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The Theology of Armageddon
The woo-woo nuttiness of it all defies the imagination, beginning with the idea of a course in “Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare” at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Nuclear ethics?
Does that mean no nuclear weapons should ever be used to promote sexual harassment?
Well actually, turns out the point of the mandatory course recently canceled by the Air Force after officers of numerous faiths complained to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation about it and TruthOut published an exposé in July — was to give officers in the first week of missile-launch training a Bible-verse-studded indoctrination in faux-Just War Theory, cynically known in the ranks as the “Jesus Loves Nukes” training.
“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.”
This verse, Revelation 19:11, has nothing to do with Just War Theory, Christian or otherwise. It sounds more like the theology of Armageddon, or the ethics of end times — scary enough on the social fringe but, my God, here was the U.S. Air Force, guardian of the country’s nuclear arsenal, pushing it as a basic part of missile-launch training.
There were plenty of other religiously pushy declarations in this mandatory course, such as these words from Wernher von Braun, the Nazi rocket scientist who teamed up with the U.S. military after the war to develop its space and missile programs, regarding his surrender to the Americans in 1945:
“We knew that we had created a new means of warfare and the question as to what nation . . .we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else,” von Braun is quoted as saying. “We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured.”
This is too strange to be irony. The Nazi rocket wizard sought moral reassurance in Christian exceptionalism, and his words then became part of America’s official ethics of nuclear war: We’re with Jesus on that white horse, and if/when we launch Armageddon, we’re only doing the work of the Lord. To my mind, there are few people on the planet scarier than self-proclaimed “Christian soldiers,” at least those who feed from the evangelical trough and belong to the U.S. military, because their agenda transcends rationality. In righteousness they judge and make war.
But my sense of shock and awe over this nuclear ethics course isn’t simply about evangelicals in the military and their zeal to proselytize. It’s about the official sanctioning of a nuclear morality that allows their use: that transforms America and its military machine into an instrument of the will of God.
The canceled course was called Christian Just War Theory. Even leaving aside the “Christian” part, this theory — or rather the public-relations perversion thereof (Just Window Dressing) — is at the center of the smug delusions of armed righteousness in this country and beyond. Some form of it is used to justify every modern war when, in point of fact, an honest reading of just war theory makes modern war impossible.
“Civilians are never permissible targets of war . . .”
What part of this do we not understand? Even Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has acknowledged the moral quicksand of modern war, commenting in 2003 that “we must begin asking ourselves whether as things stand, with new weapons that cause destruction that goes well beyond the groups involved in the fight, it is still licit to allow that a ‘just war’ might exist.”
Of course, the theory is always presented with wiggle room, making it, you know, fair for the war makers, too: “The weapons used in war must discriminate between combatants and non-combatant,” Vincent Ferraro explains in his discussion of the principles of the theory, as referenced atjustwartheory.com. “Civilians are never permissible targets of war, and every effort must be taken to avoid killing civilians. The deaths of civilians are justified only if they are unavoidable victims of a deliberate attack on a military target.”
Aha, loophole! While the actual point of the theory is to acknowledge — to bless — a people’s need to fight back in self-defense against an aggressor, or to protect the innocent, its language is so hopelessly wishy-washy that its blessing is there for the taking for any armed cynic who wants moral cover. A warring nation has unlimited permission to kill indiscriminately as long as it “makes every effort” to avoid killing civilians.
Thus Harry Truman announced, on Aug. 9, 1945: “The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians.”
There is no moral honesty in a discussion of war for the simple reason that there can’t be. War is its own end, the perversion of every just cause. As soon as we begin worshipping it, we can tolerate moral authority only as a cover for our crimes. Before you know it, Jesus loves nukes.
39 Comments so far
Show AllDude, you have to have a few screws loose in the head to even consider pushing the Big Red Button.
Just never, ever push the "little green button"! The big red one is for the valet!
"For a reasonable fee, I can install this little blue button to get you down" - Daffy Duck
What have we become?
About the only reason I could ever approve of for warmaking is real self defense. If there are a lot of warriors with actual zeal to do harm swooping at you, then you have, of course, the right to fight back by any means possible. The problem with that is the warlord types will try their best to persuade their populaces that it is self-defense when it really isn't. They are always faking a sense of urgency so the people will go along with their conquests and vendettas. The kings and emperors are always lying, and people have been falling for it since before the start of recorded history. The warlords' have reasons and agendas of their own which is never what they say which is always said to manipulate their followers into following even if it gets those followers killed. Fatal folly.
