Can there be a more ignorant movement than the authoritarian "magic Christians"? Since the fall elections, the "Sanhedrin" of this cult of religious neo-fascists strut through public arenas, robes aflutter, declaring their mandate to eliminate the Bill of Rights and the Age of Reason.

Claiming an election victory for their god, these strict-construction monotheists now mindlessly prepare for the battle of Armageddon. Armageddon, as I understand, is the final battle forecast in the last book of a much-patched sacred text of a hybrid religion, Christianity.

The King James, or Authorized Version, is one of the poorest translations of that text. It was published in the year 1611 A.D., the date itself only meaningful in the context of the book, the collective recorded history of Homo sapiens being much older.

Despite its mistake-filled manuscript, it is regarded by believers as the inerrant word of God. Therefore, Armageddon is to be waged, as are all Bush wars, through deficit spending and with the blood of other people's children, God finding a way to balance the budget and separate the saved from the damned.

The King James Version is an English translation of a collection of selected writings intended to exalt the teachings of a crucified Hebrew rabbi and prophet, Jesus of Nazareth. A Semite of the same genetic grouping as present-day Arabs, he was born at the zenith of the Roman occupation of late Iron Age Judea. He arose to challenge the corrupt priesthood occupying the most holy temple of his culture.

Oral history has him cast as a faith healer even able to raise the dead. He is reported to have advocated forgiveness, peace and love for one's neighbor. His ethics is encapsulated in a sermon given before a large crowd of followers and the curious.

Now called the Beatitudes, the speech gave hope and heart to the poorest and weakest of that enslaved society.

After his death at the hands of the merciless Romans, he became the center of another resurrection myth so common in that part of the world.

The Jesus mystery was attached to a collection of Judaic writings that included some creation myths, oral history, and pages and pages of laws, plus the beautiful erotic poetry of a mature culture. It also prophesied the birth of a messiah who would rescue the people of Israel from their oppressors.

Many of those laws attributed to the tribal god of Israel are the most psychosexual in world literature. The rantings of these patriarchs reflected the sexual obsession and insecurity of early Near Eastern males, an example being Deuteronomy 25 Verse 11.

Since they all worship the same tribal deity, these self-doubts have been reflected in the excesses of fundamentalist Muslims, Christians and Jews.

The deceitfulness and cruelty of the Hebraic patriarchs, as proudly heralded in Genesis 34, must make that brazen dissembler, George W. Bush, envious. The xenophobia, homophobia and misogyny of those callous men are echoed in the acts of the Rev. James Dobson and Osama bin Laden.

In America, this visceral hate permeating from the pulpit and the pews is not a new thing. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams wrote about this phenomenon when commenting on the threats to the new country in their late-life correspondences. It is most ironic to see that persecution predicted in the dialogue of those giants manifested in the curious cleansing of John Kerry voters from a Baptist church in 2005 North Carolina.

Dehumanize and murder gays, bomb women's health clinics with the implicit blessing of the church, then purify the congregation of even mildest political dissent. That is a very old tribal god at work.

What weaklings these people are. Is it no wonder they hide behind a 2,900-year-old commandment? When looking at the garish temples/palaces of these present day pharisees, Mammon has conquered the mound of the Sermon. They have debased the true high ground of Jesus of Nazareth.

Finally, these evangelical warriors fete the four horsemen they pretend to fear. This irrational subservience to dogmatism is hardly new. It was in part responsible for the European Dark Ages, as superstitious men vainly prepared for the return of their god.

If it were not for the science and medicine of ascendant Islam, we would still be hiding from gargoyles.

Unfortunately, the Western church burned "witches" and other thinkers long centuries after that awakening, to conceal the errors of its flawed cosmology.

Today, that "Dark Age" church picks the fruit of the orchard planted by the Enlightenment men and women who created this country, while pouring quick lime on the roots.

A thousand years after the Crusades failed, this same benighted theology has promoted the slaughter of Iraqi children so the true believer will gain his god.