Holy Chakotay! (irony alert)
Maybe it’s my native American side, but I rather think these Guatemalan Mayan Priests are on to something. According to the AP, they’ve announced plans to “purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate “bad spirits” after President Bush visits next week.”
“That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture,” Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, said Thursday.”
The Mayans likely will not stop Bush’s visit to the Iximche archaeological site on Guatemala’s high western plateau. However, the
“spirit guides of the Mayan community decided it would be necessary to cleanse the sacred site of ‘bad spirits’ after Bush’s visit so that their ancestors could rest in peace…. [T]he rites — which entail chanting and burning incense, herbs and candles – would prepare the site for the third summit of Latin American Indians March 26-30.
Imagine the visuals! I sure hope CNN or at least SciFi covers this ritual cleansing.
Speaking of surreal, how “faith-based” can this Bush tour of Latin America get? Oh sure, he’ll be there to promote trade, listen, and go fishing in Uruguay — while Baghdad burns.
He’s also in Brazil in pursuit of cheap ethanol – albeit with a 54% tariff on it to protect US sugar barons. Whatever happened to promoting free trade? And how much more of the Amazon rain forest must we clear to replace Middle Eastern oil?
We’re also told that he’s in Latin America, in part, to counter radicalism and support democracy.
Ah yes. And his next tour of Arab countries will include Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt — from whence to preach the good news of demcracy for Iran.
For now, the Bushistas are complaining that the Latin protest rallies against Bush are being orchestrated and funded by radicals like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. And this from the Administration that until recently loved to put the President before military base crowds — all of them “volunteering” their enthusiasm too. If the President wants friendly crowds, why not a visit to Australia and get Murdoch media to manage the crowds. Snow-jobs melt there.
Back to our theme of “priests” with chutzpah, America’s favorite evangelical shrink, Dr. James Dobson, has been hosting fess-up sessions on national radio with Newt Gingrich. On Thursday, the broadcast focused on “Rediscovering America’s Spiritual Heritage.” (More on that in another post.)
On Friday’s program, Gingrich pontificates about the monstrous “gathering threat” of Islam as a preface (cover?) to addressing “tough questions” about his moral failings “of the past.”
Newt’s moral credentials include dumping his first wife amid her battle with cervical cancer and then cheating on his second wife at the very time he was orchestrating the impeachment of Bill Clinton.
Dobson “appreciated” Gingrich for confessing his indiscretion, and seems to absolve him.
Besides, Gingrich is helping Christians focus on the real enemy – Islam. Lest you think I overstretch that point, I’ve often wondered why Christian social conservatives refuse to consider that they should have considerable common cause with their Muslim neighbors, precisely on family issues. Explanation – the eschatalogical focus within “Christian Likudism” on Israel trumps all.
In any case, Gingrich says he didn’t criticize Clinton for having an extramarital affair, but for perjuring himself before a grand jury. (never mind that Clinton was accused of lying about an affair) Now who is parsing his words?
So how low will Dobson go? Are Dobson & his “focused on the family” audience seriously contemplating support for Saint Newt, the family man, if he runs for President….? G*wd almighty indeed.
And speaking of, if you will, strange bedfellows, I learned yesterday that Pat Robertson’s Regent University will have Mitt Romney – the Mormon Governor – as its commencement speaker on May 7th. I suspect this will go down “hard” among the muzzled faculty and student body there. And this will be after Rudi Guliani – another maritally-challenged Presidential candidate, but staunch Israel defender – returns to Regent on April 17th.
Odd ball prediction: if these “leading lights” from the “Christian-Likudnik” right keep compromising their own principles in the service of an increasingly narrow agenda (Israel and sometimes “the family”), they may energize a backlash of political disbelief from their own followers.
They might even be inclined to take a page out of the Mayan playbook, and “sit out the next two years” while purifying the church’s moral core.
No, I don’t yet see another “great reversal” or “exile” back into the pews. Yet the building “sit-out” threat should be a warning both to the Republicans who have long taken them for granted – and to their own political bishops.
