The Rapture, Ragnarok and the American government

Much has been said about the role of the Christian Right in Bush's government, and there is a significant amount of speculation that Bush's desire for the Iraq war is somehow related to the idea that the end of the world is a good thing and should be brought to reality as soon as possible.  The logic appears to be that if Christians can trigger the apocalypse, then Christ has to return and will set up his thousand-year reign of glory. 

Most religions have some kind of prophecy or belief in an end-of-the-world scenario.  As a Norse Pagan, I don't necessarily follow all of what forms the fundamentalist Christian form of this belief, but I find it interesting how differently they approach their prohecied Rapture and Apocolypse from how Norse Pagans view the coming of Ragnarok.  In both cases, the ultimate outcome of the final battle is the this world is destroyed,  evil is defeated and a new world begins.  Many fundamentalist Christians believe that this is something that they want to see happen as soon as possible, and they want to do what they can to help bring it about.  Modern Norse Pagans, however, see Ragnarok as something that is inevitable, but that we are called upon to help forestall as long as possible. 

As we've seen over the last few years, the fundamentalist Christins are becoming more and more powerful, and those who hold such beliefs are becoming bolder in stating what they believe, what they think needs to be done, and why they feel that America is heading for a trip to the Christian hell. The goal of the fundamentalist Christians is to turn America into a theocracy - not unlike Afghanistan under the Taliban.

It's not entirely clear how deeply involved in this kind of thinking President Bush himself is, but several of his close associates are known to be very committed.  In particular, Anton Scalia, one of the Supreme Court justices, is a strong advocate of including much more religion in government.  He has published articles arguing that, despite our Constitutional principle that the government rules by the consent of the people, it is really God who ordains the government and that democracy obscures "the divine authority behind government".  Think about that for a moment, because it's a very scary concept.  Seeing the Forest recently published an excellent article on Scalia's comments, and I strongly encourage everyone to take the time to read it. 

One thing the StF article notes is that Scalia believes that we can tell who God has chosen to be the leader-by-divine-right is that the God-chosen leader will seize power in a battle, proving he is the one who should lead.  He goes on to question whether the election of 2000 would be considered such a "battle".  We know that Bush believes he has been chosen by God for this mission, so I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if that isn't exactly how many of these theocrats view the 2000 elections.

There are any number of questions that can be asked about how the fundamentalist view of Christanity and the "End Times" is influencing our leaders, and what their beliefs will lead them to do to this country.  I find it more than a bit disturbing that many of these people who so badly want to see the Rapture happen as soon as possible, are also the same people who have a fair amount of control over our military, and, more importantly, America's nuclear arsenal. 

I suppose for me, one of the ironies of this whole subject is that there has been so much talk lately of who has or doesn't have nuclear weapons, who should and shouldn't have them, and whether or not they'll be used in the upcoming war on Iraq - and when you read the stories where the prophesy of Ragnarok is laid out, there are some stunning similarities between how the warning signs and coming of Ragnarok are described (a three-year winter in which no other seasons intervene, a world covered in fire and ash...) and the effects of a nuclear attack. An intriguing article by Catlin O'Brien describes it this way:

This account of the apocalypse is, in many ways, what a primitive rationalization of nuclear annihilation might be like. Most of the destructive affects of the nuclear bomb are presented in some manifestation or another. While the Norse people certainly did not have the technology for conceiving or understanding, much less creating, a nuclear bomb, they managed to quite lyrically depict its effect.

At the end of the world, normal rules cease to apply. This is a common theme in modern apocalyptic literature, with the example of incest being the most obvious. From there, the physical events of Ragnarok parallel those of nuclear holocaust as well. What the Elder Edda attributes to fire giants would be neatly achieved by the firestorm resulting from an atomic explosion. Similarly, the earth suffers a prolonged winter and the moon and sun disappear, much as they would during "nuclear winter," when the debris from nuclear explosions would surround the earth. The Midgard Serpent provides a pretty accurate description of nuclear fallout, making the very air and land so poisonous that even a god cannot survive.

Even the image of a final battle and the societal perspective of such are reminiscent of nuclear war. A nation involved in such a war, or faced with its possibility, must dehumanize its enemies, demoting them to beasts and demons while elevating itself to the status of a wise and moral caretaker of the world. This occurred in both America and Russia during the Cold War; it is human nature. The citizens of that nation, moreover, will come to accept and rationalize the idea of war and even the idea of total destruction.

Even if we refrain from using our own nuclear weapons, we know that many other nations now have them, and that some, like North Korea, have made it clear the will not hesitate to use them.   The possiblity of nuclear war is once again something we have to consider. 

If our President and his associates truly believe that his has been chosen by God to lead during these times, and if they also believe that the end-of-the-world is something they need to help bring about, is it any wonder that his actions have seemed to be so out of touch with the world in which the rest of us must live?