Creating hell on earth for God

This would be amusing in its absurdity, if it wasn't so real. We have elected wackos to our nation's highest office.

Sure, many in America believe in the 'Rapture,' although it is nowhere to be found in the Bible (out of which they take most of their 'laws', falling mostly back on Old Testament 'eye for an eye' theology rather than the more uncomfortable 'turn the other cheek' New Testament doctrine. Nobody ever said 'love thy neighbor as thyself' would ever be easy.)

I would be perfectly willing to 'live and let live,' and leave them to their odd beliefs, if they would just keep their beliefs from destroying not only me, but my entire planet. That is not 'live and let live;' that is war and make die. It's also madness.

I don't personally 'get' the Rapture idea, but one thing I do get: if you start a massive world war and destroy the earth in the process - all to somehow 'force God's hand' and make the Rapture happen on your timetable - I wouldn't expect a red carpet to be rolled out for you at the end. I think I could make a pretty good case for this in just about any theological text.

But as for what Bush believes, and what he is apparently doing (I have read about this before,) feed the following essay from Truthout.org:

Beneath Bush's benign-sounding words, "faith" and "Christian," lies the deeper reality of the authoritarian, doomsday religious beliefs of the ministers and spiritual counselors that surround him, say experts. Officially he has been at pains to show an openness traditionally expected of an American president. Typical is his assertion in a speech at a National Prayer Breakfast found on the White House website: "There's another part of our heritage we are showing in Iraq, and that is the great American tradition of religious tolerance. The Iraqi people are mostly Muslims, and we respect the faith they practice." However, experts point out the particular brand of Christianity that permeates Bush's environment is anything but tolerant. For example, Bush's own personal minister, Franklin Graham, has called Islam "evil and very wicked." He has said, "Let's use the weapons we have, the weapons of mass destruction if need be, and destroy the enemy."

Respected journalist Bill Moyers says that for the religious figures around Bush "a war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared, but welcomed - an essential conflagration on the road to redemption." Scholars calculate that the group, which religion author Lynne Bundesen has dubbed "end-time Christians," has up to 40 million followers. Though not all may fully subscribe to the doomsday theology, they are inundated with it in books, megachurches, and on Christian broadcasting stations that reach millions upon millions of the faithful and are almost entirely dominated by end-time preachers. The messages come from "dispensationalists," who believe that true believers are close to the time of being "raptured," or drawn up into heaven by God, in the days before the final battles. They also emanate from various stripes of "dominionists" pushing to erect an American theocracy for the end-of-the-world wars against the anti-Christ.

At least Bush won't have much trouble finding the Anti-Christ'... my money is on that secretive, sneering guy that wants to drop a nuke on Iran and loves torture. He's also apparently in control of the entire government.

Hmmm.