Bush promised his evangelical followers faith-based social services… He went beyond that to give them faith-based war, faith-based law enforcement, faith-based education, faith-based medicine, and faith-based science. He could deliver on his promises because he stocked the agencies handling all these problems, in large degree, with born-again Christians of his own variety. The evangelicals had complained for years that they were not able to affect policy because liberals left over from previous administrations were in all the health and education and social service bureaus, at the operational level. They had specific people they objected to, and they had specific people with whom to replace them…
It is little wonder that we have had a corresponding efflorescence in Tehran and other Muslim capitals of similarly tub-thumping evangelicals. But the extent of the operation in Washington is still not fully appreciated.
Wills goes on:
It is common knowledge that the White House let lobbyists have a say in the drafting of economic legislation in matters like oil production, pharmaceutical regulation, medical insurance and corporate taxes. It is less known that for social services, evangelical organizations were given the same right to draft bills and install the officials who implement them. Karl Rove [George W. Bush’s senior adviser] had cultivated the extensive network of religious-right organizations, and they were consulted at every step of the way as the administration set up its policies on gays, AIDS, condoms, abstinence programs, creationism, and other matters that concerned the evangelicals. All the evangelicals’ resentments… were now being addressed.
The evangelicals knew which positions could affect their agenda, whom to replace, and whom they wanted appointed. This was true for the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and Health and Human Services-agencies that would rule on or administer matters dear to the evangelical cause.
Despite this comprehensive takeover, the Christian right would complain that the President had not gone far enough.
When I was in my teens I met the Rev. Michael Scott. He was a delightful and unostentatious figure, often dressed more like a gardener on his way to the allotment than like a priest. Scott spent his time sailing boats directly into the intended sites of nuclear bomb tests. His bravery and commitment were astounding.
Bishop Trevor Huddleston I saw briefly. His stand in South Africa fighting apartheid was legendary. Huddleston persevered through the worst of the brutality and when it was unfashionable to be against the system. The Rev. Dr David Millikan, a former head of ABC Religion, has spent decades trying to understand why our children join cults and helping them recover from the experience. These men represent the heart of what the Church does best. Many women have done the same; many non-Christian religions as well.
Occasionally, however, I do a thought experiment. I wonder how many of the policies coming out of Washington, London and Canberra in the last ten years would have lapsed if put through the filter of the teachings of Jesus on love and forgiveness. If George W. Bush is a good example of a thoroughgoing Christian, then Heaven help us.
I draw several lessons from all this about the future of God and of ourselves.
The first is, inevitably, about education. Science may be imperfect and may have produced harm, but it is by a cosmic mile more reliable and potentially less hazardous than most human institutions. It is also the key to our survival. The relativism that demeans our times should not be allowed to go unchallenged. We are not in a knowledge supermarket, where the choice is up to the customer; we need critical thinking to help us dispose of the dross. Our schools and universities should be the front lines of this, not dupes of snake-oil merchants.
Second, we need to know other cultures better than we do. The war in Iraq has been a shocking disaster because the invaders had not a clue about how to behave in a foreign land. Terry Eagleton is half right when he asks that we should at least try to know something about the human values we are rejecting.
Thirdly, we need to grow up. Religion may have had its place in the forest and during medieval plagues. Today it is either a faint remnant in the hands of apologetic bishops or a rallying cry for rampaging crowds shouting vile loathings. A private conviction, politely held, is one thing. A national policy putting millions at risk is another.
As for God-he can look after his own future.
Postscript 1
Danny Wallace, 30, a comedian, took out a newspaper advert inviting everyone to join a new cult. It had no message. Despite this, people signed up. Danny started a website saying only ‘Join me’, still with no statement of purpose. People kept joining. They started calling Danny ‘Leader’.
Somewhat freaked, Danny, being a good bloke, decided to turn the cult’s raison d’être into random good works, like sending peanuts to pensioners. After five years this accidental organisation has 16,000 members Europe-wide. People are such keen joiners… and followers.
True story!
Postscript 2
I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed-I want the culture of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any of them. Mine is not a religion of the prison house. It has room for the least among God’s creations. But it is proof against the insolent pride of race, religion or colour.
– Mahatma Gandhi
The Hunches of Nostradamus
2008 All US presidential candidates say they know God personally-’He’s my senior adviser.’
2009 President of Iran promises to wipe out all infidels- non Muslims-’God willing!’ Darwin anniversary celebrations cancelled in US.
2010 Richard Dawkins publishes Why God Stinks; insists it is not meant to be provocative.
2010 Discovery Institute in Seattle says it can prove all humans were ‘intelligently designed’- with the exception of Richard Dawkins.
2011 Archbishop of Canterbury admits being an atheist. Says this is no impediment to doing his job.
2012 Terrorists blow up all kindergartens and school buses in Israel and southern England ‘in the name of Allah’.
2013 Lesbian becomes Archbishop of York.
2014 Degrees in intelligent design offered at Australian universities-because ‘they are so very well funded’, says Vice-Chancellors Committee.
2015 Israel bombs Iran with nuclear devices.
2016 Membership of Pentecostalists and other churches recruiting mainly young people reaches several billion worldwide. They denounce evolutionary biology.
2017 George Pell becomes Pope. Condemns condoms.
2018 Middle East wiped out.
2019 Pope George offers prayers for world peace.
2020 God announces (via ABC Radio National) he is giving up in disgust, leaving this universe and going off to start another one.
4. The Future of Transport - 2027: Full Speed Ahead
The delays caused by traffic congestion are officially estimated to cost America $100 billion a year.