American Fundamentalism in Politics and Policy
Apocalyptic fundamentalists are a group that have significant impact on the world. In addition to shaping individual thought patterns and actions, this type of belief is also manifested in people trying to shape the policies and actions of groups throughout history. The United States of America is no exception to this influence, for as long as it has been a nation. In the modern age, since the 1970s fundamentalists have been active in politics, attempting to rework America into their vision of the world. Two of the most prominent ways this has shown itself recently are in environmental policy and American foreign policy towards Israel.
A Brief History of Fundamentalism in Modern American Politics:
While religion has certainly been a factor in American governance since before we even broke away from England, the modern fundamentalist involvement really started to take off in the 1970s and 1980s. According to Steve Bruce in Fundamentalism, Ethnicity and Enclave, worried about increasing government power and the threatening of traditional right wing moralities, several figures including Pat Robertson, a powerful television preacher, and Jerry Falwell, a preacher who go on to form the Moral Majority (a political group), mobilized the fundamentalist Christian base into political action. This movement was known as “The New Christian Right” or, NCR. (Bruce 60). In the late 1980's Pat Robertson launched a failed bid for the republican nomination for the 1988 presidential election. According to Bruce he was defeated as voters didn’t embrace the entirety of the fundamentalist platform, despite agreeing on some issues. These groups had varying levels of success, Bruce says on the matter, “the NCR, although interesting, was not a particularly successful movement and that it's failure was predictable from an examination of it's own characteristics and from the characteristics of modern democratic societies.”(65)
After a relatively quiet decade for fundamentalists in politics, George W. Bush would successfully become elected with the support of the Christian right base in both 2000 and 2004. According to a Frontline documentary “Karl Rove: the Architect”, “Both Rove and Bush knew that the election of 2000 had depended upon a core constituency, the conservative wing of the Republican Party, particularly the religious right.” When they designed their campaign for the Presidency in 2004 they sought to tap into this voting block to help them win again. According to Dana Milbank, in an extended interview for that same documentary, “I think it's fair to say that religious conservatives, evangelical churches have become sort of the new labor unions....not only are they solidly Republican, but they've become sort of organizational hubs”. Rove and Bush used this to their advantage, accessing the churches themselves to activate the base, unlike the activist groups like the Moral Majority, or Pat Robertson's Christian coalition. By standing firm on issues that were important to evangelicals and openly discussing his faith, George Bush was able to craft a campaign that was remarkably successful at mobilizing Christian right wing voters.
Fundamentalism and Apocalypticism:
Charles Strozier and Katherine Boyd in “Definitions and Dualisms”, have this to say about the fundamentalist mindset, “The fundamentalist mindset, where ever it occurs, is composed of distinct characteristics, including dualistic thinking, paranoia and rage in a group context; an apocalyptic orientation that incorporates distinct perspectives on time, death and violence; a relationship to charismatic leadership; and a totalized conversion experience.”(11) This particular worldview is one that doesn't leave much wiggle room. If a belief is total and it seems as though your opponent, whether in life or on the political stage, is an agent of evil, than the course of action is clear. It seems that this way of thinking manifests itself in American politics as a violent, apocalyptic world view and a willingness to utilize violence to adhere to their vision of God's pan for the world.
The apocalypse as described by the Book of Revelation in the Bible is, for the most part, what is desired by fundamentalists. Charles Strozier describes it as the “paradigmatic text for endist Christians” (“Opening the Seven Seals of Revelation” 104) and goes on to say that “In the world of fundamentalist churches a preacher earns his legitimacy (and it is almost always a “he”) by demonstrating his deep knowledge of Revelation and his ability to convey that knowledge in meaningful ways to his congregation.” (104) This text is deeply violent and that is reflected in the beliefs of those who hold it most dear. This desire for death and destruction might seem odd and scary to someone of a different mindset, but their relationship with violence is not the same as that of a non fundamentalist.
For the fundamentalist, death isn't final or total, it is merely a step on a spiritual journey. “The psychological embrace of an apocalyptic order compels individuals to re-conceptualize death, for both the individual and the collective....The apocalyptic narrative provides purpose, direction, and imagery for one's conception of death and ultimately stresses the transcendence of death. Many authors emphasize that the perception of death and violence is drastically reoriented in the fundamentalist mindset." (“The Apocalyptic” 30-31) It is something to be transcended and overcome through faith in Christ. Likewise any violence perpetrated by the group is equally justifiable. “A group's commitment to the apocalyptic emboldens personal conviction in the groups righteousness, which facilitates violence." (31) This ultimate justification shapes the way they look at issues, and in many ways their total faith would allow them to pursue wouldn't, out of a total sense of spiritual justification.
