Wolf at the door.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world that he doesn't exist. The second greatest trick he pulled was to lure his enemies into doing his bidding while thinking that they were serving God. It's the classic bait and switch. The devil did it in Jerusalem, when he convinced the Jewish religious leaders into condemning their own messiah to death. He did it to the Catholic church, through bribery, envy and pride he transformed the church from it's roots of service, humility and love to something completely different; something fierce and sinister. But never before has the devil been as successful at this maneuver as he has been in the rise of the religious right.

I recently hit the road across the southeast, and couldn't help but notice as I drove how many Christian/patriotic bumper stickers there were in traffic, usually slapped on the backs of family-friendly gas guzzling SUVs. I saw Crosses infused with American flags, red white and blue backgrounds for various propaganda mantras like, "God bless America". I saw a Bush Fish, or two, or seven. There was even one car that had a Bush Cheney '04 sticker on one side, and a bright, red WWJD sticker on the other.

In case you were blessed by not being raised within the conservative church, WWJD was a massively successful christian gimick, first born on cheap overpriced bracelets, and marketed to the teenage sheep of the mid-nineties. It stood for the question, "What Would Jesus Do?". Of course, the religious right had no problem with holding up that light of scrutiny to the hell-bound liberal-run society of those days. Preachers from sea to shining sea relished in asking their congregation whether Bill Clinton's particular actions of the moment were what Jesus would do. Of course, the question was never asked when people might have answered, "yes"to it.

Yet interestingly enough, as soon as George W Bush entered office, that whole line of scrutiny was thrown out the window. It was the changing of the guard. Fox news turned from rabid watchdog to gushing lapdog overnight. And so did the church. Led like lambs to the slaughter, drawn to it by their prejudice, self-righteousness and presumption. American congregations were deceived into believing that their christian hope would come from this political system. They saw George W Bush as their ticket to righteous redemption. All the wickedness of America had to be dealt with, or so it was preached to them with ever-increasing intensity throughout the 90's by GOP representatives. Fear has been the determining factor in herding and manipulating this group of sheep into the voting booth. They have been led to graze not on the green pastures of the truth of Jesus Christ and his teachings, but on the crabgrass of hatred, greed, and selfishness. And they have learned how to quench their thirst with the blood of the innocent.

It does not take a saint to see that George W Bush is no real christian. Yet, ironically, a good portion of church-going Americans can't see beyond their hope in his honesty and sincerity. They want him to be one of them. Beginning in the presidential race of 2000 and continuing all throughout the aftermath of 9-11, George W Bush spoke boastfully about restoring decency, integrity, and godliness to America. He also spoke often of the inevitable triumph that the forces of good will have over the forces of evil. He has effectively turned American foreign policy into a dark, violent fairy tale. And it all started with Operation Infinite Justice.
His rhetoric has always been spiritually charged, and so that means he is either truly a man of God, or an outrageous liar. By the church's unquestioning endorsement of George W Bush, and out of their hope that he is who he claims to be, they have been led to believe a lie. The devil has diguised himself as an angel of light and completely manipulated the church, as Paul warned would happen, when he said that the antichrist would blind and deceive many..."if possible, even the very elect". Church-goers that I have spoken with about these matters have called me an alarmist, or conspiracy theorist. They seem to have this unwavering calm about them, despite the atrocities currently being done in the name of God. and they boast in their ignorace, calling it faith. They want to live their American lives to the fullness of it's comfortable splendor. They want to check out and just wait for the rapture, while the world outside burns alive (which in no way resembles a loving attitude to their neighbors)

Jesus spoke clearly about what was really going on in his day, and also in the days before his return. He plainly called Satan the "god of this world". And in the second of three temptations that Christ endured in the wilderness, it is shown that Satan himself has been given personal control over all the kingdoms of this world throughout history. We are warned time and time again to flee the devil, to flee worldliness. Paul said, "Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be trasformed by the renewing of your minds." Note that we are to be transformed, not to transform. And yet the church is willing to throw all of it's faith on the back of a politician like Bush, who acts in the name of God. They have looked to this man for the transformation of our nation. They have hoped in this man to save them, when only Christ Jesus can. The disasterous, destructive nature of this so-called "born again" president's reign is overlooked and justified by them. All because he boastfully claims to be one of them, one of the sheep.

This decade so far has seen amazing destruction brought about by wars and weather. We are on the brink of collapse in many areas, and yet it seems that the face of this living nightmare is something most people refuse to recognize. Why? several reasons. Number one involves a veil of "strong delusion" spoken of in 2 Thesselonians 2:9-12, Number two involves the corporate media and other disinformation sources which demonstrate to, and reinforce in the masses a carefree attitude towards these troubling days. We don't know what to do. Experts and politicians are always telling us that they know what to do...and yet it always seems as if nothing good is ever done.

But for us to take personal responsibility and learn what to do would cost us the comfortable, carefree lives our masters are offering us in exchange for our souls. And rather than pay up front, most people will choose to take the easy way out. They will wait for someone else to take the lead and guide us all out of this social mess that we have made.

The simple truth is that most people would rather follow than lead...and the deeper truth is that many of those who are leading us now are promoting a very sinister agenda. It's our job as God's creation and American citizens to care about and to be aware of our surroundings. But the enemy of mankind has always wanted us to fall asleep on the job. Only in a society with ipods could we dance our way to Armageddon.

And Bush instigated our unrepentent, self-centered oblivion by calling upon our patriotic duty to go shopping in the aftermath of tragedy. It's a mob mentality, the rule of the majority; a buzzing frothing frenzy of mindless reinforcement... Civilized people are completely imprisoned without acknowledging it. Lies have become our bread and water. We are saturated with the lying wonder that is the status quo. So much so, that we have completely forgotten the solid, reinforcing nature of the truth. We lie to ourselves, as well as each other, and we lie to the one because we lie to the other. We reinforce each other's delusion by our respective paths of selfish oblivion. If no one said a thing we would never recognize the danger we are in.

I am very grateful that there are many other "freedom fighters" out there. Glad that I am but one of many who sees what's wrong in this. But considering the staggeringly centralized organization of the opposition, we need all the voices we can get right about now. Christ always seemed to say it best, and this is no exception to that rule, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray that God would send more laborers to tend the feild".