There is a eye widening new documentary out called “Waiting for Armageddon” which explores the Faith and ideology that close to 50 million Americans hold dear to their hearts and which also has a tremendous effect on the foreign and domestic policy of the United States.
By RONNIE SCHEIB
Doggedly nonjudgmental docu “Waiting for Armageddon” delves into the faith of some 50 million Americans (including more than one president), exposing the central role of Israel in end-of-days scenarios, their impact on the volatile situation in the Middle East, and the confluence of national policy with biblical prophecy. From interviews with families awaiting the imminent arrival of the Rapture to evangelical tours of Israel, where Texans reverently sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” over the Sea of Galilee, the pic explores beliefs as pervasive as they are largely unexamined. “Waiting,” which bowed Jan. 8 at Gotham’s Cinema Village, could spark strong urban response.
Filmmakers Kate Davis, Franco Sacchi and David Heilbroner structure their docu around the four stages of the apocalypse, each headed by numbered scriptural placards: 1) the Rapture, when, in a microsecond, all true believers, living and dead, will be transported into the clouds with Jesus; 2) the Tribulation, during which untold horrendous catastrophes, ecological and man-made, will rain down upon those haplessly “left behind”; 3) Armageddon, when Christ will return with a sword to judge the sinners and the blood will gush as “high as a horse’s bridle,” to quote one comely software engineer, and 4) the Millennium, encompassing the 1,000-year reign of heaven on earth reserved for Christ and his followers (along with 144,000 converted Jews).
Within this general framework, the filmmakers capture adherents calmly discussing “future history” at church, around the dinner table, at “Pre-Trib” conventions, at Christian telethons raising millions for Israel, and, especially, on junkets to the Holy Land.
The unlikely alliance between Christian evangelicals and right-wing Israelis is predicated on their shared conviction that Jerusalem must remain entirely in Jewish hands. The pic’s representative of the Israeli wing of this coalition is a sneer-afflicted rabbi (dismissing Jesus as a second-rate skirt-chaser), in charge of rebuilding the temple supposedly predestined to supplant the Muslim Dome of the Rock. In the words of a savvy political researcher, one of the pic’s few dissenting voices, the evangelicals “want the Muslims to be evicted by the Jews, the Jews to rebuild the temple of Solon and then Christ to return and trump everybody.”
Waiting” sometimes plays like Bill Maher’s “Religulous,” minus Maher’s snarky mediating p.o.v. In their zeal to not misrepresent evangelicals, the filmmakers tend to record every discussion in mind-numbing C-SPAN-like detail and, more problematically, sometimes unintentionally wind up enabling an evangelical agenda; a shot of men praying in a mosque inadvertently reads as an example of “Islamofascist” behavior.
Still, the docu’s open-endedness offers something for everyone. For believers, it provides a sympathetic portrait of sane, educated families coping with what they perceive as the suffering of the world. For Jews, it sounds a wake-up call to the dangers of supporting a faction that counts as necessary an Israeli future of wholesale destruction and a choice between conversion or death. Lastly, for unrepentantly cynical secularists, it serves up delicious ironies (one “saved” Christian’s barely disguised glee at the prospect of a front-row seat for the upcoming carnage).
Camera (color, HD), Sacchi, Davis; music, Gary Lionelli; sound, Heilbroner, Roberta Dougan, Rich Cutler. Reviewed on DVD, New York, Jan. 2, 2010. (In 2009 New York Jewish Film Festival.) Running time: 74 MIN.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNcPX9KbwSY 350 300]
January 12th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Thank you Mooneye.
One of the reasons the Republicans were booted out of power were because of this Armaggedon cult, that dictates their foreign policy of wars.
The reason the neo cons want Sarah Palin is because she subscribes to this belief.
The good news is as long as these kooks are affilated with Republicans, they will be on a loser. McCain only started to lose momentum in a big way after Sarah Palin became his VP. He had no other choice, except to woo this block of voters, even though he himself has described the Christian Right as a “serious problem”. The Christian Right who were sceptical of him then embraced him after Palin’s nomination, which is why he appointed, to win their vote, thus ensuring his defeat.
