Part I, Polls reveal that most war support comes from inside “evangelical” churches

 

Our Serial Wars cannot be ended for only one reason.  There remains one big, stubborn, grassroots block of support for war that will not fade away.  We Hold These Truths calls it Judeo-Christianity; to others it is Christian-Zionism, and many adherents consider themselves “Evangelicals.”  We avoid this latter term because not all evangelicals are Judeo-Christians, as we will explain later.  Judeo-Christianity, by whatever name, is anomalous, unique from all other forms of Christianity in its near total support for any war in which Muslims are on the receiving end, or from which war Israel is perceived to be a beneficiary. 

 

Ingrained into Judeo-Christianity is a shallowly buried propensity to hate Islam.  It is sinister in its strange callousness that ignores suffering if Muslims or Arabs are the victims.  But unlike most other sinister movements, Judeo-Christianity is explicable.  It has its own unique logic system, is not at all opaque, and is vulnerable to being understood.  Most encouraging, it is possible to change Judeo-Christians because they are almost 100% decent and loving persons who want to be Christ-like.  Its adherents are our closest friends, brothers, wives, and parents.  In trying to do good for Israel they enable death; but they are deserving of rescue. Judeo-Christians themselves are the most tragic victims of their own error!

 

In this series we will first show from recent respected polls and surveys that Judeo-Christianity is the primary warmaking super-sect in America; it is also the political backbone support for those who make war as a profession.  In Part II we will provide our ideas for changing Judeo-Christianity in the best interest of those caught up in it, as this author once was.  If you are in a hurry and want to read ahead, we offer a list of previous editorials on the beliefs that guide Judeo-Christianity, for we have written on this theme since a few days before the first Gulf War in 1990. 

 

America’s Serial Wars and its support for Israel’s 60 year conflict with its Arab neighbors is lately dependant exclusively on a wedge of rock-hard Judeo-Christian support. This Administration’s stated intent is to continue the present occupations and to expand what it euphemistically calls “war” to oil rich Sudan and Iran.  Judeo-Christian support is one well meaning vector for spreading the politically created propaganda for mass murder and occupation put forth in the well know agenda of those called Neo-Cons…

 

However, the Bush administration, and those who control it from behind the stage, has one problem- lack of public support for more serial wars.  An extensive ongoing Gallup Poll dated February 23, 2007, tells us that 52% of all Americans are willing to state: “the United States Made a Mistake in Sending Troops to Iraq.” ⁽¹⁾

 

Gallup pollsters on February 23, 2007 told us “white Protestant” Christianity, a huge group representing 50% of the total sample that Gallup polled, is in favor of the war by a 55% to 43% margin.  In contrast only 21% of black Protestants support the war, as do only 33% of those who claim no religion at all.  American Jews oppose the most dramatically, with only 17% in support.  Who then runs up the President’s support base?  -“Evangelicals.” ⁽¹⁾

 

The Gallup poll does not break down the huge “white Protestant” block into its vital components, but fortunately the Pew Charitable Trust’s poll taken just before the November 2006 election, on a very similar question, does.  So by piecing together the results of both polls the ice clear facts come out.

 

The Pew Research Center digs deep into how religions vote about war and tells us that only about 35% of all Americans of every religion (and of no religion at all) have confidence in the administration. ⁽²⁾

 

So, why doesn’t Congress rise up to stop the President from sending more men to Iraq and Afghanistan, which it can legally do?  Because the present  52-46% overall margin is not wide enough to frighten the cowardly Congress into action. Most members seem to  think they can play the middle ground and be reelected in 2008.

 

Serial Wars are like serial killings: they only stop when the killer is caught. The reason neither the administration nor the Congress will act positively to end our serial wars is because every member wants to be on the right side of the “Christian Right.” No other significant group supports the war in Iraq.  

 

If to the contrary, 60% or more of the general public opposed deploying more troops (presently it’s about 52%) the Congress would find a quick way to shut down Iraq with or without President Bush’s approval in order to save their own worthless hides.  The numbers tell us the Judeo-Christians need to be convinced…-everyone else already is convinced!  It is absolutely necessary that each of us know how to identify Judeo-Christians and learn how to reason with them.  These are not aliens from space; they are often our closest friends and members of our families.

 

If there is to be change we must know why this large minority still insist we are doing the right thing in Iraq in spite of staggering death reports.  Lancet, perhaps the most respected independent medical journal, states: ⁽³⁾

 

“Over 7% of the entire adult male population of Iraq has already been killed in violence, with no less than 10% in the worst affected areas covering most of central Iraq.”

 

It is stunning to realize this is genocide. The propensity to accept it reaches its bloody zenith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the most evangelical of the “Christians,” where a startling 72% stand by the occupation of Iraq, according to the Gallup poll.  Fortunately for our study, Gallup counts Mormons and “Black Protestants” separately from “White Protestants.” 

 

The figures scream out at us.  Every group is against more war in Iraq except Judeo-Christians.  A single power faction that openly controls the administration, lately called the Neo-Cons, actually takes credit for thrusting us into a war-based economic society…their plan for it is public knowledge.   The Neo-Cons get away with literal murder because they have a private power base within organized religion that is largely made up of our friends and neighbors and families.  Strangely, the “Christian Right” boldly claims to be “pro-life” but supports the Neo-Cons’ agenda of constant death by serial wars.  How can that make sense? 

