to cash in on the
rebuilding of postwar Iraq. So bombs away ! The more the better - at least
for the lucky few in the rebuilding business."
Behind the propaganda rhetoric, there were economic interests at stake.

"We have no territorial ambitions; we don't seek an empire," President Bush
disclaimed in a speech at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day (11
November 2002), echoing oft-repeated comments from himself and top aides.
But some months later, in his State of the Union speech to Congress, he
declared that "the course of this nation does not depend on the decisions of
others." He added, "The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world,
it is God's gift to humanity." Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens,
quoting this statement, commented "You have to go back a while to find such
a stark assertion of moral certitude and strategic power." Condoleeza Rice
said in an interview with ZDF German Television in July 2002 that  "I
wouldn't accept the comparison to the Roman Empire, of course, because the
United States has no imperial ambitions. . It is the spread of values that
will make us more secure. And so I think of this rather as a period of the
triumph of states that are committed to a set of values, not the triumph of
the United States alone."

However, with the stark facts of the matter revealed in the last months, one
might ask, how can the political credibility of imperialism now be sustained
? The answer seems to be: more religion and incessant propaganda. On March
18, 2003 Mark Tooley already noted that a Gallup found that on average
church-going Americans were more likely to support war against Saddam
Hussein. Americans who attend church at least once a week supported war to
depose the Iraqi dictator by an almost two to one margin.   Americans who
never attend church or said religion was not important to them were more
evenly divided about the possibility of war.

Not all religious leaders supported war, of course. For example, the top
staff person of the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodists
(President Bush's denomination), General Secretary Jim Winkler said prior to
the assault on Baghdad that he considered it "inconceivable that Jesus
Christ ... would support this proposed attack." US Catholic bishops opposed
the attack unless Iraq could be linked to the September 11 terror strikes.
One hundred Christian ethicists announced opposition; so did the general
secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches. The new Archbishop of
Canterbury and Pope John Paul II both expressed their reservations.

But other church leaders did. Dr. Richard Land (President, Ethics and
Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention) rationalised as
follows: "Well, I believe just war theory is based upon an understanding of
Scripture and Christian tradition over these last 20 centuries. And I
believe just war theory first of all says it must be defensive. And I
believe we are defending ourselves against several acts of war by a man who
does not keep treaties and who has already used weapons of mass destruction.
And I believe that Romans 13 tells us that God ordained the civil magistrate
to punish those who do evil and to reward those who do that which is right."
Christian scholar Darrell Cole wrote, "The Christian who fails to use force
to aid his neighbor when prudence dictates that force is the best way to
render that aid is an uncharitable Christian. Hence Christians who willingly
and knowingly refuse to engage in a just war . fail to show love towards
their neighbor as well as towards God."

Top christianist guru's in the American power structure are in fact deeply
involved in Bush's christianist crusade. Franklin Graham, the son of
legendary evangelist Billy Graham, was less diplomatic about Islam than his
father was. Two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Franklin Graham called
Islam "a very evil and wicked religion" during an interview on NBC, the
television network. In his book, "The Name," Franlin Graham wrote that "The
God of Islam is not the God of the Christian faith." He went on to say that
"the two are different as lightness and darkness." On the eve of the
Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis last year, the Rev. Jerry Vines, a
former denomination president, told several thousand delegates that Islam's
Allah is not the same as the God worshipped by Christians. "And I will tell
you Allah is not Jehovah, either. Jehovah is not going to turn you into a
terrorist".

Billy Graham's own more lowkey approach is possibly explained by the bad
publicity created by his traditional support for American military
imperialism. Alexander Cockburn notes that back in April, l989 a a secret
letter from Billy Graham (dated April 15, 1969) to Richard Nixon was made
public. It was drafted after Billy Graham met in Bangkok with missionaries
from Vietnam. These men of God argued that if the peace talks in Paris were
to fail, Nixon should step up the war and bomb the dikes. Such an act,
Graham then wrote excitedly, "could overnight destroy the economy of North
Vietnam". Billy Graham lent his imprimatur to this recommendation. Thus, the
preacher advocated a policy that on Nixon's own estimate would have killed a
million people.

