In August 2003 a shipment of the book Grand Canyon: A Different View
was delivered to Grand Canyon bookstores and museums to be sold alongside
other merchandise. The book, edited by Canyon Ministries founder Tom Vail,
claims that the Grand Canyon was formed by the same deluge that launched
Noah’s ark a few thousand years ago. Park superintendent Joe Alston
tried to block sale of the book on the grounds that it is a creationist
text incompatible with empirical evidence. Bush appointees at National Park
Service headquarters overruled Alston, reasoning that the book had become
“quite popular” and that park visitors should be exposed to the
controversy.
There is, of course, no controversy. The Grand Canyon
is millions of years old, and even though the photography in the book is
gorgeous, the book’s theory is the purest nonsense. In most Western
societies the authors of this book would either be pitied or jeered, but
today in America people from this milieu run the government.
There are some interesting data about religiosity in
the United States. A poll conducted by Newsweek in 2004 showed that 55 percent of all Americans and 83
percent of evangelicals believe that the Bible is literally true. Another Newsweek poll, from 1999, found
that 45 percent of all Christians and 71 percent of evangelicals expect
Armageddon to occur someday. We are apparently a nation of true believers.
These numbers could cause one to question the extent to which our society
is compatible with a democracy based on Enlightenment values. A 2005 ABC/Washington Post poll
showed that 62 percent of Republicans believe that politicians should rely
on religion when making political decisions. Our Republican,
fundamentalist-dominated government now reflects these numbers. At home and
abroad, the new face of American officialdom is that of the Bible-thumping
evangelist and the humorless Opus Dei inquisitor.
Sex is a central preoccupation of this new class of
mandarins. A war is being waged against general sex education, condom use,
and abortion, and a one-word answer is provided to questions pertaining to
any sort of premarital or homosexual sex: abstinence. The problem with
abstinence-only education is the result. In 1995, Bush’s home state
of Texas mandated abstinence-only programs. By 2001, the number of teen
pregnancies there was 1.5 times the national average, the number of STD
infections was also above the national average, and Texas had the
nation’s fourth-highest number of reported AIDS cases. A 2004
National Institutes of Health study of 12,000 teens conducted over six
years also questions the value of abstinence-only education. Teens were
interviewed at age 12 and again at 18. Eighty-eight percent of those who
had pledged to remain virgins until marriage had broken the pledge, their
rates of STDs were the same as those for teens who had not taken the
pledge, and they were less likely to seek medical care if they contracted
an STD. Although abstinence-only programs provide a sense of moral
satisfaction to their proponents, they do not result in a healthier
society.
On his first day as president, Bush reinstated Ronald
Reagan’s Mexico City Policy, often referred to as the “global
gag rule.” This policy restricts family-planning organizations that
receive American funding from providing, referring, or lobbying for safe
and legal abortion, even if the funding for those particular programs comes
from other agencies. This has had the effect of actually increasing the
number of abortions in many parts of the world because the organizations
whose budgets were cut are frequently the only providers of contraception
or women’s health care. As a result, pregnant women in poor or
war-torn countries are often forced to seek illegal and unsafe abortions.
In 2002 Bush cut funding to the United Nations Population Fund (known as
UNFPA) because of its supposed support of China’s one-child policy.
The United Nations’ work in China had reduced the number of abortions
because it provided contraception and general sex education. A delegation
from the British government later investigated UNPFA and concluded that
“UNFPA’s involvement appears to be encouraging reformers within
China” and that it is “vitally important
that UNFPA remains actively involved.” Once again, the religious
right’s biblical mandate was more important than helping real people
in this world. This is known as “faith-based reasoning.”
George W. Bush and the people who surround him see themselves as God’s chosen people. As such, they feel they have an obligation to remake the world according to their biblical worldview. On several occasions Bush has made comments to the effect that he believes God speaks through him, and many Americans seem to share this delusion. If religion is the opiate of the masses, much of America is deeply under the influence. Historically this is not a phenomenon unique to the United States, but, because of our military and political status, we are uniquely in a position to hurt ourselves and others. One wonders what America will look like if these people remain permanently in power.
George W. Bush and the people who surround him see themselves as God’s chosen people. As such, they feel they have an obligation to remake the world according to their biblical worldview. On several occasions Bush has made comments to the effect that he believes God speaks through him, and many Americans seem to share this delusion. If religion is the opiate of the masses, much of America is deeply under the influence. Historically this is not a phenomenon unique to the United States, but, because of our military and political status, we are uniquely in a position to hurt ourselves and others. One wonders what America will look like if these people remain permanently in power.
