The Passion of the Dubya

A few months ago, President Bush was widely and justly ridiculed for a claim that each attack by insurgents in Iraq was proof that the occupation was making progress. It is likely that most people who don't think much of Dubya to begin with filed that incident under D, for delusional. But maybe it should have been under A, for apocalyptic. In a seemingly unrelated discussion reported by the New York Times by a group of clergy from different faiths of the Mel Gibson Jesus film, there is the following revealing and insightful opinion:

He [Greek Orthodox] and the other Christian clergy members agreed that the movie was based on a "theology of atonement" familiar to evangelicals, one that emphasizes Jesus' suffering and sacrifice over his resurrection.

They noted that the movie had opened with a passage from Isaiah: "With his stripes we are healed."

Mr. Blackwell, the Methodist pastor said: "If your theology is blood, and you're washed clean in the blood, then the more blood and suffering the better because the more salvation there is in it. If that's your theology, the more stripes, the more you are healed.

Not hard to see how that becomes a justification for war; the messier, the better.