Similarly, Billy Graham stood with Bush Senior at a presidential news
conference on January 16, 1991 with a bible in his hand, to give his
blessing for the first Gulf War. He declared: "There come times when we have
to fight for peace" going on to say that out of the present war in the Gulf
may "come a new peace and, as suggested by the President, a new world
order." Billy Graham was of course very influential in Bush's own conversion
to the faith, and a personal friend of the Bush family. In the run-up to a
planned mass meeting in Cincinnati a few years ago, Billy Graham ran into
stiff opposition.  "We don't want him to come to Cincinnati," said Amanda
Mayes, a spokeswoman for the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati. "We've had
preaching, and we've already had prayer. ... What we want is justice, and
what we're calling for is boycott." (for further info, see
http://www.cuttingedge.org/detail.cfm?ID=106 ).

Participating in the annual National Day of Prayer on Thursday 6th of May
2004, President Bush Jr. called on Americans to pray for the troops and the
people in the Middle East, during these trying times in world history. He
claimed this time that "God is not on the side of any nation, but He is on
the side of justice." Since Bush is on the side of justice (sic.), then ipso
facto God must support Bush. But American Atheists President Ellen Johnson
points out this is really just a political game played by Republicans. "This
isn't about the freedom to pray or practice religion," Johnson said. "This
is all about enlisting the aid of government leaders, including everyone
from George Bush to state governors and local mayors, to promote religious
belief and try to link religion with patriotism." She added, "The message
here, with all of these government officials involved, is that you're not a
patriotic American if you don't pray and believe."

Barry Lynn (Executive Director of Americans United For Separation of Church
and State) says Bush uses prayer to solidify his Christian conservative
base. "This event has very strong underpinnings of partisan support for the
president, and that's what it's designed to do," Lynn charged to the
Associated Press. "It's not like he is ignoring other religious groups, but
he knows that this day is the one where he signals 'I am an evangelical
Christian. Remember that in November.'"

Meanwhile, Laura Bush joined 1,500 people at the Empire State Plaza
convention center, as the guest of honour this week for the 10th annual
prayer breakfast, organised by the governor of New York (Mr George Pataki).
The closer you wanted to sit to the First Lady, the more expensive it was -
the prices started at $30, and VIP tables for 10 people cost either $1,000
or
$500. "We've had `pay-to-play' before, but this is the first time I ever
heard of `pay-to-pray,"' Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest
Research Group said. The breakfast guests munched on berry yoghurt bash and
apple stuffed pancakes. A harpist and two singers provided entertainment.
Laura Bush wore red, Libby Pataki wore white and the governor wore gray.
Outside, advocates for campaign finance reform were joined by anti-war
demonstrators calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's
resignation."No separation of cash & state," read one placard.

In an interview with Jim Dailey of the Billy Graham Evangelical Association,
Prof. Phillip E. Johnson of the University of California, Berkeley went on
the offensive and claimed that the "real imperialists" are the scientific
community. He said: "What scientific evidence points toward or away from the
need for a Creator? Does the evidence of science really show that Darwin's
force of natural selection is so powerful that nature can do its own
creating and that there is no need for God? That's the philosophical
doctrine the Darwinists propose, but my colleagues and I have shown that it
is not true. The evidence, as opposed to the scientific imperialism, points
to the fact that natural selection has no creative power and that the
Creator is very much needed."

But now even Rumsfeld seems to overcome by a propaganda boomerang. He has
stopped reading the newspapers, and is now reading a book about the American
civil war. In that bloody conflict, much malicious criticism was spewed,
included on President Lincoln. "It is a fact, I will survive it", Rumsfeld
claimed defiantly in response to pressure on him to resign. During his
flight to Iraq, Rumsfeld denied to journalists that the Pentagon is trying
to cover up the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and promised a full inquiry.
"Whoever thinks I am in Iraq to live down the issue has got it wrong"
(translated from Spits, Amsterdam, 14 May 2004, p. 7).

The question however remains how brutal killings and torture can be
religiously justified, when even the Vatican has apologised for the crimes
of the Spanish Inquisition centuries ago, in which thousands of people
accused of heresy were imprisoned, tortured or burned at the stake. Perhaps
Bush now needs to turn to conservative punks for support instead. Although
he never attended any punk concert, he does apparently have fans there. Nick
Rizzuto has even set up a "conservative punks" website
(www.conservativepunk.com).

Jurriaan




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