 

Judeo-Christians vote as they do on account of their last days expectations for the Middle East; a political state of Israel is central to their eschatology (end-times view).  From their distinct but similar prophetic beliefs Mormons arrive at the same conclusion: war is justifiable if it is war for Israel, and they consider our wars largely against Muslims who are the enemy of Israel.  This conclusion is so important it can not be overstated.  It is the essence of America’s support for every conflict in which Islam can be made an issue…  Please consider our most recent story on this issue: “Is the Christian Right Seeking the Way?” ⁽⁴⁾

 

The Pew Trust Polls separate the huge Protestant group into “Mainline,” and Evangelical.  This pollster has long recognized that they do not vote the same.   The balance of mainline Protestants and Catholics oppose the war. 

 

 The former are old churches, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist and many more that go back five hundred or more years to the Reformation.  Catholics appear to oppose war and denounce our Iraq experience in about the same ratio as mainline Protestants.  The relatively recent evangelicals date back no further than the Civil War, and most growth occurred after 1948.  The Pew Charitable Trust’s numbers show us clearly that 58 percent of the “white evangelical Protestants” (Mormons included) say:

 

“The United States made the right decision in using force in Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein.”  

 

Again, only this group now believes the USA was right four years ago; every other group believes it to have been a mistake.  President Bush’s approval rating among evangelicals on Election Day was 70%, and 85% among Mormons, far higher than among the electorate as a whole.  But his support among white mainline Protestants was only 47%, and his overall support counting blacks, democrats, and the non-religious sinks to 33%, almost identical to the negative popularity of the war.  Were it not for the Judeo-Christians, support for the war would be off the bottom of the chart. 

 

A Pew Charitable Trust survey dated October 18, 2006 concluded:

“White evangelical Protestants have become one of the most important parts of the Republican Party’s electoral base, making up over one-third of those who identify with the GOP and vote for its candidates…Evangelicals remain the party’s most supportive group, but at levels significantly diminished from where they were in the 2002 and 2004 elections.”

 

Judeo-Christianity by all its names is responsible for keeping America locked in the cycle of serial wars.  We Hold These Truths has written much explaining why.  We will only repeat here the briefest summary.

 

Many of us, including your author, have attended and been members of both mainline and evangelical churches, and we are the same persons when we enter both places.  Why is there such an enormous difference in political thinking among church goers when the people inside are so similar?  Lutherans, Methodists, and Episcopalians worship the same God and read basically the same Bibles read in Southern Baptist churches, Assemblies of God and a host of huge “Community Churches.”  

 

Picture a Southern Baptist church on one corner and a Lutheran church or a Catholic church across the street.  The people who walk into both are from the same streets, neighborhoods and culture, yet the Baptists are at least 50% more likely to support war than their neighbors.  We suggest you watch our 43 minute Flash Presentation called Christian Zionist Roots ⁽⁵⁾, found on our homepage. 

 

Conclusion

All the Gallup and Pew polls on war popularity have demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that the 70 million or so Judeo-Christians are leading the rest of us into war!  If we don’t want serials wars to continue to dominate our culture, we need to change how these people think and vote.  We might even save one of their children from becoming an explosion victim in Iraq.  We must convince them, unless of course they can show us that these wars are Godly and good for us.

 

Preview- Part II

 

Your author is convinced Judeo-Christians are themselves being damaged by the Serial Wars. Their children are the most encouraged to enlist and learn to do the dirty work of war; murder, torture, rape; their children are among those maimed, wounded and mentally warped in the name of patriotism…patriotism that has Israel, not America at its roots. 

 

The immorality of our current serial wars should be an acceptable topic for discussion in church, especially for youth groups.  Churches must stop telling youth it is patriotic to fight in Iraq without discussing the brutal facts of war!  Judeo-Christian churches cannot even pray for peace, say nothing criticizing the conduct of war and most do not tell their own children what little they do know.

 

Moreover, Christian missions are suffering as a result of the USA’s new reputation as the international bully.  Many of these missionaries are evangelicals who we know first hand.  We will provide some examples of how the mission of Christ is being destroyed by the backlash of callousness and racism; yes, I do mean “Christian” racism.

 

Finally, Judeo-Christianity is not following Christ, therefore it is at risk before God.  Those who enter the Mainline church across the street may, and should be correctly taught that only Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.  God is not a political state in the desert.  We certainly do not endorse the social gospel so common in the mainline churches during the last century, but the disease of racism and hatred spawned by Judeo-Christianity puts the “social gospel” to pale.  It is up to church laymen, particularly fathers, to demand reform wherever they take their family for teaching.

 

Our next article in this series:  “Judeo-Christians Pay the Price of War, the Victims of Their Own Error”

 

Endnotes:

 

(1) Gallup Poll  http://whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=1241

(2) “Will Evangelicals Desert the GOP?” (Pew Charitable Trust)  whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=1249

(3) “Excess Mortality in Iraq,” the Lancet, http://www.whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=1251

(4) “Is the Christian Right Seeking the Way?”, https://whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=1079 

(5) “Christian Zionist Roots”, Audio/Visual,  https://whtt.org/show