The subsequent battles in this period oversaw a born-again Christian Baptist, Jimmy Carter, called a non-Christian by the new right or so-called "Moral Majority" in the 1970s. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan, simply followed or continued to follow (the truly fairly conservative) Carter's 1979-1981 arms buildup, but Reagan took all the credit by using "God's" name in connection with the "American Dream" more often than had any of his immediate post-WWII "so-called humanist" predecessors.
ABUSIVE LANGUAGE
Douglas Jacoby, in the Spirit of 1980s and 1990s CBN religious phraseology, begins his final chapter on the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) by describing what the world looked like in the time of Babel-just a few short generations after Noah and the Great Deluge: "The spirit of gratitude after the rescue from the flood gave way in time to a self-assured and humanistic outlook on life.[Italics mine] Mankind lost gratitude and became grasping. At Babel he grabbed for the same thing he was really grabbing in Eden; personal autonomy, 'freedom,' the right to be master of his own destiny."[p.153]
Jacoby continues his narration by noting that in Gen. 11:2 the Babylonian city of Shinar is mentioned as the location of Babel. Jacoby states, "Unity is a good thing, provided those unified are good people. But this was hardly the situation at Shinar."[p.154]
It should be noted that in this chapter (and in my online communication with Jacoby), the author had had ample time to indicate that not only humanists-like those in the states of the former Soviet Empire-had had the ability to be unified and in error before God, but so did Christians who align themselves with one political party or in another in the name of unity.
Yet, not once does Jacoby clearly point this fact out to his 1990s' audience in any straight forward manner.
First, Jacoby notes, "Man had a plan. He had superior construction techniques. Still on the run from God, he wished for security. The Tower of Babel was nothing more than man's monument to his own ego." [p. 154]
I respond, "Security? Wasn't that the reason the U.S is now in several foreign wars simultaneously? How can we talk about Babel or Iraq today and not see a connection to the Homefront?"
As (1) I was living in Kuwait while reading this particular passage last month and because (2) the region where Babel was reported to be is only a few hours drive north of where I was living, I began to think of the Bush and Cheney leadership which captured the USA state department in 2001 from the democratic party--a supposedly more humanist American regime.
I thought about the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld plan to take over Babel or Babylon from Sadam Hussain's regime. I realized clearly what happens when men have plans and are seeking security. I thought, "The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was nothing more than a coalition of men building a monument to their own egos."
Nonetheless, in the 1990s when Jacoby published this particular Bible study on Genesis, he attempts to keep his finger clearly only in the direction of humanists. Is that a responsible way to narrate when already the country is overrun with such hyperbole?
Jacoby writes, "What was so dangerous about the brewing situation that God had to 'come down' and act so dramatically? What sort of citizen was being produced in Shinar?" [p. 155]
Jacoby answers his own questions with these replies concerning the characters of these people of Babel. Babel was for the:
(1) Haughty (Ezekiel 16:50), humanistic, "liberal" thinkers who flatter themselves 'too much to detect or hate' their own sin (Psalm 36:2)."
(2) Men and women who commit themselves to a sinful course and do not reject what is wrong (Psalm 36:4).
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