The Bosque Boys

Does the Bush administration get serious about national security around election time as a cynical ploy to shape the vote? Or does the administration understand that the most opportune time to present serious issues to Congress is during the campaign stretch run when Congressmen are most accountable to the people?

We have seen a plethora of stories purporting to explain how Karl Rove leverages elections with hot-button issues (implying that politics drives policy). I suggest that the Bush administration uses key moments of vulnerability to leverage politicians into tackling hard issues that ordinarily they are reluctant to address.

For example, consider the vote on the Iraq war prior to the election of 2002 in which the President garnered an overwhelming authorization to use force: Was he using the war vote to win the mid-term election? More likely, he used the mid-term election to pocket a resounding affirmation for his policy (taking advantage of politics to achieve policy).

I have pointed out before that it is not only the future of the West that is in doubt. The future of Islam also is being decided in the 21st century. More precisely, the question is whether Islam has a future as a world-wide major religion.

On the one side, we are seeing that the hedonistic corruption of the West is attractive to many Muslims--witness the behavior of the Saudi wealthy in Europe, the proliferation of satellite dishes in Muslim lands, and even the strip-club visiting habits of suicide bombers in the West before their missions. On the other side, we are witnessing Muslims converting to Christianity in numbers unprecedented in history. Even in Iran underground house churches are coming into existance through the influence of Christian radio.

If Islam does not win this current phase of the nearly 1400 year old war with everyone else, then Islam may be on the ropes by the year 2100.

For my previous posts see The Future of Islam and The Future of Islam, again.

Now, an actual Islamic expert in Europe, Dr. Koenraad Elst, has raised the same question: Is Islam Dying? From the Brussells Journal. This article. uses Dr. Elst's question as a starting point for reflection. Hat tip Jihadwatch.

I think it should be bothering more people that the leader of a nation working very hard to aquire nuclear weapons wants the world as we know it to end. See my earlier post on Iran and deterence. John Daniszewski, of the Los Angeles Times, wrote this article last spring on Iranian fervor for the return of the Mahdi, which would mean the end of this present period of history. (article linked from the Pittsburg Post-Gazette) He notes that one of Ahmadinejad's first actions was to spend $20 million refurbishing a mosque connected with veneration of the Mahdi.

Regimechangeiran has the transcript of the UN speech made one year ago by Ahmadinejad. Afterward he reported to colleagues that he had been surrounded by light as he gave the address. Here are the last two paragraphs:

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

From the beginning of time, humanity has longed for the day when justice, peace, equality and compassion envelop the world. All of us can contribute to the establishment of such a world. When that day comes, the ultimate promise of all
Divine religions will be fulfilled with the emergence of a perfect human being who is heir to all prophets and pious men. He will lead the world to justice and absolute
peace.

0 mighty Lord, I pray to you to hasten the emergence of your last repository, the promised one, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace. 0 Lord, include us among his companions, followers and those who serve his cause.

(more cont.)

» Read More

Recently I expressed my conclusion that GW Bush holds to a postmillennial hope, whether he is familiar with the term or not. The term "postmillennial" refers to the belief that the return of Christ will be preceeded by an extended time of peace, justice, and prosperity. Those holding this view are optimistic regarding the future, believing that history--over the long term--is being moved toward this bright future. American evangelicals who were so busy founding and operating various reforming societies in the first half of the nineteenth century (reforming prisons and asylums, spreading education and literacy, promoting Sunday-observance and Bible reading, fighting drunkeness and later all use of alcohol, agitating against slavery, etc) were motivated by this belief. The connection to politics, therefore, should be evident. Postmillennialism has affinities, and historic ties, with American Exceptionalism including Manifest Destiny.

Joab commented on this earlier post with a question regarding the support for this doctrine--in other words, how can a sane Christian believe this? I will now try to respond today or tomorrow as the first part of a 4 part series on Christian millennial views, with suggestions on their relation to policial action and cultural engagement. I will try to present each view fairly and strongly. Personal note: I am not a firm adherent of any of these views. I have described myself as a panmillennialist, believing that it will all pan out in the end. I do lean toward amillennialism or postmillennialism, depending mostly on my optimism/pessimism level regarding the human prospect.

For those of you interested in learning more, a good place to start is The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views on Intervarsity Press. Each position is defended by a scholar holding that position who then engages each of the other writers.