Make no mistake, the neocons are looking for sneaky ways to get these dominionists and Armeggedonites in power again to continue their foreign policy of war.
January 12th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
I’m very glad you brought this up, actually. Many of our favorite targets here (Pamela Geller included, and yes, I have proof) LOVE the dispensationalist crowd for their supposed support of Israel and the return of as many Jews to The Holy Land as they can talk into it. John Hagee plays a major role in this nonsense, and is seen as innocent and harmless than the class hamster. They think present term only (the ‘counter-jihadis’) and are glad of the support, regardless of what the Hagee/Lindsey/LaHaye crowd sees as down the line, because they see only Muslim invasion down the line.
I tried to talk many ‘counterjihadi’ bloggers out of this nonsense and ended up hitting my head against a brick wall of “They support Israel!”.
January 12th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
Max Blumenthal secretly filmed a Christian United For Israel meeting in July 08. It caused much controversy, and Pastor Hagee tried to get it banned.
read the whole story and watch the video to understand these rapture loons, and what their agenda is.
Pastor Hagee’s Desperate News Suppression Campaign Backfires
http://maxblumenthal.com/2008/07/209/#more-209
Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour from huffpost on Vimeo. See the video Pastor John Hagee doesn’t want you to see.
Readers may recall, that Max Blumenthal has been featured here at Loon Watch, he made a video called “Feeling the hate” in Tel Aviv, about the Jewish Taliban anti-Obama crowd
http://www.loonwatch.com/2009/11/feeling-the-hate/#comments
January 13th, 2010 at 2:42 am
The 4 articles below by Bill Berkowitz are must reads, as Bill Berkowitz specialises in exposing Armeggedon fundamentalism in politics has some excellent reports that readers should check out.
The Republican right wing extremists may be out but they seeking ways to sneak back into power. At the moment, it’s only teabagging, but who knows they may actually grow a brain and try to seek alternative routes..
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What in the Name of the Crusades are Tennessee Evangelicals Doing in Kurdish Iraq?, Religion Dispatches, February 20, 2009
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religiousright/1134/what_in_the_name_of_the_crusades_are_tennessee_evangelicals_doing_in_kurdish_iraq
In an exclusive interview, investigative reporter Mike Reynolds uncovers the special relationship between Iraqi Kurds and a group of American evangelicals that practices “spiritual warfare,” harbors a deep animosity toward Islam, and views the region as the evangelistic final frontier.
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Christian White Nationalism in the Age of Obama, Religion Dispatches, April 27, 2009
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/rdbook/1362/rdbook:_christian_white_nationalism_in_the_age_of_obama/
What’s a white racist to do these days? A new book examines the history of white nationalism as it has moved from the fringe to the mainstream, describes the religious roots of the movement, and alerts us to its political and social goals.
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Black Conservatives in the Age of Obama, Alternet, August 21, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/141966/black_conservatives_in_the_age_of_obama/
The most prominent voices for conservatism in African American communities continue to be those of Christian church leaders.
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Christian PR Man Goes on ‘The Road’ With Movie About Post-Apocalyptic America, BuzzFlash, November 27, 2009
blog.buzzflash.com/node/9914
Larry Ross, a Christian PR man extraordinaire, has been working to take `The Road’ to a religious audience in search of buzz, box office and discussion.
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January 13th, 2010 at 3:32 am
Neocons Turn On….The Jews
tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/07/neocons_turn_onthe_jews/
By M.J. Rosenberg – January 7, 2010,
It may have been inevitable.
Neoconservatives believe that Jewish Americans should, like them, vote Republican because the GOP is aligned with the most intolerant and hawkish elements in Israel (settlers, religious fanatics, anti-Palestinian Jewish supremacists). Democrats support the peace process (although a lot less vigorously as they should).
