>http://tentmaker.org/articles/The-Touchstoning_of_Americas_Heart.htm
...where one reads an unsurprising critique of the filth purveyed by Hollywood (with which some Z writers might be in partial agreement!), but also a critique of imperialism and greed and:
>What the United States of America needs right now is not to start
>another war, this one a "War on Terrorism." This is NOT a time to
>wave the nationalistic pride flag, especially for Christians who
>live in America. What it desperately needs first is a long, deep,
>reflective time to look at a side of itself that it has been
>unwilling to look at. This present time is no time to be dropping
>bombs on our perceived enemies - it is a time to rend our hearts -
>to turn within - and to wrestle with the American conscience. It is
>time for a wrestling match like Jacob had at Peniel.
...and...
>President George Bush may be "conservative," but he is NOT as
>"compassionate" as his public relations team paints him. George Bush
>is a Law-man, not a Love-man. He does not know the difference
>between the Law of the LIFE in Christ Jesus and the Law of Moses.
>The theology he has been taught has mixed them both together and the
>end result of such a mixture is death. His state, Texas, puts more
>prisoners to death than any state in America.
...and...
>The main reason so many millions of Christians are being deceived
>into following ways and people that bring destruction rather than
>the healing power of New Testament Christianity is because modern
>Western Christianity is a noxious mixture of Mosaic Law and a little
>bit of grace. Christians seem to be oblivious to the fact that James
>made it quite clear that anyone who attempted to keep a portion of
>the Mosaic Law was obligated to keep it all. And if one failed in a
>single point of that law, the penalty was DEATH. This is the reason
>why much of the church looks dead - that's because it IS dead,
>spiritually speaking.
The writer's prescription is reminiscent of, who was it, Alice Walker's maybe, widely mocked prescription that the response to 9/11 should have been love not vengeance.
So we have something a bit more complicated than standard issue Bible-thumping lunacy, and not the sort of armed millenarianism the Economist article was talking about. So what do you make of it, Chip? Is this kind of thinking widespread?
Doug