Hi Sarajevo,

Quote Originally Posted by Sarajevo071 View Post
As long those people have U.S. Military to do fighting and killing for them there is no need for any Christian militia to start doing that on they own... If one have state apparatus and power behind him, there is no need to have revenge groups like that. Saying that, you are completely right pointing on those groups who are crawling on late night tv and calling for Armagedon.
That's a very good point, especially since it deals with one possible interpretation of what is happening. I can certainly see how such a view could easily be spun in a media campaign, regardless of any truth to it. Personally, I have suspicions regarding the initial motivations of the neo-cons for going into Iraq; suspicions that really haven't been set at ease by some of the recent "I wasn't MY fault" books (not the Feith comes to mind, but...).

At the same time, I really think that the vast majority of the US population thinks that these Christian "militias" (and I really don't like that term because it implies discipline and a willingness to suffer) are a bunch of twits. On a personal level, I've had run ins with two of them and, IMO, their "leaders" are power hungry materialists while many of their followers are deluded fools. As such, I suspect they are a god analog for fanatical splinter groups everywhere; they just haven't had to put their lives or material comfort on the line, and I doubt that the majority of them will .

At the same time, there are a (larger) number of Christian sects that I have run across who truly practice what they preach but do not support or condone violence (as a note, I've also run a cross a number of Muslims who are exact analogs of them). People who have a strong, personal relationship with their god(s) tend not to be threatened by others who believe differently .

Marc