The Religious Right

Submitted by Arlinda DeAngelis (United States), Dec 31, 2002 at 09:36

I was intrigued when the Israel and religious right factor began to surface.

There did not seem much in common between the two forces. Afterall, one is a nation and the other an inflexible rightwing evangelical organization.

The United Nations in all of its brilliance and wisdom ligitimized the Palestians by granting them the status of a non-governmental organization and a seat in the United Nations. The United Nations violated its own charter (article 46) by legitimizing Palestinian terrorism. The sovereign and legitimate liberal democratic nation of Israel lost its voice to the forces of oppresion, tyranny and corruption. The word "liberal" when used in diplomacy means a nation that supports an open society with personal freedoms." It also means a nation that is concerned with educating and fostering a middle class and markets to add to its prosperity. "Liberal" in this case does not mean the left-wing of politics.

Criticism from religious elites in the American and European Catholic Church, the National Council of Churches and, of course, Islam along with the leftwing of academia and our own government's willingness to give the terrorist Palestinians a homeland played a role into furthering terrorism and undermining Israel.

For decades, all we heard were: "Israel and Palestine have to settle their differences." "Israel has to give up the settlements in the left bank and Gaza." "Israel has to stop the racist tactics against the Palestinians." "Israel has to do more." "The poor Palestians have nothing and Israel has everything." "Israel's army is killing the poor Palestinian children for throwing rocks at its soldiers."

When the Israelis destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor, probably saving the world, the United Nations, in all of its wisdom, criticized Israel.

The only organization which never lost its love of Israel was right-wing Protestant Christianity because they were, as all Christians are inextrably tied to Judaism. Our country and the core of our democratic beliefs are rooted in the tenets of the two great religions of Judaism and Christianity. The Judaic idea of one God along with the Ten Commandments and Christianity's idea of redemption, rebirth and personal worth revolutionized the world and eventually became the hallmark of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. For all the contention between Christians and Jews, we are one people forever united. We must not forget that the Puritains saw themselves as Hebrews crossing the River Jordan into the promised land. Judaism gave birth to Christianity and Christianity based all of its tenets on the Judaic Old Testament. There is not one without the other. The Christian Right understood and remembered the history that the world forgot.

I do not share the Christian right's ultra conservatism about evolution, choice and literal meaning of the bible but I do applaud their unwavering support of democratic Israel against imperial Islamic terrorism.

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