The Union; Grass Valley, California – August 6, 2004
Have you ever seen the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers? In it, a struggling Donald Sutherland deals with colleagues who disappear one by one into mysterious, cult-like beings. They steal in and replace normal sleeping people with bodies of their own, whereupon the normal people frizzle-up and vanish into thin air.
Oh, what horror! But here’s something even more insidious: not having to hide the fact that you’re replacing the bodies in the first place. How do you do that? With a mind virus. Indeed, you simply reprogram each person, and before long, you’ve got your own cult following.
To set it up, all you’ve got to do is capitalize on people’s desires and fears. Tell them if they believe in “The Truth,” once they die, they’ll get all kinds of good stuff, like wealth, happiness, and paradise. But — don’t let them question it. No way. Reason isn’t allowed.
After all, this is “The Truth,” and they should have faith in that. If they should ever find contradictions or cruel absurdities in our “Holy Book,” just tell them that it’s the devil testing them and that they should resist doubts or questions, lest they risk being thrown from God’s love, never to be accepted again. They won’t want that! Remember, “We’re the Truth — but no testing allowed.”
Think of how effective your Truth will be, too. Especially on weak or disadvantaged people. Definitely plug them. Write your Truth into their alcohol-and drug-abuse meetings. Don’t stop there, either, because the very future of your cult lies right before you: children. Yes, get them while they’re young and malleable. Take advantage of them. They trust you, after all, so imagine how effectively your virus will take hold of them.
Like the adults, fill them with loving emotion and the dread of disbelief, then just watch as they, too, ignore all those other silly “truths” like science, evolution, or critical thinking. Why, even the words and ideas of America’s Founding Fathers can be ignored. We’ll just rewrite history and claim that our country was founded on Our Truth!
So what if our closed values conflict with freedom and democracy? We’ll make it seem like we coincide with them, then take control. Besides, once they see our Truth, they’ll be content with restriction and theocracy. Just like the people in Iran. Who needs flat, boring reason anyway? We’ll convince people with emotion! After all, our belief is our passion.
Later on, imagine the power you will command: corporate heads, lobbyists, congressmen and senators. Even the president of the United States! Wow, we’ll be rolling then — we can stamp our beliefs into the coinage and pledge of our countrymen, too. That’ll surely get the rest of them behaving. If not, we’ll keep tabs on those miscreants with our “Patriot Act.” How ingenious: If they complain, we label them “unpatriotic”!
With this power, we can force our narrow beliefs on everyone. Why not? It’s “God’s will.”
We’ll start out by rewriting the history of America, making up false quotes that our founding fathers or Lincoln said. We’ll force prayer in schools. We’ll force women under man’s power to prevent abortion. Yes, God into our money and pledge, too. (Who cares or knows what “E Pluribus Unum” meant, anyway?)
“Church and state?” What baloney! We’ll force our Ten Commandments into our courthouses. We’ll create “faith-based initiatives” and only hire our gang to boot. We’ll make embryonic stem-cell research (they’re killing babies!) illegal, and by God, we’ll push those sissy gays around!
We’ll push creationism in schools and even create our own tortuous “American Inquisition”! Hey, don’t scoff — we certainly didn’t care who we killed during the Crusades, way back then. We knew God would sort them out. Who cares about Amnesty International’s concerns? Our righteousness rules!
Don’t feel guilty about it, either. Just read the following words of God, straight from His lips, and you can have “the Passion,” too:
“Anyone who is captured will be run through with a sword. Their little children will be dashed to death right before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes. For I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them off. The attacking armies will shoot down the young people with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for the children.” (Isaiah 13:15-18 NLT) Imagine our God saying that!
