(612)   Sat 7 Jun 97  5:52
By: Don Martin
To: All
Re: Move Over, JFK
St:
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@EID:bdac 22c72e80
@PID: BWMAX2 3.20 [Reg]
@MSGID: 1:261/1000.0 3399342b
From The New Republic for June 9, 1997, "Peddling Poppy" by Stephen
Glass, pp 20-24, on the reemergence of George Bush into the public
eye, p. 21:

    Another good place at which to contemplate what is going on with
    Bush is the First Church of George Herbert Walker Christ, which
    is a circuit church run be a handful of evangelicals who hold
    that Bush is the reincarnation of Christ. The First Church of
    George Herbert Walker Christ came into being during the Gulf
    War, when its founders began preaching that the conflict was
    Armageddon, with Saddam Hussein playing Satan to Bush's Christ.

    Incongruously, the First Church of George Herbert Walker Christ
    is quite poor. It has no particular home, and church members
    wander from city to city holding services in public parks and
    civic halls and handing out leaflets on street corners. Inside
    the leaflets is a complicated genealogical web that purports to
    show that Bush is directly descended from the Messiah. The web
    is written in minuscule print with dozens of winding lines
    extending like varicose veins from circles within circles. The
    circles represent secret love children. Like many fringe
    religions, the First Church of George Herbert Walker Christ is
    extremely regimented. Members adhere to strict dietary laws
    similar to Jewish kosher rules, but include Bush-specific
    prohibitions, including one against broccoli. Bush's fondness
    for pork rinds sparked an agonizing theological debate until the
    church decided that the Great One must have misinterpreted
    doctrine.

    Attendance at church services peaked during the war period. But,
    as Bush's popularity then declined, the church's popularity also
    waned. According to the First Church's head priest, Tom Ratold,
    the average weekly attendance fell to about twenty people at its
    low two years ago. But, since then, attendance has been slowly
    climbing, and now Ratold says the average service draws almost
    100 people; there were between thirty and forty present at the
    service I attended. Ratold says that, in his opinion, more and
    more people are beginning to see the parallels between the Bible
    prophecies and the Bush presidency. "I see it every time we hold
    an open service and discuss how Saddam resembles the devil in
    looks and acts," Ratold says. "People are beginning to fall in
    love with George. They are beginning to understand his power."

... Through a Jaundiced Eye Darkly--Rheum With a View
             (don@balt-rehab.med.va.gov)

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