Our Late Great Middle Eastern policy.

H/T to Andrew Sullivan for highlighting this. Unsurprisingly, it's a particularly tasty bit of nuttery from our old friend James Dobson, interviewing one Joel C. Rosenberg, about the upcoming end times. Sink your teeth into this:

Unless you begin look at this as a student of the Bible, a follower of Jesus Christ, and begin to say, OK, the Bible gives us some guidance on this. We can't say for sure that this is a prophetic event, but as followers of Jesus Christ, our command is to "be strong and courageous." That's what God said to Joshua four times in the first chapter of Joshua. We who have the Holy Spirit in us should not cower in the face of this, because the Muslims are lost, and because they are lost they are being driven I believe by THE ENEMY in a way that will confront us but we know that Jesus Christ is powerful and we know he is moving in the Middle East. I think what is most exciting in the Middle East is a story the media is missing: that in the last 30 years in Iran, there are now more than one million Muslims who have converted to faith in Christianity in Iran. If that's not evidence that we are living in the last days, I don't know what is.

Uh..even if that stat about Iran were true, it would still only constitute a minute fraction of the over 70 million people that live in Iran. Of course, Iran is diverse and there is a sizable Christian population in Iran, so I suspect Mr. Rosenberg is, um..mixed up about what was already there and what "converted". Nevertheless, you gotta love the way he gets his "Late Great Planet Earth" on. The problem is, unlike the 70's when it floated around the freaky christian fringe, it's the bedrock of a set of assumptions that our nations foreign policy is based on.

You know, S9 frequently laments how people like this make him feel like a wingnut conspiracy theorist. For my part, I've come to the conclusion they simply scare the shit out of me. Once you accept this is a fundamental assumption of a large portion of the conservative movement, you begin to see how their ideology makes a certain sense where it didn't before. Although it might be debatable to what degree it shapes our policies, I think you can make a pretty good argument it plays a role.

The best part, because you knew it had to have a creamy chocolate center, is this:

Joel, you are doing a great work. What you just mentioned of people in the Pentagon and the CIA are asking you for interepretations of what you see that allowed you to write these books. I think that's done by divine inspiration. And I appreciate it.

No, Thank YOU Mr. Dobson!