"I
am deeply disturbed by the dangerous and growing influence of people
like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell on our nation's political
leaders." - Walter Cronkite, January, 2004

.. Consider this: The
National Council of Churches, which represents the country's
Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians and 32 other
denominations, has, against all tradition, been brushed aside by this
President, while evangelicals have enjoyed unparalleled access.

"Bush has shown an ideological commitment to the
literalist Christian tradition at the expense of the broader view of
the larger religious community," National Council of Churches general
secretary Rev. Bob Edgar told Salon.com ... "He is the first president
not to meet with the leadership of mainline Christian traditions since
George Washington. We've been able to talk with the prime minister of
Britain and the chancellor of Germany, but not our own president."

The Reverend Fritz Ritsch also questioned this
historic snub. "The president apparently believes that he can talk
about theology from the bully pulpit without talking to theologians,"
Ritsch wrote in the Washington Post. "Which begs the question: When did
the president become theologian in chief?"

"I trust God speaks through me," George Bush reportedly told a gathering in Lancaster, PA.

This zealous certainty, it seems, is one of the
main characteristics differentiating the views of most mainstream
denominations from the mindset the President appears to embrace.
Another is the attitude towards the separation between church and state.

"I'm for evangelicals running for public office and
winning if possible and getting control of the Congress, getting
control of the bureaucracy, getting control of the executive branch of
government," the Rev. Billy Graham told viewers of the 700 Club in
1985. A little more than a decade later, author Frederick Clarkson
underscored the reality behind this vision. Saying that the "wildest
dreams of the far right in America may actually be within their reach -
control of the Republican Party," he sensed that one day, someone like
G.W.Bush could come along and give such dreams a touch of Wizard Of Oz
clarity. And so he has.

In the past few years, ABC News has openly
speculated that Christian conservatives were responsible for Bush's
presidential nomination, the Washington Post has described Bush as the
first U.S President to double as the Religious Right's "de facto
leader," and the Guardian has reported that U.S. fundamentalists are
"at the heart of power." Meanwhile, in the lusty month of May, the Bush
White House was caught canoodling with rapture Christians.

"Most of all, apparently, we're not supposed to
know the National Security Council's top Middle East aide consults with
apocalyptic Christians eager to ensure American policy on Israel
conforms with their sectarian doomsday scenarios," The Village Voice's
Rick Perlstein wrote...

John Green, an authority on evangelical political
clout, recently explained how seriously Bush takes his far right base.
"When George W. Bush talks politics in the White House, believe me,
they talk about evangelicals. They ask, 'How are the evangelicals going
to react to this; what are they going to make of that?'"

None of this would be of such grave concern if said
evangelicals were happy to live and let live. But, alas, that's not in
the theocratic game plan...

With a foreign policy that reflects Biblical
prophecy and a domestic agenda that caters to evangelicals, the
President's intentions are either starkly dangerous or politically
crafty -- with the end result being the same: George Bush is tinkering
with something far too precious -- our country's future.

... Calling themselves "The Christian Voice in the
Nation's Capital," the Apostolic Congress, which believes that all of
Old Testament Israel must belong to the Jews before Christ's return,
recently met with Bush White House officials to make certain that U.S.
policy towards Israel conforms to Biblical prophecy.

... Various news sources have reported on ways
Biblical prophecy is influencing political reality - and the Christian
Zionists' campaign to oust the Palestinians in order to make way for
the Second Coming of Christ is especially bizarre. Highlighting both
G.W. Bush's and Tom DeLay's involvement with this movement, the
Guardian's Matthew Engel spelled out how 'dispensationalism' (a
doctrine "popularized in Rev. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins Left Behind
novels) involves the Rapture, the Second Coming and the conversion of
Jews. "In other words, these Christians are supporting the Jews in
order to abolish them," Engel explained.

... One of the architects of Christian Zionism,
best-selling author Hal Lindsey foresees Armageddon occurring within
our lifetimes. "To the skeptic who says that Christ is not coming soon,
I would ask him to put the book of Revelation in one hand, and the
daily newspaper in the other, and then sincerely ask God to show him
where we are on His prophetic time-clock," Lindsey wrote. And, as Gene
Lyons explained, "The origins of Bush's flirtation with End Times
rhetoric" lie specifically within "the prophetic novels of Hal Lindsey
("Blood Moon") and Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' "Left Behind" series.

... The former head of the Christian Coalition and
current chairman of Georgia's Republican Party, Ralph Reed explained
Bush's rise to the White House in revolutionary terms. "You're no
longer throwing rocks at the building; you're in the building," he told
the Washington Post, adding that God "knew George Bush had the ability
to lead in this compelling way." Though Time called Reed "the right
hand of God" in 1995, by April, 2004, Atlantic Monthly reported that
Reed "has moved on from doing God's work to doing George W. Bush's."

... When former Council for National Policy member
Pat Robertson resigned as head of the Christian Coalition, some saw it
as a sign. "I think Robertson stepped down because the position has
already been filled," Gary Bauer said, referring to President Bush's
role as the new head of the Religious Right. Robertson, who's also been
active in the Christian Reconstructionist / Dominionist movement,
recently told 700 Club viewers that God told him George Bush would win
in "a blowout election in 2004."

BuzzFlash.