Christiane Amanpour, God's Warriors and the Cult of Bush the Messiah

What could it possibly take to become a person who not only isn't bothered by the fact that a man who lost the popular vote is appointed President by the Supreme Court, but actually believes that fact is what confers legitimacy upon his regime? Recently, CNN's Christiane Amanpour drew fire from, among others, MSNBC's Dan Abrams for casting Christian and Jewish extremists in the same light as Islamic terrorists in her three-part special God's Warriors. Dan Abrams apparently had a problem with the very idea that Christians and Jews could even possibly see themselves as warriors of God. This line of reasoning is very much in keeping with the movement that has grown over the past decade that has decided that Islam is a religious of hatred, whereas Christianity and Judaism follow the word of a loving God.

George W. Bush said, in the run-up to his re-election campaign in 2004: "This young century will be liberty's century. By promoting liberty abroad we will build a safer world....We have a calling from beyond the stars." A calling from beyond the stars sounds to me like God has given His blessing to us over others. The subtext that is clear even to the most Cletus Delroy Spuckler-like Bush supporter: God is on OUR side in nation-building abroad. In other words, God supports the war in Iraq. In other words: GOD IS OKAY WITH OUR KILLING PEOPLE WITH WHOM WE HAVE IDEOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES.

If you believe that a God whose son said "Love thy neighbor" in a completely non-ironic way supports war as a method of solving your differences, then you believe in a religion of hate. There is no difference between saying that God is on our side when this nation launches an illegitimate and illegal war and saying that God is on your side when you fly airplanes into buildings. Osama Bin Laden has his followers who believe he is a prophet much like Mohammed. Believe it or not, but there is an enormous group of people in this country who support George W. Bush no matter what-no matter how many laws he breaks and no matter how much misery his failed policies cause-because he is God's anointed messenger.