Fundamentalism and the Environment:
One policy that this mindset manifests itself in is environmental policy. Often at play here is the idea of dominion theology. Dominionism is the belief that the church and man should have total dominion over the world and all of its creatures. This idea is drawn from Genesis 1:28 which says, “God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the Earth.'” This quote is used by fundamentalist Christians to justify an anti environmental policy.
One prevalent anti environmentalist sect is known as the Wise Use Movement. Wise Users push for the opening of public land for private and corporate development. They refer to things like national parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas as having been “stolen” by the government. Their end goal would be for all of these protected places to be opened up for economic development and the benefit of mankind. (Helvarg). Helvarg also says that the Wise Use Movement is merging with extreme fringe groups like Christian Identity, a white supremacist fundamentalist Christian group. In addition to this, some prominent Wise Use proponents are connected to groups like the Christian Coalition, founded by Pat Robertson. Stephanie Hendricks quotes Journalist Mark Matthews as saying, “For many environmentalists, the Christian Coalition is synonymous with the wise use movement, a philosophy which adherents claim is supported by the Bible when it tells humans to 'subdue' the earth...the Montana spokeswoman for the Christian Coalition, Laurie Koutnik, says her organization believes that God 'gave us the animals to use wisely.'”(85-86) These political connection shows that Wise Use is also active in government.
After being elected for the first time in 2000 George Bush appointed a council of 58 people to make decisions about how to best reform the Department of the Interior, responsible for all the aforementioned protected areas. They reported that “Of the 58 people appointed by President Bush to help shape the Interior Department, more than half are [timber and other] industry lobbyists, executives, and consultants, 12 are active in the anti-environmental 'wise-use' movement.”(Hendricks 90). As identified earlier, President Bush relied heavily on the conservative fundamentalist and evangelical base for his electoral success.
The Wise Use movement is also a fairly violent one. Radical people associated with them use tactics like arson, pipe bombings, intimidation, and vandalism to accomplish their means against public employees. Helvarg quotes Park Service ranger Pat Buccello as saying, “"They're merging with Christian Identity [a racist cult linked to Aryan Nations] and all these other right-wing extremist groups. You see the rhetoric changing, where it is now acceptable for them to say, 'I think you ought to be shot.' I've dealt with groups like [the militant environmental group] Earth First! where you talk to them and agree how many people are going to get arrested, and they show up in their [animal and tree] costumes, and you arrest them. But it's different with Wise Use. I think the Wise Users really want a confrontation." (Agent Pat Bucello, quoted in Helvarg) This proclivity for violence makes sense given an understanding of the fundamentalist apocalyptic mindset.
Underscoring the apocalyptic views of fundamentalists regarding the environment, Hal Lindsey, a prominent fundamentalist and prophetic interpreter, said on his program The Hal Lindsey Report, “I know this, global warming will never reach such catastrophic proportions it'll destroy this planet, for God promised us in Genesis 8:22, quote 'While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.'” He doesn’t acknowledge the science of climate change as being true, but that is unimportant. His belief that God will provide for his people is total, and that means that environmentalism is irrelevant. This view is prevalent among fundamentalists and is reflected in their policies.
