August 10, 2009

Bush's faith/zeal

We have to acknowledge that this story sounds a bit on the strange side. Not, mind you, that Bush believed this stuff, but that he would think it would convince a French leader to join him. But, according to a recent book, Chirac confirms that Bush told him that they had to fight the Iraq war to stave off something out of the Left Behind series:
"Stranger still are new accounts emerging from France describing how former president Jacques Chirac was utterly baffled by a 2003 telephone conversation in which Bush reportedly invoked fanatical Old Testament prophecy – including the Earth-ending battle with forces of evil, Gog and Magog – in his arguments to enlist France in the Coalition of the Willing.

'This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins,' Bush said to Chirac, according to Thomas Romer, a University of Lausanne theology professor who was later approached by French officials anxious to understand the biblical reference. Romer first revealed his account in a 2007 article for the university review, Allez savoir, which passed largely unnoticed.

Chirac, in a new book by French journalist Jean-Claude Maurice, is quoted as confirming the surreal conversation, saying he was stupefied by Bush's reference to biblical prophecy and 'wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs.'"

I know there are many who share Bush's alleged beliefs here, but the thought that a world leader would send his people to war based on a contested reading of an ancient prophecy is mind boggling.

6 comments:

leighton said...

I know there are many who share Bush's alleged beliefs here, but the thought that a world leader would send his people to war based on a contested reading of an ancient prophecy is mind boggling.

"Contested" is kind; I would have said "batshit crazy." :)

steves said...

As much as I could believe Bush saying weird stuff, this is an example of lazy reporting at it's worst. This was reported a while ago and there seems to be good reason that the MSM didn't pick up on this.

According to the original article, it sounds like hearsay within hearsay. The person reporting on the comment was not even a party to the conversation, nor was the person he heard it from. The new book quoting Chirac may offer better confirmation, but I would still be interested in exactly what he said.

Streak said...

Not terribly convinced that lazy reporting is the issue here. Our media has reported far less cited stuff before.

We need more information here, no doubt. What is interesting about rumors like this about Bush is that so often they have proven to be true, and that he ran his administration in such a way that this doesn't sound that unbelievable. Had his father been the one saying it, it would have sounded completely unbelievable. But not so much with this one.

leighton said...

I'm agnostic about what Bush actually said, but I have a very hard time imagining a sane and appropriate context for references to Gog and Magog between heads of state.

steves said...

Lazy, in the sense that the author seemed to make some huge leaps of faith. Yes, the media has done worse, which probably explains why most people don't trust them.

I am kind of agnostic on this one, too. I have read the OT, but I had to look up Gog and Magog. Pretty out there, IMO.

Streak said...

I believe that the Gog/Magog achieved prominence in the eschatology due to some Scottish preachers who elevated this and other rather obscure passages in the late 18th and early 19th century. A really good book on this is Paul Boyer's When Time Shall Be No More which traces this kind of "end times" theology through American history into the 20th century. Great book.