During the hippie days there was a slogan: "Suppose they gave a war and nobody came." It's still a good question. But people aren't ready to not be fooled again yet. Most are still way too ready to get on board, to shake their fists and sing rousing choruses of "praise the lord and pass the ammunition." Too much pleasure is derived from seeing oneself as a hero for a great and noble cause.
This has been a problem for the whole story of civilization, but it's become infinitely more problematic as our power to cause explosions has increased. And those increases are still happening and compounding. It'll all catch up with us and do us all in if environmental decay or a pandemic doesn't get us first.
In all three of the above mentioned cases -- if they really are separate problems -- we are our own cause. Neither natural law nor forces from somewhere beyond are destroying us. We as a species are doing it to ourselves because we cannot learn from this one mistake that we keep making over and over -- war.
But that's how it is and there's nothing I can do about it except point it out to anyone who might want to listen.
Memo to my fellow humans: War is a practice that's doing us irreparable harm. Please cease all such activities at once, for your own good.
"Gardener" said:
"What have we become?"
Your use of WE here is offensive. How many people are in favor of nuclear weapons? How many think religious indoctrination--in favor of massive killing--is a fair or wise approach? So please cease and desist from conflating what the MIC does, with what "we" want, or ARE, Mr. Insider. Speak for YOURself.
Slow down... His rhetorical question was a lament about the United States as a whole. Which means, not only did you shout at him, it was for having the same opinion as you.
I took the 'we' to refer to the human species and what it has shown itself as capable of. "...even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise above the highest that is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the low which is in you also." The Prophet, Khalil Gibran
What have we become is a very good question...the fascist Christian soldiers with their 'Jesus loves nukes' sermons are deeply disturbing and need to be given lessons on religious freedom, separation of church and state and the Constitution.
We have become a nation where the foundations of our democracy is threatened by the military is infected by liberty-endangering, undemocratic Christian dominionists.
Actually, it takes two to push two red buttons at the same time. In fact it may be more like turning a key.
That's how it is portrayed in Cold War movies, played for drama. If you visit one of the declassified Titan II silos, you'll learn it was as simple as activating a single switch. And they weren't hundreds of feet underground; (more Hollywood dramatization, though the pumps for the propellant at the bottom of the launch tube are about 140' down, accessed only by ladders) the main control room is actually about 15' underground and accessed by stairs, not elevator as in the movies.
A good exercise for Common Dreamers is to become familiar with the related but different concepts of =jus ad bellum= and =jus in bello=. The first addresses the right to go to war. The second addresses the conduct of war, once undertaken. The elements of these two concepts were initially debated and written down while humans still believed the earth was flat. It may yet become so.
From the beginning, it was regarded justifiable to commence holy war against any nation harming or killing native converts to Christianity - see French takeover of Indochina and Viet Nam - leading, eventually, to a polished black wall in Washington DC sprinkled with trinket vendors.
After scientific discovery that the world was round and one half of it belonged to Spain while the other half to Portugal - a new jus ad bellum came into being. It was declared ca 1600 that war could justifiably be made upon a nation who refused to admit missionaries of the Christian faith. No kidding.
In support of this footnoted Just War Christian doctrine are the present American efforts to conduct bouncy 1-2-3-4 Billy Graham Rallies upon as many American military bases as possible."Boogy in those sheaves, mister, - - - on tank treads."
Squeak squeak squeak.
Trylon
So what is new? The Air Force Academy has been loaded with screwball evangelicals for years. I guess if you think the "second coming" is imminent, it doesn't matter if you start a nuclear war.
The reference to von Braun is fascinating. Someone once mentioned that the title of his memoir left out a few words. It should have been "We Aim for the Stars, but sometimes We Hit London."
We are confronted with the fact that the Christian faith is the Nazi Party of the late Roman Empire, having long outlived its totalitarian origins and purpose; forever mired in trying to resolve a semblance of civility and reason with its deliriously self-righteous faith.
So true. Equally true though, and it's important to always point this out if you ever discuss with Christians, is that Jesus has almost nothing in common with Christianity as practiced by the churches. My guess is, he'd be horrified to learn what they've done in his name, especially Hitler himself.
If a fictional character could be "horrified"....
To the contrary Jesus predicted evil being done in his name. He was no starry eyed wishfull thinker. The guy knew exactly what a sewer the world is. But then the well have no need of a physician.