Fundamentalism and America's Relationship With Israel:
America's foreign policy regarding the nation of Israel is tinged with apocalypticism and has been since the beginning of the modern Israeli state. Many prominent fundamentalist leaders hold the belief that state of Israel's existence is crucial to the return of Christ and the prophecy of Revelation. On Israel's relationship to prophecy, Hal Lindsey said, “Israel is literally the fuse to Armageddon-a prophetic name for the last war”. (Stone 510) After the Six-Day War in 1967, fundamentalist Christians became even more impassioned in their convictions that Israel was crucial to the fulfillment of prophecy, as in the war Jerusalem and other historically Jewish areas had been claimed by the Israeli state. “Evangelical Christians holding to the Messianic faith became more active in their support of Israel, with leading evangelists such as Billy Graham (b. 1918), Hal Lindsey (b. 1929), Jerry Falwell (1933-2007), and Pat Robertson (b. 1930) expressing their opinions that Israel was vital for the fulfillment of prophecy”. (Ariel 679) Since that time millions of evangelical Christians have journeyed to Israel to preach and see the holy land, awaiting the end times. (Ariel)
Many fundamentalist groups are working toward rebuilding the Temple on the Temple Mount as part of the prophecy of the end times. The verses Revelation 11:1 and Daniel 9:27 are interpreted as meaning that in order for Christ's return, the Temple has to exist. Groups like the Temple Mount Faithful lobby to raise support for rebuilding the Temple, currently the site of the Dome of the Rock, one of Islam's holiest sites. Pat Robertson in the late 1980s supported the Temple Mount Faithful on his show the 700 Club, and had their leader Gershon Solomon on for an interview in 1991. (Ariel 681)
America's recent support of Israel has been fairly unwavering, giving the state subsidies amounting to $65 billion between 1949 and 1995, and Israel continues to receive $3 billion annually since 1985 according to Irvine Anderson. Jerry Falwell claims to have convinced Jesse Helms, a Republican senator from North Carolina and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to become a supporter of Israel. “Helms had been adamantly opposed to support for Israel for a long time. During the Reagan administration he suddenly changed course”. (Anderson 114) Some attribute this change to two things: one, that Helms was a Baptist and agreed with Jerry Falwell on many moral issues, and two, that a lot of the money that had been raised for Helm's election came from the Religious Right. Either way this shows the political sway of New Christian Right.
In 1995 the United States House and Senate passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act. This act attempted to force the Executive branch to move the embassy from it's current location in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, despite the fact that the United Nations in 1980 had a vote and asked all nations not to put embassies in Jerusalem, “since the final status of Jerusalem had yet to be determined” (Anderson 122) A large supporter of this legislation was the Religious Right. Jerry Falwell said on the matter “Tel Aviv is the brain child of man; Jerusalem is the heartthrob of God.” (123) Despite passing with a huge majority in congress, this law has not been signed by any president since, nor has the Embassy moved.
While not all fundamentalist political action is apocalyptic in nature, attempting to separate the two is a pointless endeavor. For Millennial Christians everything can be and is connected to the fulfillment of prophecy. In their mind, things like having laws reflecting biblical morality, or their own church attendance, are equivalent to how the state and the world handles policy. Day in and day out, life for such people is colored by their world view. It is not that they are inherently more violent in their decision making, but they certain in their justification.
A Brief History of Fundamentalism in Modern American Politics:
While religion has certainly been a factor in American governance since before we even broke away from England, the modern fundamentalist involvement really started to take off in the 1970s and 1980s. According to Steve Bruce in Fundamentalism, Ethnicity and Enclave, worried about increasing government power and the threatening of traditional right wing moralities, several figures including Pat Robertson, a powerful television preacher, and Jerry Falwell, a preacher who go on to form the Moral Majority (a political group), mobilized the fundamentalist Christian base into political action. This movement was known as “The New Christian Right” or, NCR. (Bruce 60). In the late 1980's Pat Robertson launched a failed bid for the republican nomination for the 1988 presidential election. According to Bruce he was defeated as voters didn’t embrace the entirety of the fundamentalist platform, despite agreeing on some issues. These groups had varying levels of success, Bruce says on the matter, “the NCR, although interesting, was not a particularly successful movement and that it's failure was predictable from an examination of it's own characteristics and from the characteristics of modern democratic societies.”(65)
After a relatively quiet decade for fundamentalists in politics, George W. Bush would successfully become elected with the support of the Christian right base in both 2000 and 2004. According to a Frontline documentary “Karl Rove: the Architect”, “Both Rove and Bush knew that the election of 2000 had depended upon a core constituency, the conservative wing of the Republican Party, particularly the religious right.” When they designed their campaign for the Presidency in 2004 they sought to tap into this voting block to help them win again. According to Dana Milbank, in an extended interview for that same documentary, “I think it's fair to say that religious conservatives, evangelical churches have become sort of the new labor unions....not only are they solidly Republican, but they've become sort of organizational hubs”. Rove and Bush used this to their advantage, accessing the churches themselves to activate the base, unlike the activist groups like the Moral Majority, or Pat Robertson's Christian coalition. By standing firm on issues that were important to evangelicals and openly discussing his faith, George Bush was able to craft a campaign that was remarkably successful at mobilizing Christian right wing voters.
