The (not so) hidden agenda of the Holy Land Foundation trial

Pretend, if you will, that you have a world-view in which life on earth comes to an end with a great war destroying all civilizations. In this war, the people who have your world-view will be rescued at the last minute (by God) and everyone else will perish—not only bodily, but in a hell of torture for eternity.

Imagine how other people would react if you taught your children that they must become soldiers in the army that will insure that this world-view triumphs over all other beliefs. Imagine teaching your children to fight off the enemies of your world-view with swords and arousing them to an emotional frenzy to prepare them to do battle with the enemy. Imagine teaching your children to swear allegiance to a flag other than “the stars and stripes.”

Imagine that you are at war with all cultures, that you are ready to do battle with your own country as well as all others in order to bring your world-view to fulfillment.

A stanza of the theme-song of your world-view might be:

At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee;
On then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
Brothers lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.

Or you might choose a theme-song with this verse:

Stand then in His great might, with all His strength endued,
But take, to arm you for the fight, the panoply of God;
That, having all things done, and all your conflicts passed,
Ye may o’ercome through Christ alone and stand entire at last.

Anyone who believes that this world-view is a fantasy has only to watch the advertising “trailer” for a movie called “Jesus Camp.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_EKHK1C2IE
The children in this film (some as young as five years old) are being trained to do battle with Satan—a thin disguise for the Muslim world. Their teachers believe that they must be prepared to take Jerusalem by force in order to usher in the Reign of Jesus.

And why are people who have this world-view (some estimates say there are 80 million of them in the United States) not questioned, not investigated for their loyalty to this country, not wire-tapped and followed around for years to catch them in some kind of offense against our country? It might be because they have friends in high places.

Tom Delay, the indicted and removed former Majority Leader in the House of Representatives said, at a conference of people with this world-view, “I hope it comes tomorrow. This is what I live for.” The “it” is this final conflict in which only the “believers” survive. But don’t think Delay is the only powerful figure who believes this; both Senators Joseph Lieberman and John McCain were at the same conference. It was ostensibly a conference called “Christian[ist]s United For Israel.”
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/58172/
The leader of this group is John Hagee, founder and pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio. Hagee is one of the loudest proponents of an invasion of Iran—in order to protect Israel.

George W. Bush was not at the conference, but he, too, is a believer in this end-time scenario.

This rabid support for Israel among these Christianists (notice, I did not say “Christians”) is smoke and mirrors because they also believe that Israel, along with all Jews who do not believe in the correct world-view, will perish in this final conflict. That does not seem to matter to people like the two Senators, one of whom, as we all know, is Jewish. What does matter is that the Palestinian people must be destroyed in order for this end-time scenario to be played out.

And, of course, the legitimate method of destroying the Palestinian people is to allow (no, to help) Israel to invade and take over their land. MORE IMPORTANTLY, it is necessary to label as “terrorists” any Palestinian group who fights for their freedom.

And to indict and try any group that seeks to lessen the burden of poverty and enslavement of the People of Palestine.