"Jesus Christ was the last Christian" - Nietzsche
Obviously these war mongers prefer Frederick the Great's Prussian militarism and misadventure to Thomas Jefferson's American struggle to "run the race of peace" and make "peace and justice' our "polar stars."
Do Muslims have an equivalent to the Christian Armageddon Option or Jewish Masada Option? My impression is that they are not as narcissistic.
Course they do, it is a modified version of the xtian version of the end wars. (hence foolish people yapping about the mother of all battles...)
Islam is a religion, and like all religions it steals the stories it likes from the other religions around it. The story of the sky daddy coming home to spank the naughty ones is just too good of a fable for them to pass on, eh.
Wouldn't it be nice if all the christian crazies (not speaking here of the normal, followers of Christ Christians) out for blood, were rounded up and dumped into a huge arena with all the Islam crazies (the "terrorists") so they could settle the differences between themselves?
History's main aggressors came from Europe, and Europe was the seat of Christendom. Its tenets are based on patriarchal constructs, and a top-down authoritarian command instituted through strict laws and rules. Those who would not conform were "treated" to a number of historical purges, the sum of which included The Inquisition, the burning of several million women--as witches, the enslavement of the Black race, the torture of the red race, and more recently attacks on the yellow and brown races. IT is NOT a good sign that it is coming back into vogue (but our times qualify as another Dark Age).
Christianity CAME from Rome, and never deviated from Rome's principles of empire and conquest. As I have often related in this forum, the same war-oriented ways were merely given Jesus' name as endorsement. The killing (and insane rationales behind it) has never stopped.
I make it a point to decouple what Christ said and taught, from what is being done in his name, as all around us is evidence that MARS is the ruling principle. Any powerful entity that makes the claim that GOD grants its forces permission for their unspeakable acts, and specifies that it is OK to kill "others," is not a religion resonant with Jesus in the least. It is the religion of war, and thus the embodiment of Mars rules.
This sickness must be transcended; for while many societies have set up their own hierarchical structures, none has gone forth around the world to determine who shall live and who shall die with such redundant vehemence... as if it had the Deity backing such assertions.
We are given a conscience (albeit a maimed one in natural born killer-sociopaths) so as NOT to kill. This Evangelical approach designed to break the individual conscience down and replace it with a Mars-ruled Mantra, qualifies as THE gravest deceit. As it may be true that the tactic is not new to history, the differentiating factor involves the nature of the modern weapons, and how many innocent civilians can be taken out with one easy-to-push button to unleash the horrors by drone, missile, or other.
IT IS SICKENING.....and SATANIC. Only the fallen Luciferic principle in defiance to life itself, would boast... "Look what I can do!" As it steals so much precious life from the Creation/Creator. This is the anti-Christ. What else would use Jesus' name as the rationale behind mass slaughter?
"Christendom. Its tenets are based on patriarchal constructs, and a top-down authoritarian command instituted through strict laws and rules."--Siouxrose
you know, even as a child i saw that for many for many, religion is more about the worship of man than worship of the creator. created in the image of god means we have divine authority to rule over Nature. the lesser animals may be subject to the laws of Nature, but we answer to a higher law, one we make up as we go along because Nature confounds our human authorities at every turn. animals cannot think or reason, but act on instinct. to replace the laws of Nature, our patriarchal led system must write a code of ethics or a list of rules to guide lest we fall to base animal instincts. once our species mentally broke with natural law to "establish justice" for just us we became a ship of fools, unmoored from reality. oh boy, do we need to toss out the vain toss turn away from the "law and order" crowd and trust our natural instincts.
HUMMING: Allow for these analogies: In martial arts, a great deal of training, not all of it directed towards the body (or muscles) goes into the mastery of moves. Similarly, the past training of Initiates called for a certain mastery of the lower impulses. These lessons are important as they help the individual to master the use of the will.
I preface my comment to you with these examples to suggest that instinct must first come from a state of balance. Can you imagine what would happen if all those taught to hate Blacks, or "illegal" aliens, or women who are too uppity, or Muslims, took their repressed rage for natural instinct? And therein lies the rub.
It took centuries to get civilization to where it is, and as I related in a post a few days ago (following the article by Robert Jensen), America went over to "the dark side" in WW II, as seen in its willingness to slaughter so many thousands by dropping its brand new big boy weapons ( the A-bomb and its cousin). To my way of thinking, that means many decades of martial conditioning have thus transpired, and the programming goes deep. In fact, many women have internalized it. What's sadder than seeing women and gays sign up for the MIC so that they, too, can be "all that they can be" by expertly killing "other?"
