Peter Steifels:
Perhaps you didn't know that Christian fundamentalists were running the United States, but then perhaps you weren't attending any upscale Manhattan parties over the holiday season. Or perhaps you didn't have the advantage of being introduced as someone who writes about religion for a newspaper.That party climate was crisp with shock and awe at the dubious findings about the role of moral values in the presidential election. There was a palpable sense that the Bible Belt was tightening like a noose around Gotham City and all it represented for civilization. Sometimes it was hard to tell whether the partygoers found this ominous or merely more fuel for the seasonal excitement.
Most of them, needless to say, had about as much personal contact with Christian fundamentalists as with Martians. In fact, "fundamentalist" was a handy label for a vague group of religious conservatives "out there" who persist in raising moral objections to abortion, same-sex marriage and embryonic-stem-cell research.
The election had certainly revealed that these religious conservatives were a force to be reckoned with. But were they the moving forces behind the signature policies of George Bush's presidency: tax cuts, the war in Iraq, environmental deregulation and now a Social Security overhaul? Were they the sources of his administration's highly debated methods of fighting terror, handling prisoners of war, employing intelligence or explaining policies to the public?
Are Dick Cheney, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Paul D. Wolfowitz, Alberto R. Gonzales and other decision makers taking their cues from biblical passages or Pat Robertson? Or are they carrying out ideas long fermenting within some national security circles, at conservative policy centers or among K Street lobbyists?
But don't suppose that the fixation on Christian fundamentalists is limited to giddy holiday revelers in Manhattan. Here is Bill Moyers, liberal sage par excellence, accepting an award last month from the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School:
"One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington."
...
...does it really serve critics of the administration to convince themselves that they are dealing with some alien species that holds Washington in the grip of a "fantastical" religious vision, rather than with adversaries who, in their mix of political and economic ideology, self-interest, good intentions and stubborn blindness, are probably not all that constitutionally different from the television executives, foundation officers and artistic figures Mr. Moyers has been deftly coping with for decades?
One effect of casting his indictment of administration environmental policies in dramatic theological terms is that Mr. Moyers offered only the faintest, glancing mention of the chemical and energy industries. Is their clout, for good or ill, really nothing compared with the Book of Revelation?
Comments
Post a Comment