In a recent edition of Pat Robertsons CBN news programs a commentator said that people of Europe hate Americans not for what they do, but for what they are. It is not the war in Iraq or the perceived spread of American imperialism as much as their perception of what we are collectively and individually.
Europeans see us as flitting, glittered and mindless cronies of media distractions. They think we live in an alternate universe called the Hollywoodsphere and our view of the real world is stunted by our own preoccupation with everything ersatz. A growing number of American statesmen, scholars, clergy and concerned citizens are joining Europeans in this assessment. Warnings seem to be falling on deaf ears and the term dead heads is no longer just a term used to describe a band of groupies who follow the Grateful Dead.
The CBN commentator added that Europeans think our deep religious convictions are proof that we are stupid. We are perceived as anti evolutionists ding dongs that only hinder the advancement of civilization and the rise of man. This in turn also deepens the rift between American Christians. Along with increasing pressure from academia the European view of us has altered the thinking of some believers who cannot appropriate or adjust to the heightened disdain.
Some Christians who feel they look stupid have moved over to the center in an attempt to please both camps and calm their own doubts. Theistic Evolution or the idea that God used evolution to bring us all about is the compromise. This folly has gotten some of them even more disdain because now they have people in both camps that disdain them. The creationist feel betrayed and the evolutionists are suspicious of the middle of the road crowd. Jesus Christ was the first to warn believers of the mistake of trying to straddle both sides of the fence.
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15-16. To many believers in the U.S. these words are more than a lesson in single mindedness but they are actually part of the prophetically promised apostasy of the church that will come as the last days unfold. Lines are being drawn and the heat of the times doesnt request that we make a choice; it forces us to make one.
To Europeans we appear to be a people involved in a controversy about nothing. They have long since given up any illusions about the authority of the Bible and theyre proud of it. Subjectively it is hard to gage just how close Americans are to Europeans but we are surely a close second in the eyes of many of our own clergy and eschatologists.
The country that seems to lead the pack in anti American sentiment is Belgium. Some Europeans fear that Belgium may be going too hard and fast even for them. The Belgianization of Europe is an often heard and hotly debated phrase.
In The American Spectator, January 6, 2006, reviewer John OSullivan said in the last few years Belgian politicians have passed a law empowering them to arrest anyone for crimes committed anywhere, threatened to put Israel’s prime minister, Ariel Sharon, under its provisions, generously amended the legislation slightly when Donald Rumsfeld said that NATO would have to move from Brussels if it remained on the books, and in general thrown about the weight of a much larger nation. Exactly how did the home of moules-frites and child rape acquire notions of such undeserved grandeur? Will this extraordinary non-nation prove to be the model for a united Europe? And how should the U.S. and its closest allies react to this possibility?
It is no small coincidence to believers that the European Parliaments main offices are in East Brussels. To millions of believers who see Europe as the seat of the Antichrist it is there they first expect to see the man of sin emerge as the final ruler both of Europe and the entire world.
In a giant show of defiance, the European Parliament building called the Louise Weiss Building has been constructed to look like Brueghels famous painting of the ancient Tower of Babel. Posters of the building seen around Europe and in the building itself are labeled with the words Europe: many tongues, one voice. Most stunning of all is that on the poster a construction crane appears to indicate that the tower is being rebuilt. Move over Nimrod. It is all too apropos that a country that exhibits this kind of twisted defiance towards God should lead the pack in demonstrating anti American feelings.
Little in human nature has changed over the centuries and picking out an imaginary common enemy is still the quickest way to throw everyone into the same seething pot. Hitler taught Germany to see the Jews as their biggest problem. Europe has America to blame for their troubles and the whole worlds instability. Blame is a unifying factor but it only works for a little while.
Pamela Meister, American Thinker June 19, 2007 said; Anti-Americanism may be the glue that holds the EU together in its infancy. That glue, however, is a toxic substance. Like the schoolyard bully who seeks to make himself feel better by putting others down, Europeans continue to sneer at and heap scorn on the descendants of their own outcasts, who fled across the Atlantic in the hopes of a better life. They accuse the United States of imperialism and greed in the shadows of their own collapsed empires and struggling economies. The chattering classes demand an end to American world dominance. Thus the question begs to be asked: if America withdraws from the world stage, who will fill the void?
America filled the void for Europe after Hitler ravaged the continent but there is no nation that can hold a candle to America in existence in these times. To those who study and understand Biblical prophecy, there doesnt need to be. It is God, at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ that will fill the void. In fact it will be the end of all government by man including democracies. People who hold this belief are generally thought to be on the fringes of society.
Although only anecdotal proof is available, it still provides the most consistent testimony of the truth of the gospel message known in a modern and convulsing world. The proof is that the people, who know Christ will return, never lose hope and refuse to blame others to assuage their own fears. They are, however, not the slightest bit naïve. They know the world will get progressively worse. They have both the distinction and privilege to know why it will get worse and the final outcome of it all. They are, as is often said, people who have gone to the back of the book and read the last chapter.
In general there are two pervasive views concerning how the present anti American sentiments of Europe will play out. While it is far too soon to say with any certainty and both views are conjectural in nature they are similarly worth noting.
The first view is that the dreaded False Prophet who aids the Antichrist in every way will emerge from America thus calming anti Americanism in Europe. The other view is that Europe may become our enemy and actually take part in an invasion of America along with other non European nations.
Since both of these views are now only speculative it does well to keep them in the background until the picture becomes clearer. It is not the nature of Americas judgment that many believers are concerned about but it is the severity of that judgment. Liberalism both in American politics and the church is on the rise and many of its proposals and its proponents are affecting things that strain all credulity and common sense. It is this willful giving up to the flimsy tenants of modernism that will be in equal and direct proportion to our judgment.
No fanfare or special interpretation is needed to understand the Lords warning that unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required Luke 12:48 America will have a great deal more to account for than almost any other nation in history. The least of her troubles will be the anti American sentiments of Europe.