Anti-Bush Criticism and the Fixation on 'Delusional' Christian Fundamentalism

The New York Times
PETER STEINFELS
January 29, 2005


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 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."

And what is this amalgam of ideology and theology that is now possessing a monopoly of Washington power? It is nothing less than the "bizarre" and "fantastical" vision of the end times as drawn out of the Book of Revelation and portrayed in the best-selling "Left Behind" series of novels by the Rev. Timothy LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.

These beliefs are no longer a fringe phenomenon, Mr. Moyers explained, because nearly half the Congress and many of its leaders were "backed" by the religious right in the recent election - that is, they earned over 80 percent approval ratings from conservative Christian lobbies.

"I've reported on these people, following some of them from Texas to the West Bank," Mr. Moyers said.

No doubt he has, but his acceptance speech drew more from two online articles that he cited and recommended to his audience than from the up-close and personal interviewing for which he is known. There seemed to be something more ideological - and maybe even apocalyptical - going on in his argument. In this he was probably representative of a much wider swath of liberal opinion.


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