I understand why the White House is playing nice with these people. They represent a block of voters Bush will need in November. Ideally, the Bush team wanted to pat these folks on the back, make them feel appreciated, and then quietly send them back home. That's why none of the staffers who met with the group were willing to discuss the meeting with Perlstein. Upton also seems to have been told not to discuss the meeting with the media, which is why he splutters a defensive denial when Perlstein asked him about the e-mail he sent describing the meeting. (Tsk, tsk, pastor -- lies make baby Jesus cry.) Tim Goeglein, "deputy director of public liaison and the White House's point man with evangelical Christians," who moderated the Apostolic Congress' sessions, was asked by members of the group what they could do to help the White House. "Pray, pray, pray, pray," Goeglein told them. In other words: We want to keep you on our side. And we want to keep you out of sight.
And also this:
That, in a nutshell, is their goal: a Greater Israel that stretches from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates (so it's actually larger than Old Testament Israel) and a reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem. Their reasoning is not so much theological as magical. By bringing about these things, they hope to make Jesus come back. This is sorcery, not eschatology. I've mentioned this before, but this so-called-theology precisely parallels the plot of many an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Zealous fanatics loyal to some secretive prophecy try to bring about the signs that will summon their master and bring about the apocalypse and the death of nearly everyone on earth. (Buffy and the gang, contra the Apostolic Congress, regard this as a Bad Thing that should be stopped.)
Good stuff- check it out.
Greg
P.S.Kelley, I really have to lodge a complaint against your negative usage of the mushroom. As you are well aware not all them grow in shit and some can be quite, well, illuminating (chomp, chomp). I know Mr. Seay would agree with me there.;)Some can be quite good for your health: http://www.fungi.com/info/articles/martial.html