First, we balance people, a form of depogramming not unlike that which was practiced on the kids unfortunate enough to get involved with the Raymond Sun-Moon Moonies "enterprise." After that, we can talk about natural instinct!
Today's general staff in all of our services resemble Colonel Jack Ripper ("I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids." -- Sterling Hayden) and General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) in Dr. Strangelove. They have become the new normal. We have become a nation of christian terrorists bent on killing all of other faiths. Today, the Muslims, tomorrow the Hindus and Buddhists, and lastly the Jews. The Israelis think American christians stand by them, but they have a pre-designated role in Armageddon.
Tom: Don't be so sure about the sequential order. When Israel's role as scapegoat is required, the nation will be sold to the dogs. Already Israel is being cast as the CHIEF reason for 911, and the chief offender in a world where violence tends to be the norm. Some see Israel as the main driver behind ALL of U.S. foreign policy. I will gladly admit that Israel is a player; although I think it's more fair to identify the same style of right wing interests in Israel, as identified with those in both the U.S. & U.K, acting as the central causative agents in MUCH that is being brought to ruin...
Once again, when Saturn begins its once in 29 year crossing of Scorpio (that starts in October 2012), Israel will face a difficult 3-year phase. In a person's chart, the opposition of Saturn makes one feel isolated and alone, without allies. Occasionally the individual's fear (or paranoia) contributes to that outcome. These principles apply to nation states, which ARE energetic entities, as much as they apply to persons. So, Israel, just like the U.S. is not immune to the Law of Karma. It could possibly be that with the U.S. brought to its knees, financially and through weather events (not to mention its "leaders" looting the commons the way vultures hit carrion) it will be in no position to act as ally/big brother to Israel. Can you see where the isolation factor will come into play?
The Logos never lies. We flawed mortals observe it the way the radiologist looks over the X-ray. Are either always right. No. But some of us come damned close.
Sioux Rose, I know nothing about astrology, but I respect your comments on various topics. If you suggest a book to give me a general knowledge, I will read it. Thanks.
yes, our brainwashing goes Jesus-deep, America-wide and murder-high...
it has become trite to mention the living, natural world...one can only engage via the pseudonym used to distance us from it, the 'environment'...that allows one to be called an 'environmentalist', and hustled to the remote corner of the party, with the 'Truthers', among others...
that the world is alive, and killable, and being killed, which is a permanent condition, and being killed by human industry, is not to be addressed...
wait, I'm getting a text about the bee hive collapse problem...I can't keep posting here while I finger my reply and drive with my knees at the same time...looks like we're still content to blame neonicotinoids, and ignore cell phones...
whew!
we must take back the land and turn the world off...we must do this everywhere, together...we could do this on what I call Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...
As a lifelong nature lover I really like your comment and agree. Thank you for pointing these things out.
Nagasaki was the centre of Japanese Christianity, and half the population of Hiroshima was Christian. So even in the twisted minds of the evangelical just warriors where only Christians count, they basically burnt to death at least 40,000 Christians.
But remember - as far as Christians are concerned - life doesn't start until you are dead. Though their proscription of cremation - can't have everlasting life if your body's been destroyed - was a but sticky.
"The woo-woo nuttiness of it all defies the imagination."
about a year ago my son imagined, "if i could travel back through Time, i would warn the nations of this continent to repel european colonialism. they have an insanity; they destroy life!" i answered that most likely the people would not, could not, believe his words, "you would seem the insane one!"
LIFE: A GIFT--DEATH: A GIVEN
the christian fundamentalists among us suckled on the belief that LIFE must be endured and suffered in faith that you shall find your great reward in DEATH. all born of sin therefore destined to the eternal flames of hell unless some supernatural power intervene on your behalf should you follow blindly and never question why.
we empiricists notice a number of flaws in this theocratic logic in which the utter fear of death turns upside down becoming a fear of LIFE. why do those "washed in the blood of the sacrificial lamb of god" at once deny science yet heartily embrace any medical discovery which may prolong, albeit briefly, the death experience in order to forestall ones heavenly reward? obviously, there exists a dichotomy of faith, but the unworthy children of the crucifix have no power to comprehend what is given those selected, such as the pope, hagee or rushdoony. in a world where satan's demons await any opportune moment to grab the disobedient child from the arms of the almighty, the child learns to fear the very questions echoing within his own mind. rational thinking is but a devilish trick to lure one from salvation into humanism. after all, the logic of cause and effect is meaningless in a world run by the whims of supernatural powers. do not bother to offer rational aguments, they hear only satan's tongue in your mouth.
