Beck, Palin and Huckabee help promote theories about Biblical Armageddon
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In politics, hyperbolic language is the rule, not the exception.
Since Obama has taken office, conservative media figures have taken things to a ridiculous level. Civil war! Revolution! Death panels! Shariah law! Streets on fire!
The constant drumbeat of over-the-top rhetoric is exhausting, and it can be difficult to pinpoint comments deserving of closer attention. However, prominent conservative media figures -- including two who double as putative candidates for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination -- have taken to invoking Armageddon. And I don't mean “Armageddon” in the metaphorical “the world is going to end if we pass health care” sense -- they are invoking actual Biblical Armageddon.
Yesterday, during a conversation with the conservative publication Newsmax, Sarah Palin engaged in the favorite conservative pastime of pushing for war with Middle Eastern countries and warned that allowing Iran to acquire nuclear weapons “is not just Israel's problem or America's problem, it is the world's problem. It could lead to an Armageddon. It could lead to that World War III that could decimate so much of this planet.”
Clearly, Palin's invocation of “Armageddon” did not bother Fox News -- quite the opposite, in fact. They promoted her interview with Newsmax on Fox Nation, using her comment as the headline:
If you are unfamiliar with Iran and Israel's role in the (always) impending Armageddon, Pastor John Hagee can help explain. Back in June, Glenn Beck hosted Hagee on his Fox News show and labeled him one of the “brave preachers” that “need to start standing up.” During that show, Beck plugged Hagee's “excellent” new book, Can America Survive? 10 Prophetic Signs That We Are The Terminal Generation, saying that he “just started to read last night.”
As we documented, the book enumerates the various pieces of “evidence” that we are fast-approaching Biblical Armageddon and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The argument is buttressed entirely by Hagee's self-professed expertise in Biblical soothsaying.
In the book, Hagee argues that “There are six nations whose exact names are given by the prophet Ezekiel that, at some point in the future, will unify in a massive Islamic army to invade and attempt to destroy Israel.” Among these, of course, is Iran. On the upside, Hagee found “comfort” in Ezekiel's “prophetic portrait” because he thinks God is “deliberately” dragging these nations to Israel in order to “crush them.” Near the end of the book, Hagee explains that after God destroys the “Islamic coalition,” the Jewish people will eventually come to “recognize Jesus as the Messiah.”
Beck explicitly endorsed Hagee's theory during the show, saying that “a lot of the pieces that have never been here for the prophecy are here now.” Since then, Beck has continued to promote Hagee, hosting him at his “Divine Destiny” 8-28 event and including him in his Black Robe Regiment. Beck has also continued to invoke Armageddon, telling his viewers during a broadcast from Washington D.C. the week of his self-aggrandizement festival that it's important to catch up on “homework” because of the “whole end of time thing.”
Beck and Palin aren't the only Fox News figures promoting theories about the End Times. Fox News' Mike Huckabee hosted Tim LaHaye -- author of the Left Behind book series about the Rapture -- on his Fox News program twice in July. In both appearances, Huckabee and LaHaye reportedly discussed Armageddon. During one of the appearances, Huckabee asked LaHaye, “Are we now living in the end times, from your perspective?” LaHaye responded, “Very definitely, governor.”
Of course, this is nothing new. For centuries, religious hucksters have trafficked in fearmongering about impending Armageddon. But when three of the most prominent conservative media figures in the country -- two of whom are reportedly considering 2012 presidential runs -- are lending credence to theories about the End of the World, it should be news.