Guest Poster: Retrogrouch
Last night, President Bush gave his 7th State of the Union address. In it, he made only two obvious biblical allusions. The second was a reference to Luke 12:48 “To whom much is given, much is required” and I will address that at a later time.
The first allusion, and the one I want to address here, came in this paragraph about Iraq:
This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in. Every one of us wishes that this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk. Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. So let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory.
In this paragraph, Bush is seeking to assert that the end of the world is right now, that he stands in the role of King Solomon, and frame his continued prosecution of the Iraq war as divine covenant.
Specifically, when Bush says “On this day, at this hour” he is referencing Mark 13:32 (KJV) “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”
Note the deliberate matching of the cadence to that of the well known King James Version. In his passage, Jesus is telling his disciples to be constantly prepared for the end of the world and his return because no one knows when it will happen. By changing the formulation from “that day and that hour” to “this day, at this hour,” Bush is claiming that time is now.
Bush’s preceding statement that “it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned” echoes this passage from 1 Kings 6:
11 The word of the LORD came to Solomon: 12 "As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, carry out my regulations and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. 13 And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel”.
Shorter YHWH: Keep my commandments and I will keep my promise and not abandon my people.
Shorter Bush: God told me to invade Iraq, we need to keep his commandments so God will keep his promises, and not abandon America, his chosen nation.
(Aside, I like to use gender neutral language for YHWH, however in the above I’m assuming Bush’s voice)
If this sounds a bit much for even the more credulous Evangelicals to swallow, one should remember that these extremist Christians view the Eschaton (end of the world) as something that needs to be brought about by themselves. It is a truly bizarre and unbiblical belief.
The vast majority of Christians interpret Jesus’ discussion of the end found in Mark 13 as a call to work to bring about justice and let Jesus worry about his return. The extremists view it as a call to work to bring about Jesus’ return and let Jesus worry about justice.
But here is the good news: even the majority of Evangelicals would not buy into the idea that Bush and his policies are the instrument of God’s will if it were explicitly stated as such. This is why Bush and the GOG Party liaisons to the evangelical community such as Robertson, Dobson and Falwell never state it in those terms. They are perfectly happy making these oblique allusions and appealing to the imagination instead of the intellect. All we really have to do is call them on it.