MUST READ: ESCHATOLOGY YOU CAN DO BUSINESS WITH

Eschatology You Can Do Business With
The religious left makes its peace with Ahmadinejad's Madhist doctrine.
by Mark D. Tooley

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"I heard Christian participants in this event say they had been primed to expect to encounter a lunatic," Shenk recalled. "Afterward, they reflected instead on having met a man who spoke knowledgably within a theological framework and who meaningfully (at least on some levels) addressed issues of justice and moral righteousness." Shenk urged that the United States make "tough agreements" with Iran on nuclear weapons, perhaps offering a "fresh round of reductions in our own U.S. nuclear stockpiles" to salt the plate. Meanwhile, the United States needs a "readjustment of rhetoric" about Iran, he says.

As a model for America to follow, Shenk describes how his own Mennonite church has been building a bridge to Iran for more than a decade: "Our students have gone to Iran and studied theology in Islamic seminaries; Muslim students have come to North America in exchange and pursued topics in theology and peace building," he says. "If we want to crack the code with Iran, we must take the theological dimensions of their way of seeing the world more seriously."

Iran's rulers no doubt appreciate the admiration of visiting American religionists. They recognize useful friends when they see them. Many of these same U.S. prelates, across the years, have expressed fears about the ostensible Christian end-times beliefs that supposedly have influenced some American politicians. They have hunted for any evidence that U.S. officials, however inwardly, are guided by some expectation of the Second Coming of Christ. But anticipating the "righteous" advent of the Twelfth Imam is apparently
much less threatening.



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