Fundamentalism and Apocalypticism:
Charles Strozier and Katherine Boyd in “Definitions and Dualisms”, have this to say about the fundamentalist mindset, “The fundamentalist mindset, where ever it occurs, is composed of distinct characteristics, including dualistic thinking, paranoia and rage in a group context; an apocalyptic orientation that incorporates distinct perspectives on time, death and violence; a relationship to charismatic leadership; and a totalized conversion experience.”(11) This particular worldview is one that doesn't leave much wiggle room. If a belief is total and it seems as though your opponent, whether in life or on the political stage, is an agent of evil, than the course of action is clear. It seems that this way of thinking manifests itself in American politics as a violent, apocalyptic world view and a willingness to utilize violence to adhere to their vision of God's pan for the world.
The apocalypse as described by the Book of Revelation in the Bible is, for the most part, what is desired by fundamentalists. Charles Strozier describes it as the “paradigmatic text for endist Christians” (“Opening the Seven Seals of Revelation” 104) and goes on to say that “In the world of fundamentalist churches a preacher earns his legitimacy (and it is almost always a “he”) by demonstrating his deep knowledge of Revelation and his ability to convey that knowledge in meaningful ways to his congregation.” (104) This text is deeply violent and that is reflected in the beliefs of those who hold it most dear. This desire for death and destruction might seem odd and scary to someone of a different mindset, but their relationship with violence is not the same as that of a non fundamentalist.
For the fundamentalist, death isn't final or total, it is merely a step on a spiritual journey. “The psychological embrace of an apocalyptic order compels individuals to re-conceptualize death, for both the individual and the collective....The apocalyptic narrative provides purpose, direction, and imagery for one's conception of death and ultimately stresses the transcendence of death. Many authors emphasize that the perception of death and violence is drastically reoriented in the fundamentalist mindset." (“The Apocalyptic” 30-31) It is something to be transcended and overcome through faith in Christ. Likewise any violence perpetrated by the group is equally justifiable. “A group's commitment to the apocalyptic emboldens personal conviction in the groups righteousness, which facilitates violence." (31) This ultimate justification shapes the way they look at issues, and in many ways their total faith would allow them to pursue wouldn't, out of a total sense of spiritual justification.
Fundamentalism and the Environment:
One policy that this mindset manifests itself in is environmental policy. Often at play here is the idea of dominion theology. Dominionism is the belief that the church and man should have total dominion over the world and all of its creatures. This idea is drawn from Genesis 1:28 which says, “God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the Earth.'” This quote is used by fundamentalist Christians to justify an anti environmental policy.
One prevalent anti environmentalist sect is known as the Wise Use Movement. Wise Users push for the opening of public land for private and corporate development. They refer to things like national parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas as having been “stolen” by the government. Their end goal would be for all of these protected places to be opened up for economic development and the benefit of mankind. (Helvarg). Helvarg also says that the Wise Use Movement is merging with extreme fringe groups like Christian Identity, a white supremacist fundamentalist Christian group. In addition to this, some prominent Wise Use proponents are connected to groups like the Christian Coalition, founded by Pat Robertson. Stephanie Hendricks quotes Journalist Mark Matthews as saying, “For many environmentalists, the Christian Coalition is synonymous with the wise use movement, a philosophy which adherents claim is supported by the Bible when it tells humans to 'subdue' the earth...the Montana spokeswoman for the Christian Coalition, Laurie Koutnik, says her organization believes that God 'gave us the animals to use wisely.'”(85-86) These political connection shows that Wise Use is also active in government.
After being elected for the first time in 2000 George Bush appointed a council of 58 people to make decisions about how to best reform the Department of the Interior, responsible for all the aforementioned protected areas. They reported that “Of the 58 people appointed by President Bush to help shape the Interior Department, more than half are [timber and other] industry lobbyists, executives, and consultants, 12 are active in the anti-environmental 'wise-use' movement.”(Hendricks 90). As identified earlier, President Bush relied heavily on the conservative fundamentalist and evangelical base for his electoral success.
