Until recently, John Hagee was not exactly a household name. But he has, as leading Christian Zionists before him have been, a larger than life figure to those whose political world centers around rightwing Israeli politics. This includes elected officials and senior staff of both major parties in the United States.

I begin by thanking your founder, Pastor John Hagee. I would describe Pastor Hagee with the words the Torah uses to describe Moses, he is an "Eesh Elo Kim," a man of God because those words fit him; and, like Moses he has become the leader of a mighty multitude in pursuit of and defense of Israel.

You know his story - almost sixty years ago, a young John Hagee sat at his family's kitchen table in Channelview, Texas, heard the news about Israel's Declaration of Independence, and saw how moved his family was by it. Since then, he has been devoted to the defense of Israel, and to its vitality. He has done so because Israel's fight is his fight. Israel's values are his values. And Israel's hopes and dreams are his hopes and dreams.

Why would Pastor John Hagee think Hitler wanted the Jews to go to Israel? Because Hagee, who runs Christians United for Israel, and millions of other Christian Zioniststhink that Jews returning to the Holy Land and rebuilding the Temple of Solomon create a landing pad for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Author Sarah Posner, in her new book God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters explains that when Pastor Hagee and Christians United for Israel Push for Armageddon, it pushes U.S. foreign policy as well. To unravel the theology and Biblical prophecy belief behind this apocalyptic worldview, Chip Berlet and Nikhil Aziz take us back 2,000 years, and bring us forward to today's headlines.

Not many -- perhaps not any -- of those former Jews pushing Jesus pamphlets on street corners experienced spontaneous conversion. Christian missionizing achieves most Jewish conversions. One of the most energetic evangelizers of Jews is the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. JewsOnFirst.org recently posted a feature package on the SBC's efforts to convert Jews. The package, which includes a report and recorded conversations with rabbis and experts on Christian Zionism, examines how the Southern Baptist Convention works through a Messianic Fellowship which uses faux rabbis and Jewish rituals to proselytize Jews.

The rabid, creationist lunatic wing has recently revved up, once again, the idiotic lie that Darwin's ideas on evolution are the direct cause of the Holocaust. Social Darwinism--which Darwin himself rejected--is cited as the link between the two. Never mind that Hitler's diseased brain thoroughly misunderstood almost any idea presented to it. The Holocaust is all Darwin's fault, according to the creationists!

Well, as a history teacher who for many years taught a course on the history of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, I think it's important to understand the historical context in which nineteenth century racist ideas emerged, and to see what ideas were already in the minds of Europe's people in that era, ideas that had been passed down from generation to generation, ideas that made the nonsense of the racists seem plausible. Let's take a look. [Note: this is a really long post.]

I read the news today, oh boy.The prospect of regional war looms large, and the latest threat from Iran's president highlights the worst case scenario.

"If the Zionist regime commits another stupid move and attacks Syria, this will be considered like attacking the whole Islamic world and this regime will receive a very fierce response," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a telephone conversation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Oh shit, Armageddeon.  Tim Lahaye and the Left Behinders must be pleased.  This is what all those years of sabotaging the peace process were about, provoking the Second Coming.

That champion of Christian love and human rights, Pat Robertson, is suffering from the after effects of a recent case of foot-in-mouth disease. Did anyone see this news item (after the jump)?