But Jewish voters have disappointed neoconservatives over and over again. Polls show that while the security of Israel is a major concern among Jews, it is far from the top of their list, in fact it’s #6 or #7 according to the 2008 American Jewish Committee poll. Voting issues for Jews — as for other Americans — are primarily domestic (economy, health care, and equal rights) and on all those issues, they are diehard liberals.
January 13th, 2010 at 6:27 am
Very very odd , do they have there own version of the Bible like the Mormons or the JWs?
January 14th, 2010 at 3:39 am
The religious assault on America’s military
A campaign is being waged by religious extremists to undermine the commitment of America’s military to defending our country and our constitution, converting it to a recruiting camp for fundamentalist/evangelical sectarians.
This covert action has been going on for several years, and has rarely been covered in the mainstream media. This month, though, a report by Jeff Sharlet in Harper’s Magazine sheds needed light on the abuse. Sharlett has found “…a small but powerful movement of Christian soldiers concentrated in the officer corps.” Apparently this effort has been taking place over a number of years, and is described as a “…quiet coup within the armed forces…of religious authority replacing the miliatry’s once staunchly secular code.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-7183-Philadelphia-Protestant-Examiner~y2009m5d26-The-religious-assault-on-Americas-military
……The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, directed by Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, a highly decorated retired officer, has led opposition to this sectarian takeovert.
January 14th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Israeli ministries spar over support of Evangelical Christians
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=20285
Wednesday, December 30, 2009 Israel Today Staff
Israel’s Foreign Ministry and Interior Ministry are engaged in a heated debate over whether or not to recognize Evangelical Christians as a sovereign, independent church and offer them the benefits that go along with that status, Army Radio reported on Wednesday.
The Foreign Ministry wants to upgrade the status of Evangelical Christians in Israel, encouraging even more interaction with the Christian group that has most supported and aided the Jewish state since its rebirth.
January 15th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
another review about this movie here,
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Movie Night: Waiting for Armageddon
By: Lisa Derrick Monday December 28, 2009
Tonight’s film Waiting for Armageddon documents a specific aspect of American Christianity, and while they are a large slice of the Christian pie in America, they are not representative of all Christians. But they are, IMO dangerous because of their influence and their agenda.
firedoglake.com/2009/12/28/movie-night-waiting-for-armageddon/
These Christian Zionists have no problem pushing the hands of the prophetic clock forward–and using Middle east policy to do so.
Waiting for Armageddon touches briefly on the subject of “Twelvers” the messianic Shiite belief system; that belief in the violent return of the Mahdi imam mirror the fundamentalists’ grisly scenario and shows there’s not that much difference between fundamentalist end of the world fury, whether Christian or Islamic.
Waiting for Armageddon reveals a huge subculture of war-loving, militaristic, anti-Judaism running through one of the largest Christian sects in America, a world view that is being exported around the world to 200 million people in 77 languages. And one, which if left unchecked, has very unpleasant ramifications for our world’s future.
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…….and more about the glee and haste with which Evangelicals await the end of the world and destruction of Israel for themselves.
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Evangelicals, Israel, and the End of the World
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-heilbroner/evangelicals-israel-and-t_b_391351.html
It’s been just nine years since dooms-dayers expected the new millennium to bring the end of the world, yet the cry of “Armageddon” still rings out.
January 31st, 2010 at 11:07 pm
We are looking for the rapture and hope you are also! There are some Google articles throwing light on pretrib rapture defender Thomas Ice that you might like to see, namely, “Pretrib Expert John Walvoord Melts Ice” and “Edward Irving is Unnerving” (both found on Joe Ortiz’s “End Times Passover” blog) – plus other Google articles like “Pretrib Rapture Diehards,” “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” “Thomas Ice (Hired Gun),” “America’s Pretrib Rapture Traffickers,” and “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty” (the last two in colorful versions on the “Powered by Christ Ministries” site). Are you Dr. Ice ready as well as rapture ready?