i mean not to stump for ron paul here, but during the latest republican debate, he attempted to bring understanding of the arab world view of military aggression into their lands. the crowd quickly, as in knee jerk, silenced him with foot stomping jeers and boos. for the christian-zionist soldiers to recognize the common thread of humanity in "god's" enemies is an abomination. blasphemy! to even acknowledge or respect the humanity of the "other" means you've turned against "your own kind."
each and every one of us has an inner guide or moral compass, but whether the corporate hierarchy, the theocratic hierarchy or government hierarchy the idea of thinking for oneself means "rocking the boat." a percentage of us come into the world as sociopaths or psychopaths emotionally incapable of empathy with other living beings. so, i wonder how much of the manifest vile hatred, to what degree does this insanity owe to the nature of the beast and how much from nurture?
HUMMINGBIRD: Excellent insights.
The one thing you left out is the SEXUAL item. Had the premise of evil, as tied to sexual expression, NOT been so powerful a ruse to promote the idea of sin, do you really think human beings would have otherwise become as controlled by these anti-life campaigns of purported religion?
When a friend turned me onto a DVD by Dr. Alberto Villoldo, and he explained that the Judeo-Christian myth of Creation was the ONLY one that threw the lovers out of the garden, thereby setting up both an antithetical relationship to nature, as well as their own carnal desires... I saw vaidation of what I'd noted long ago. These dissociative beliefs became the fundament of Western culture (spread through the powerful church-state networks), and Wilhelm Reich, as well as Rajneesh, had a lot of things to say about them.
On a humorous note, I remember a friend of mine from high school who was absolutely controlled by the idea of marrying as a virgin. The preposterous sexual adaptations she was given to, made me laugh. But it wasn't till I got to India and got bamboozled into buying a small hand woven rug, where guilt for what I'd spent (and how to pay down my Amex card) kept me from sleep... then I realized Jews get the money guilt, and Christians get the sex guilt.
Guilt is an effective mechanism for bringing cognitive development to a stop. If love is the thing that coheres all things in our universe, then guilt gums up its networks and grinds all things to a halt. (I did get part of that from a source I can't recall. Possibly Marianne Williamson.)
You said:
"so, i wonder how much of the manifest vile hatred, to what degree does this insanity owe to the nature of the beast and how much from nurture?"
Nature, divorced from nature, nurture divorced from source... they lead to erroneous programming, and its result should NEVER be taken for the full wingspan of human nature, or the entire spectrum of where our capabilities lie, and might one finer day express.
"Hiroshima was a minor supply and logistics base for the Japanese military. The city was a communications center, a storage point, and an assembly area for troops.
It was one of several Japanese cities left deliberately untouched by American bombing, allowing a pristine environment to measure the damage caused by the atomic bomb." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#The_bombing
It does not get any more perverse than that.
Truman's words were pure PR (BS). "Civilians" then as now are deliberate targets. We just cannot admit to ourselves, in our masturbatory delusion of moral superiority, that we are terrorists. Like all terrorists, who never see themselves as morally depraved killers, we elevate our blood lust to that of moral necessity. "They" are never really human. "We" are agents of God. From smallpox infected blankets to Hotchkiss cannon, to a-bombs, drones, cluster bombs, whatever we have in our death-dealing arsenal, we will kill as many and whoever we feel we need to in order to accomplish our ends. Mass killing is just a matter of policy. So "necessity" and "just war" are mere rationalizations to serve our delusion that we are something other than what we are -- terrorists of the first order.
KAKIS: Your post has profound elements; However, once again, I'd ask: Is it fair or honest to conflate how elites make use of the burgeoning MIC with:
"we will kill as many and whoever we feel we need to in order to accomplish our ends."
Whose ends?
Whose means?
Upon whose authority?
Do not confuse what the handlers do (added to the 24/7 media conditioning campaigns that a heavily propagandized state depends upon) with what THE people want, or would endorse... were they to know the Truth.
Hint: No visual depictions are seen, no less allowed, on the MSM to reveal the HORRORS experienced by those described as mere "collateral damage" and hidden by its numbers game.
Jesus loves nukes this I know,
For the bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong,
They are weak but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves nukes.
Yes, Jesus loves nukes.
Yes, Jesus loves nukes.
The bible tells me so.
No christians...just killers.