Evangelicals Give U.S. Foreign Policy An Activist Tinge - WSJ

By PETER WALDMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 26, 2004; Page A1

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...evangelical groups, once among America's staunchest isolationists, are making a mark on U.S. foreign policy. They have tipped the balance, at least for the moment, in the perennial rivalry in Washington between "realists," who believe the U.S. has limited capacity to change the world and shouldn't try, and "idealists," who strive to give U.S. conduct a moral purpose.

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To one potent segment of U.S. society, the evangelical Christians, values such as religious, political and economic freedom aren't just America's norms but God's. The evangelicals' growing involvement in foreign affairs creates a new constituency for intervention abroad.

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Organized, motivated and self-confident, evangelicals are girding for two more foreign-policy battles. They seek freedom to proselytize in the Muslim lands of Iraq and Afghanistan. And they want to link any future U.S. aid for North Korea, in case of a nuclear accord, to progress there on human rights.

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As for U.S. policy in Iraq, President Bush, himself a born-again Christian, has sometimes invoked a notion of America's latter-day manifest destiny. "I believe freedom is the almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world," Mr. Bush said at his news conference last month. According to Bob Woodward's book "Plan of Attack," Mr. Bush, when asked if he consulted his father, said, "You know, he is the wrong father to appeal to in terms of strength. There is a higher father that I appeal to."

More born-again Christians work in this administration than in any other in modern history, says Richard Land, a top executive with the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant church. They include National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Attorney General John Ashcroft, whose denomination, the Assemblies of God, is especially active overseas.

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(and so it goes... a long article..)

Write to Peter Waldman at peter.waldman@wsj.com

URL for this article:
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of "god" - whoever god it is? Why not pursue the spread of democracy and eliminating of genocide and famine and starvation and persecution in the name of human morals and ethics?

...which weakens the evangelicals' claims to moral superiority, and thus exposing the sham that is organized religion. Unless you tag a good deed as that of "Christian charity," they won't go along with it.

What really offends me is the pompous attitude these dickweeds have that they somehow have the right to go forcing their particular dogma down other cultures' throats, all in the name of "saving" them.

It seems so selective as to render even the concept moot. By forcing open other countries the first to enter are the demons of greed and intolerance, freeing up crime organizations, corporate raiders and schlock evangelists to mine foreign nations with impunity.

The freedom that is, belongs solely to the "giver" to take what they want and leave nothing but devastation and slavery in return. That at least is the practical result, not the showcase disemboweled local governments with the meaningless trappings of democracy.

Free the money to come unto me. Mammonites in shepherd's clothing.

No wonder they need so much hypocrisy.