American Theocracy

Sunday, April 23, 2006

I have almost finished Kevin Phillips' book "American Theocracy" and, as a follow up to my comments about patriarchy, this tome aptly defines the 21st century understanding of Evangelism, fundamentalism and reconstructionism as having a distinct patriarchal underpinning. This understanding, of course, is based on the literal interpreation of the Bible wherein women are relegated to obey and serve men. So, in today's world, they are discouraged from becoming ministers, from aspiring to equality in the workplace, from being in charge of their own bodies and, were it up to those reconstructionists, would be returned to their "rightful places"...namely, the kitchen and the bedroom.

Upon reading Phillips' book, I learned a number of other factoids. One...that, prior to the invasion of Iraq, Pres. Bush was reading a tract by an Evangelistic Scottish preacher who had strong millenial leanings and whose eschatology was dominated by the idea of christ's return to earth. There has been such an enoromus parallel between the Bush mind-set and that portrayed by the "Left Behind" books...so much that it is hard not to become convinced that the "Left Behind" concept has been deterministic in the development of the Bush understanding of the U.S. vis a vis Iraq, Israel and the rest of the Middle East.

I also learned that former attorney general John Ashcroft was the son and grandson of radically fundamentalist preachers and that, upon being elected to Congress and upon his appointment as Atty General, this man acutally had himself annointed, ala biblical kings, with oil!!

This is just too scary!!!

I recommend Kevin Phillips book to anyone who would like a more intense glimpse into the voice behind the curtain, a voice that is now seeing the light of day and which represents the views of more Americans than we might have ever suspected. The numbers who truly believe in the literal reading of the bible and who also truly believe in the Rapture, in dispensations, that the earth is here to be plundered, that they and only they will be saved, is staggering to say the least!!

trickster108