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I... would still consider that fascism.
Regardless, I would think even then he'd understand why Israel wouldn't want to nuke something right next to them. Fuck why not advocate for nuking Iran that at least seems a bit more plausible and just as likely to lead to the end times.
Evangelicals don't give a damn about Israel or Jews in general, so I don't think he's really taking their motivations or longevity into account. They (evangelicals) believe the existence of the nation of Israel and its subsequent total destruction are prerequisites for the Christian apocalypse/rapture. That's his only goal. I sorta agree that viewing this through a "fascism" lens isn't really helpful for understanding how people like Lindsey Graham think.
I find it so weird that Evangelicals want to BRING ABOUT the apocalypse. Plenty of other religions believe in an "end time", but you don't see this kind of behavior from Jews, Muslims or even most older Christian sects. They all accept God is a being so powerful and all knowing that understanding his grand plans is impossible and you are just gonna have to accept the end times will come about when God wills it and just live you life as best you can till them.
Evangelicals want to be able to not just predict, but incite the apocalypse. Like what if they think they don't put the leg work in Gods grand plan is gonna get totally derailed and reality will have to keep chugging along a few thousand years past schedule? Gods gonna be PISSED if I don't get the US to nuke Iran, it will fuck up his whole timetable!
Christian Fascism is defined by almost complete lack of theology or scholarship, and for being extremely schismatic to a farcical degree. It's a religion of the id, of the pure libido of the American white suburban aggrieved peitit boug psychopath. It's all about petty greed and spite and personal wish fulfillment.
It also runs completely counter to the stated goal of their religion
The bible is pretty clear that the end time is unknowable and until then humans have to be good stewards of the planet. Trying to bring about the apocalypse isn't exactly good stewardship
milennarianism requires the twinge of new developments to get the ball rolling, but once it starts 'you can't expect god to do all the work' and 'we need to prepare' apocalyptic ideology start mixing together & spawning actual activist tendencies. this is where you get people selling all their belongings, long distance pilgrimage/migration, novel social organization, and for people with state power, an exercise of it (usually on vulnerable people).
so in this case evangelicals haven't been constantly on an israel apocalypse fever for the 200 or so years whereever you wana peg 'evangelicalism', but it springs from the simple existence of israel which checks one of the prophetic boxes in their interpretation, and then right now they're having a war & spiked the interest because they think there's a bigger opportunity. a couple years ago in the slow apartheid stage of the conflict, evangelicals didn't have the same excitement. unless Lindsey Graham was banging a proliferation drum for the past decade, his statement demonstrates this.
There is a specific passage in, I believe the post-gospel books of the New Testament (but it could be in the gospels but I'm pretty sure it's in Acts or the Letters) it specifically says "you can't predict the time of the return of the Messiah, it might be tomorrow, it might be in a hundred years. YOU WILL NOT KNOW so you must live by Jesus's teachings right now and always not just in the moments leading up to his return. You aren't going to min/max the apocalypse, yo."
Of course evangelicals don't give a shit about this. Doesn't stop them from trying to force God's hand or whatever. Fucking goons. The rapture isn't even in the fucking Bible, either.
Appreciate the exact quote, thanks for digging that up
I think they're trying to usher in the apocalypse in order to validate their own fucked up worldview.
They do that too
He did: https://news.antiwar.com/2023/12/28/sen-lindsey-graham-calls-for-us-to-blow-parts-of-iran-off-the-map/