The Wise Use movement is also a fairly violent one. Radical people associated with them use tactics like arson, pipe bombings, intimidation, and vandalism to accomplish their means against public employees. Helvarg quotes Park Service ranger Pat Buccello as saying, “"They're merging with Christian Identity [a racist cult linked to Aryan Nations] and all these other right-wing extremist groups. You see the rhetoric changing, where it is now acceptable for them to say, 'I think you ought to be shot.' I've dealt with groups like [the militant environmental group] Earth First! where you talk to them and agree how many people are going to get arrested, and they show up in their [animal and tree] costumes, and you arrest them. But it's different with Wise Use. I think the Wise Users really want a confrontation." (Agent Pat Bucello, quoted in Helvarg) This proclivity for violence makes sense given an understanding of the fundamentalist apocalyptic mindset.
Underscoring the apocalyptic views of fundamentalists regarding the environment, Hal Lindsey, a prominent fundamentalist and prophetic interpreter, said on his program The Hal Lindsey Report, “I know this, global warming will never reach such catastrophic proportions it'll destroy this planet, for God promised us in Genesis 8:22, quote 'While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.'” He doesn’t acknowledge the science of climate change as being true, but that is unimportant. His belief that God will provide for his people is total, and that means that environmentalism is irrelevant. This view is prevalent among fundamentalists and is reflected in their policies.
Fundamentalism and America's Relationship With Israel:
America's foreign policy regarding the nation of Israel is tinged with apocalypticism and has been since the beginning of the modern Israeli state. Many prominent fundamentalist leaders hold the belief that state of Israel's existence is crucial to the return of Christ and the prophecy of Revelation. On Israel's relationship to prophecy, Hal Lindsey said, “Israel is literally the fuse to Armageddon-a prophetic name for the last war”. (Stone 510) After the Six-Day War in 1967, fundamentalist Christians became even more impassioned in their convictions that Israel was crucial to the fulfillment of prophecy, as in the war Jerusalem and other historically Jewish areas had been claimed by the Israeli state. “Evangelical Christians holding to the Messianic faith became more active in their support of Israel, with leading evangelists such as Billy Graham (b. 1918), Hal Lindsey (b. 1929), Jerry Falwell (1933-2007), and Pat Robertson (b. 1930) expressing their opinions that Israel was vital for the fulfillment of prophecy”. (Ariel 679) Since that time millions of evangelical Christians have journeyed to Israel to preach and see the holy land, awaiting the end times. (Ariel)
Many fundamentalist groups are working toward rebuilding the Temple on the Temple Mount as part of the prophecy of the end times. The verses Revelation 11:1 and Daniel 9:27 are interpreted as meaning that in order for Christ's return, the Temple has to exist. Groups like the Temple Mount Faithful lobby to raise support for rebuilding the Temple, currently the site of the Dome of the Rock, one of Islam's holiest sites. Pat Robertson in the late 1980s supported the Temple Mount Faithful on his show the 700 Club, and had their leader Gershon Solomon on for an interview in 1991. (Ariel 681)
America's recent support of Israel has been fairly unwavering, giving the state subsidies amounting to $65 billion between 1949 and 1995, and Israel continues to receive $3 billion annually since 1985 according to Irvine Anderson. Jerry Falwell claims to have convinced Jesse Helms, a Republican senator from North Carolina and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to become a supporter of Israel. “Helms had been adamantly opposed to support for Israel for a long time. During the Reagan administration he suddenly changed course”. (Anderson 114) Some attribute this change to two things: one, that Helms was a Baptist and agreed with Jerry Falwell on many moral issues, and two, that a lot of the money that had been raised for Helm's election came from the Religious Right. Either way this shows the political sway of New Christian Right.
In 1995 the United States House and Senate passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act. This act attempted to force the Executive branch to move the embassy from it's current location in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, despite the fact that the United Nations in 1980 had a vote and asked all nations not to put embassies in Jerusalem, “since the final status of Jerusalem had yet to be determined” (Anderson 122) A large supporter of this legislation was the Religious Right. Jerry Falwell said on the matter “Tel Aviv is the brain child of man; Jerusalem is the heartthrob of God.” (123) Despite passing with a huge majority in congress, this law has not been signed by any president since, nor has the Embassy moved.
While not all fundamentalist political action is apocalyptic in nature, attempting to separate the two is a pointless endeavor. For Millennial Christians everything can be and is connected to the fulfillment of prophecy. In their mind, things like having laws reflecting biblical morality, or their own church attendance, are equivalent to how the state and the world handles policy. Day in and day out, life for such people is colored by their world view. It is not that they are inherently more violent in their decision making, but they certain in their justification.