This whole subject has me pondering my Sunday School lessons from long ago on the separationist principles of Roger Williams, the Rhode Island Baptist pioneer and fellow seeker.
The 2008 faith and politics show is just beginning. Keep your “spirit guides” handy.
“The 2008 faith and politics show is just beginning.”
Indeed. Conditions seem ripe for a populist revival. Whether this is good or bad news remains to be seen. The dark side of American populism can be truly frightening. Is James Dobson the Father Coughlin of our times? Will anyone today be able to navigate these treacherous waters with the skill of an FDR?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/peopleevents/pandeAMEX96.html
Thanks for the link John to info. on Fr. Coughlin. Yet I’m not sure I catch the connection to Dobson. Dobson may indeed be many things — and a major “populist” player — but I don’t think we can fairly brand him or Robertson as “anti-semetic.” Anything but. (even as our thinking Israeli friends might pause over the sorts of “friends” they have at their beck and call…)
I read somewhere that one of the Bush daughters had recently been to Uruguay and I also had read that GW had purchased land in that country? Is that true?
Scott, I wasn’t suggesting that Dobson is antisemitic (just because he believes that two thirds of the Jews of Israel will have to perish in another holocaust so that the Christians can assend to heaven in the Rapture). Antisemitism is just one of many possible manifestations of the “dark side” of American populism. There are always blacks, homosexuals, communists, illegal immigrants, and of course Muslims available to be blamed for the problems of poor white Christian folk. I do think that Jewish American neocons are playing with fire when they try to rile up the evangelicals to support crusades against “radical Islam.”
“Bush persecution of Guatemalan migrants”? Where do these losers come up with this stuff? Bush is pro Amnesty? Trying to enforce border control is persecution?
Fine, let native american Harrop unite with Mayans, with Chavez, with radical Islam and see what comes of that. For some reason the Guatemalan brother migration is to the US and not away from the US.
Yah, if Bush wants to meet “real” Guatemalans, all he needs to do is come here to Charlottesville and stay at the 5 Star Boars Head Inn (where guests can pay over $500 per night per room). One long time supervisor there has been heard to say that “she doesn’t hire locals anymore.”
I heard of one Guatemalan who worked there incredibly hard for eight years on late night cleaning, and tells horrific tales of a brutal “mafia” that operates among C.A. illegals working in the US. BHI HR likely knew his “documents” were bogus — and as such, they got away for years with paying him peanuts ($8 an hour & no meaningful benefits)
Ah but the Lords over the BHI (a private company contracting to the University of Virginia) have little idea how badly employees, of all stripes, are treated there…. (but of course a true “conservative” will correctly note how much better the $$ is in good ole’ USA compared to Guatemala)
By the way, at UVA, we’ve seen a lot of student protests about “a living wage” for all employees (say, around $11 per hour plus UVA’s good benefits). But employees at UVA owned properties (including a lot of international “exchange” employees) can only “dream” of those kind of wages….
Several of these UVA properties are just outside C’ville city limits – and thus will also be immune from city “living wage” laws.
America, “love it or leave it,” eh Jonas?
And so it goes.
Jonas, I imagine the Indians would argue that the reason the immigration is towards the US is that the resource wealth of Latin America is always being siphoned there and the people left behind have to chase it before they starve to death. As for the truth of that, America trained and financed the murderers of hundreds of thousands of Indians in tiny Guatemala to support corporate interests. It also created the neo-Victorian ideology that Latin elites imposed on their countries in the ’90s – why can’t the citizens judge that they are worse off as a result? Finally, If America didn’t need to commit such crimes to create the prosperity that draws immigrants, does that make the crimes better or worse?
Read Bush down South
by Pepe Escobar from the Asian Times Online, in order to learn more about the situation in Latin America and the policy of the WH.
That Asia Times article is just mouth frothing kissups the author has made from drinking Chavez’s Kool-Aid. There’s nothing “hopeful” about his personality cult.