The Rapture

I had lunch, yesterday, with a friend, who thinks that fundamentalist Christians don't care what happens to planet earth because they're pretty sure the Rapture is going to come and take them away from all this. I guess some people, like George W, call that "faith". To the rest of us, it's just plain irresponsible.
The fundamentalist Muslims appear to think the promise of a gaggle of virgins in the afterlife is enough to get young boys to turn themselves into human bombs and take as many people with them as possible. I hope there's enough virgins in heaven to go around, otherwise those boys are now finding themselves severely disappointed.
The real question is, do the politicians, the fundamentalist politicians, of the world, really believe these ridiculous assertions? or...... are they simply hoping to convince enough people to look the other way while they fill their pockets. Who knows what you can buy in heaven if your pockets are full when the rapture comes. Maybe they think they've already staked their claim and have a downpayment on a 5 bedroom 6 bath condo up there where the streets are supposedly paved with gold. One thing's for sure, it won't last for long, the gold, that is. These same believers will be scraping it off the streets, claiming it for themselves, hoarding it under their heavenly beds, and feeling like they've really accomplished something big.
And if they're wrong about the rapture, then their earthly greed has managed to set them up nicely for the duration of their time here. Either way they win.
They say universal health care for Americans would cost too much money. That must mean that war is more of a bargain. Besides the official Armed Forces of the United States, there's what used to be called Blackwater International until a few of their boys in Iraq experienced a surge of their own and gunned down unarmed civilians in the streets simply because they were in their way. That incident increased public awareness of Blackwater's participation in the war in Iraq. This wasn't such a good thing for a private clandestine army of mercenaries, started by a fundamentalist Christian retired Navy Seal. It's not that they have cut back on their international activities, it's simply that by changing their name to Xe, they have regained their anonymity, making them more effective in Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.
I think I saw a headline in the Washington Post that said: "Rapture Postponed, Live Life Like It Matters."