The Messianic Bush

In my view, Kerry won the Thursday night debate nicely.

In the meantime, the Christian fundamentalists continue the canonization process for the messianic president. No, wait. More than canonization. Divinization. (Remember Julius Caesar?)

Frank Rich, writing in ARTS in the NY Times (dated Oct. 3, 2004), gives us "The Passion of the Bush." Here is one paragraph from his piece:

"It's not just Mr. Bush's self-deification that separates him from the likes of Lincoln, however; it's his chosen fashion of Christianity. The president didn't revive the word "crusade" idly in the fall of 2001. His view of faith as a Manichaean scheme of blacks and whites to be acted out in a perpetual war against evil is synergistic with the violent poetics of the best-selling "Left Behind" novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins and Mel Gibson's cinematic bloodfest. The majority of Christian Americans may not agree with this apocalyptic worldview, but there's a big market for it. A Newsweek poll shows that 17 percent of Americans expect the world to end in their lifetime. To Karl Rove and company, that 17 percent is otherwise known as 'the base.'"

May God deliver us from all fundamentalisms. Amen.