The Pope now has another defender in his corner, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Carey. (For you Baptists out there, the Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the world-wide Anglican Communion.) From the Times here. Hat tip LGF.

Here are a few paragraphs, but I hope you'll read the entire article.

"THE former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey of Clifton has issued his own challenge to “violent” Islam in a lecture in which he defends the Pope’s “extraordinarily effective and lucid” speech.
Lord Carey said that Muslims must address “with great urgency” their religion’s association with violence. He made it clear that he believed the “clash of civilisations” endangering the world was not between Islamist extremists and the West, but with Islam as a whole.

“We are living in dangerous and potentially cataclysmic times,” he said. “There will be no significant material and economic progress [in Muslim communities] until the Muslim mind is allowed to challenge the status quo of Muslim conventions and even their most cherished shibboleths.”

Lord Carey’s address came as the man who shot and wounded the last Pope wrote to Pope Benedict XVI to warn him that he was in danger. Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to murder John Paul II in 1981 and is now in prison in Turkey, urged the Pope not to visit the country in November. "

US tax revenues establish new one day record receipts. Here.
What we can infer: 1. The economy had a strong quarter. 2. Cuts in the tax rates did not necessarily decrease government revenues. 3. "Supply-Side Economics" may have some merit.

In one of my first posts I argued that President Bush, in his heart of hearts, is a postmillenialist. Postmillennialism is the Christian teaching that prior to Christ's return there will be a thousand years of peace and justice (Jesus will return after--post--the millenium). This teaching is optimistic and predicts that the future will be better than the past. Postmillennialism has largely been replaced in American evangelicalism by Premillennialism: the belief that Christ will return before--pre--the period of peace and justice. This teaching is pessimistic about the future prior to Christ's return: in most versions it is believed that things will get worse and worse, reaching a crisis prior to the Second Coming.

Reading the President's speech before the UN today --full text here-- I was struck again by his optimism that the future could be much, much better than the past because of the spread of liberty including political self-determination and a free market. To quote

"This morning, I want to speak about the more hopeful world that is within our reach, a world beyond terror, where ordinary men and women are free to determine their own destiny, where the voices of moderation are empowered, and where the extremists are marginalized by the peaceful majority. This world can be ours if we seek it and if we work together."

This speech sounded like it could have been given by Woodrow Wilson. (Who, by the way, was a devout Presbyterian elder, a denomination in the Reformed tradition, a tradition usually postmillenial.)

I wonder what GWB's evangelical base thinks of his goal? On the one hand, American evangelicals in the 20th century have tended to premillennialism, and have made books detailing the deterioration of the world before Christ's return best-sellers. On the other hand, in spite of their theology, it seems to me that most American evangelicals tend to be optimistic about their own future and plan accordingly.

According to the Des Moines Register the contest for the next Iowa governor is too tight to call. (The incumbant not running (he seems to have caught presidential fever)).

Two issues have generated a lot of discussion. Abortion: the Republican candidate Jim Nussle has vowed to push to ban all abortions unless the mother's life is in danger. Immigrant assimilation: the Democrat candidate Chet Culver wants to repeal Iowa's law that English is the state's official language. Read the full article here.

It will be interesting to see if these issues are posed as questions to the many presidential candidates now visiting Iowa in the run-up to the Presidential Caucuses.

For my view on abortion see here. On assimilation and English here.

Christ Church, Plano, Texas (near Dallas) now has left the Episcopal Church and kept its property. One of the denomination's largest parishes (weekend attendance 2200), Christ Church has been unhappy for several years over the lack of respect for Scripture manifest in the Episcopal handling of the issue of same-sex practice. The parish plans to remain within Anglicanism (the world-wide communion of which Episcopalians are a part) overseen for the time being by the Bishop of Peru. From the Dallas Morning News. Hat tip Religion Headlines.

For previous posts on Mainline decline here, and here, and here., and here.

CNN is not infallible, but Gateway Pundit posted a cached CNN report from 1999 that links the two. Here is the link to the CNN article. How things change; now it is dogma in the MSM that bin Laden and Sadam would not have had anything to do with one another.

Here is the relevant paragraph:

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has offered asylum to bin Laden, who openly supports Iraq against the Western powers.

Despite repeated demands from Washington, the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden after the August 7 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, demanding proof of his involvement in terrorist activities.

However, in recent weeks, both the United States and Britain have renewed their pressure on the Taliban to expel bin Laden.

Hat tip Wizbang.