There are times when what we journalists see and intend to write about dispasstionately sends a shiver down the spine, shaking us from our neutrality. This has been happening to me frequently of late as one story after another drives home the fact that the delusional is no longer marginal but has come in from teh fringe to influence the seats of power. We are witnessing today a coupling of ideology and theology that threatens our ability to meet the growing ecological crisis. Theology asserts propositions that need not be proven true, while ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. The combination can make it impossible for a democracy to fashion real-world solutions to otherwise intractable solutions …
What does this mean for public policy and the environment? Listen to John Hagee, posator of the 17,000–member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, who is quoted in Rossings’s book as syaing, “Mark it down, take it to heart, and comfort one another with these words. Doomsday is coming for the earth, for the antions, and for individuals, but those who have trusted in Jesus will not be present on earth to witness the dire time of tribulation.” Rossing sums up the message in five words that she says are basic Rapture credo: “The world cannot be saved.” It leads to “appalling ethics”, she reasons, because the faithful are relieved of concern for the environment, violence, and everything else except their personal salvation. The earth suffers the same fate as the unsaved. All are destroyed.
– Bill Moyers, “Welcome to Doomsday”, The New York Review of Books, March 24, 2005