Religious comfort for bin Laden

[YankeyMCC]

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SEVEN YEARS ago last Thursday came the attack, but the American mistake came three days later. That was when President Bush, standing in the soaring space of the National Cathedral and invoking God, declared his purpose: "to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil."

When the global war on terrorism was conceived in expressly religious terms, with a Christian God declared to be not only an ally but a sponsor, the administration was carrying out an essential part of the plan of Osama bin Laden. Bush is criticized for many things, but his most grievous failure lies in having fallen into bin Laden's trap.

Beginning on Sept. 14, 2001, US foreign policy was yoked to a certain brand of messianic fundamentalism. Although discussed openly in eschatologically-minded religious institutions, the link between state power and radical Christian fervor remained blurred both in Bush's mind and in political discussion, yet it was defining. Key administration figures signed on for the good-versus-evil crusade, the enemy was defined in explicitly religious terms - "Islamofascism" - and end-of-days religion began showing up as a mode of building unit cohesion in the US military. God was assigned a place in the chain-of-command, and prayer, mainly in the name of Jesus, became a function of government.

Bin Laden wanted to be taken as the world-defender of Muslims; he wanted a war with the Great Satan as a purification of the House of Islam; he wanted the clash of civilizations. It worked, but only because a particular religious vision animated American responses. Here are that vision's main characteristics:
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...Normally, the content of her beliefs would be no more a subject of proper political inquiry than, say, John Kennedy's Catholicism was. But when conservative Christian leaders openly transformed their faith-based networks into a partisan political movement, with drastic consequences at home and abroad, the political-religious convictions of an evangelical candidate must be addressed.

In interviews, Palin has already expressed a readiness to go to war with Russia, and a refusal, as she put it, to "second guess" Israel. What lies behind these positions? Does she regard war as a possible mode of redemption? Does she believe God has granted Israel title to the whole land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean? Is it proper for US military commanders to impose religious tests on their troops? Does she see the United States as possessing transcendent virtue, other nations as more prone to evil?

Once, such questions would have seemed crackpot. Today, their answers could tell us if our nation is about to replay its gravest mistake.
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http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/09/15/religious_comfort_for_bin_laden/