The Christian Right and neocon foreign policy

Via Chip Berlet's blog, I came across this article from 2004 which gives a good sketch of rise to power of the "neoconservatives" and talks about the ways in which the neocon world view and the Christian Right perspective have reinforced each other: Bush, the Neocons and Evangelical Christian Fiction: America, "Left Behind" by Hugh Urban Counterpunch 12/18/04.

Urban uses the term "elective affinity" to describe the symbiosis between the two groups. Meaning that one didn't directly give rise to the other, but that the two interacted in ways that facilitiated each side's agenda.

Among other things, he mention the Council for National Policy, one of the forums through which Christian Right leaders make their influence felt on foreign policy:

In the last two decades, Tim LaHaye has emerged as not only the theological brains behind the best-selling Left Behind series, but also as one of the most influential figures in the American Christian Right. Indeed, when the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals decided to name the most influential evangelical leader of the past 25 years, they chose not Billy Graham, Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, but Tim LaHaye, in large part because of his work in evangelical politics. Not only is LaHaye an influential preacher and interpreter of prophecy and revelation, he has also become a remarkably powerful force in domestic and now even international politics through the highly secretive Council for National Policy, founded in 1981. Called by some "the most powerful conservative group you've never heard of," the CNP includes among its members Reverends Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, Jesse Helms, Tom DeLay, Oliver North, Christian Reconstructionist R.J. Rushdoony and, formerly, John Ashcroft (himself a Pentecostal Christian). Recent speakers at the Council's highly private meetings have included Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, and Timothy Goeglein, deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. Although the group initially focused primarily on domestic agendas like abortion and homosexuality, LaHaye's Council has recently begun to turn to larger international issues such as U.S. policy in the Middle East and the state of Israel.

This little bit about neocon Michael Ledeen, who may yet get into legal trouble with the various investigations of criminal activity connected to foreign policy that are going on right now, is important:

One of the more striking examples of this Neoconservative outreach to the Christian Right is Michael Ledeen, an influential Fellow at the Neocon think-tank, American Enterprise Institute. Not only was Ledeen one of the most vocal proponents of the Iraq War, but since the 1980s, he has also appeared frequently on Pat Robertson's 700 Club promoting an aggressive Neocon political vision. In a 2004 interview with Robertson, Ledeen argued that Iraq is only the first step in the re-structuring of the Middle East and should be followed by use of military force against Iran, as well.

Attacking Iran has been a favorite goal of Ledeen for quite a while.