Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, preached to a packed crowd at Melbourne's Telstra Dome over the weekend, proving that Americans aren't the only ones with a strong fear of God. James Boyce took the opportunity in The Australian to comment on U.S. religiosity:
"End-time theology influences US public opinion at many levels. It encourages indifference to pressing environmental issues: facing biblical Armageddon, nature's version is irrelevant. International law and the UN are distractions – America is God's favoured nation and charged with divine responsibilities that can never be compromised. But even more disturbing, it encourages resistance to any action seen as delaying the fulfillment of prophecies set out in the Book of Revelation – such as the rebuilding of the Jewish temple, or a final showdown between good and evil in the Middle East. Such views are widely held. A 2002 Time/CNN poll found that 59 per cent of Americans believe that the prophecies in the Book of Revelation are going to come true. Nearly 25 per cent think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks."
I'll be the first to argue that the U.S. has gone a bit overboard in giving religion inroads into public policy, but this seems a bit slanted to me. Boyce describes the U.S. as cultivating a "radical new fundamentalist movement". New? What's new about it?
Graham Cracker - get it?
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1 comment:
Recently, I've come across numerous mentions of "The Rapture" theory of the end-times; and the fact that only certain people will be saved by their religious faith. Throughout history people have chosen to believe that their particular brand of religion would be their saving grace. I have no problem with that, but I'm worried about these modern believers choosing to ignore environmental issues because they're sure that God will fix things once the non-believers have been punished.
This is similar to the storyline of a novel I wrote called "Noble Savage" that follows a self-proclaimed prophet who convinces a group to follow his ideas before destroying much of the world's population. The survivors learn too late that this prophet has no intention of following through on his promises -- and they're forced to fight back to a life similar to the one they gave up.
My hope is that people will not give in to the ravings of others who are simply out to get their own way without caring about the consequences.
Thank you for an interesting post!
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