Myth becomes Religion?

Myth becomes a Religion? 2003 was a deeply perplexing time for those America based evangelical and Pentecostal believers who did not support President Bush and his ‘God Ordained’ ‘Mission Accomplished’ preemptive invasion of Iraq. How it had come to a place where to be a Christian was to have the assured values of hating Islam and Muslims as a replacement for the earlier hatred of Godless communism; and to assure that the US military had become an extension of God’s will! And how in such a patriotic environment was it possible to point to some other view of religion while attempting to retain deep and genuine love and respect for fellow believers who would have literally supported Adolf Hitler because much of what USA and American Christianity had embraced had a very similar feel and structure to the support Hitler enjoyed from European Pentecostals in the 1930s. Or turn this completely around. If in August –and it did happen- August 1939 the German Nazi Party at their Party Congress replaced the Bible with Mein Kampf and Jesus Christ with Adolf Hitler- Then had likewise Americans along the way replaced the same Bible with some other documents and Jesus crucified by religious authorities of his day for upsetting things- Replaced him with the US President? And the definitive answer to that speculation then in practical terms comes down to for us a reader to –What is Jesus quietly saying in our heart that we should be doing at this time? And what by contrast would our Senior Pastor of our Mega church be telling us to do- or what would it be acceptable as a US citizen to do or not do. Let me give you an example of this. Jesus said ‘unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die it shall not bring forth fruit’ and so after a profitable and full forty years of Christianity coming from a family continuously active in that religion since before Muhammed was even born… I realized that the best way for me to die and to test God to see if something new could be born was to go to the local mosque says some things in Arabic which I didn’t disagree with and thus die. So coinciding with the Ramadan 1998 attack on Iraq I did that and thus was firmly in place to accurately assess if when 9/11 happened there was any credible threat to my nation and to watch both sides of the intelligence game from an insider point of view. And as an added bonus be able to think middle eastern when it comes to language and religions coming from those places . Crazy? Well ask Abraham why he went to sacrifice Isaac? Have Faith- Do it and live! Love paul The most remarkable characteristic of the American political system is not its houses of representation or government machinery although they are indeed noteworthy- But the faith and fervor that this machinery inspires in the American people. However defective the institutions of the country may be, they will always have defenders: Indeed nations can only function if their institutions command a least a degree of popular assent. There is nothing exceptional about the attachment of the citizens to the public order inherited from the past. What is exceptional, when one considers the American phenomena in its living reality, is the religious trust that this order commands from Americans. The explicit spontaneous and exuberant character of this faith is manifest constantly. Millions of American children salute the flag the Stars and Stripes each morning at the start of the school day…. P49 Alan Clement The United States 1965.