Via Avedon Carol: Is Bush the Anti-Christ?

Granted, Bawer says the right “worships evil,” and has “warped Christianity into something ugly and hateful that has little or nothing to do with love and everything to do with suspicion, superstition, and sadism [and] denies the name of Christianity to followers of Jesus who reject its barbaric theology.” But “when people start calling somebody the Antichrist, we’re in right-wing fundamentalist, Church of Law territory, and I don’t like it one bit. . . . Demonizing (literally) individuals in this way is ugly, scary. . . . “

Lang, though, stands his ground against his famous accuser, and insists that he’s missing some crucial distinctions. “This is not about George Bush, this is about this whole administration. It’s about Karl Rove, it’s about the neocons, some of whom are Christian, some who aren’t, but who are using Christian rhetoric. James Dobson [of Focus on the Family] has direct access to the highest echelons of American government. And Robertson and Falwell.”

Still, Lang means what he says about Bush. “He has the spirit of the Antichrist. Literally, break the word apart. It is a spirituality that is anti-Christ.”

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Lang argues that followers of Jesus, not Bush, should call an Antichrist an Antichrist?or rather, its spirit. “The progressive church should bring back?and this sounds so crazy?the word ‘heresy.’ The end times theology and this other thing called Dominionism or Christian Reconstruction?those are heresies.” Lang says not to believe Christian Coalition leader?turned?Whore of Enron?turned Bush/Cheney campaign lieutenant Ralph Reed when he claims the Christian right has no plans to upend the Constitution and impose its religion on civic life. “He’s a liar,” says Lang. “Dominionism is the notion that God has given the dominion, the governance of the world, to the church. And so Christians literally are born to rule, by force if necessary, to bring the Kingdom of God on Earth. I believe that the theology that drives the Bush administration affirms this.” When Falwell preached, “We must take back what is rightfully ours,” his ambitions did not stop at U.S. borders. This is a Church of a Law Unto Itself.

This Seattle Weekly piece is not only comprehensive, it’s a great read.