THE ANTICHRIST OF THE BERLAYMONT

Fiammetta Rocco on why

American religious fundamentalists are praying for a 'non' in France

IT IS NOT just 50 million French who are eagerly waiting to hear whether 'non' is louder than `our. So are thousands of born-again Christians in the United States. Like the rest of us, they know Sunday's vote will broadly determine Europe's future. But their excitement is based on something quite specific. They believe the Antichrist is about to return to earth in preparation for Armageddon. He will alight, they say, in Brussels.

To American fundamentalist Christians, the Maastricht Treaty is the latest move in a massive global conspiracy by the enemies of God whose real ambition is to impose Satan's domination over the world. Now is the time, in the run-up to the millennium, when the Cassandras come forth. (A simi- lar movement flourished in Islam in the mid-16th century when many believed the prophet Mohammed would return to mark the anniversary of his birth in 571.) I had not fully taken on board the born- agains' view of Europe until my mother came to stay last week. She is French. But for the past ten years she has been the leading light in a fundamentalist church in the Ozark mountains, in remote northern Arkansas. It has more than 50,000 follow- ers around the world who, like St Thomas, talk in tongues and believe themselves to be touched by the Holy Spirit. Her church is called End-Time Handmaidens Inc.

The Ozarks have long been known as the last bastion of America. Survivalists sell fully stocked nuclear bunkers by mail- order from there. Hippies you haven't seen since 1969 still drive Volkswagen Beetles with plastic flower stickers, and the Grand Duke of Liechtenstein is said to own many thousands of acres of Ozark forest. The End-Time Handmaidens steer clear of the hippies, but they are part of a loose, yet thriving, network of churches in America that believe God's (and mankind's) enemy lies in Europe.

Advocates of this viewpoint include preachers like Tal Brooke, Grant Jeffrey, Peter Lalonde and Pat Robertson. Their names mean nothing here. But they are leading lights in their field. Robertson was the Christian candidate in the US presiden- tial election in 1988.

These men derive their argument from two Old Testament prophets, Ezekiel and Daniel, whose particular talent lay in trans- lating the dreams of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. Together they prophe- sied that, before the return of the true Messiah, a false god, or Antichrist, would come to earth. A tremendous battle would take place in the land of Israel between the forces of good and evil, the biblical Gog and Magog. Good would ultimately prevail, the Antichrist be smitten and the Messiah returned to sweep up the true Believers in what is known as the Rapture. The false Christians who follow the Antichrist will be left behind.

It is no coincidence that the fundamen- talist churches saw a great flowering in America during the 1980s. Their world view dovetailed neatly with Ronald Rea- gan's vision of himself as the only leader prepared to take on the Soviet Union, the `empire of evil'. The Arab-Israeli wars have added weight to Daniel's prophecy about the land of Israel. Many fundamentalists, Robertson included, saw the Israeli inva- sion of Lebanon as the start of a mighty US-Soviet war. Gore Vidal, in an essay written in 1987, called it 'the ultimate showdown between Christ and Antichrist', the battle between Gog and Magog that Ezekiel told us would blow up in a place called Armageddon.

Like Ronald Reagan — the greatest proponent of America as the land of the free and brave — the fundamentalist Christians in the United States depend on an external army to give them added right- ness. Reagan, America and Israel are on the side of the angels. I remember my mother often referring to Menachem Begin as a prophet. The Soviet Union and all the Muslim world (especially Iran) is the realm of Satan.

For a while, many born-again Christians took Gorbachev to be the Antichrist. Today, they gloss over the fact that the conflagration over Israel never happened quite as prophesied, and that the Soviet leader went quietly into retirement. Indeed, Reagan's 'empire of evil' has destroyed itself altogether, and the funda- mentalists are casting about for a new external enemy.

In one of his dreams, Nebuchadnezzar saw a man with a head of gold, breast and arms made of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet partly of iron and partly of clay. This figure, Daniel explained, represented an outline of the future, from Nebuchadnezzar until the end of time. The head of gold, he said, was Nebuchadnezzar himself. Later prophets agreed that the Medo-Persian empire that conquered Babylon in 539 BC was an infe- rior kingdom, represented by the silver chest and arms. We live today in the clay- footed age.

Nebuchadnezzar's dream figure also had ten toes, which modern interpreters, like Lalonde, say represent, ten nations. Some time ago, my mother began to question me closely about whether Margaret Thatcher would pull Britain out of the European Community. What other nations would leave? This was important. There are 12 countries in the EEC, and Daniel tells us the Antichrist will arise out of ten nations. Never mind. Europe (though slightly over- weight) is history's last remaining empire, the empire of the false Messiah, with Brussels as its capital.

Just why it should he American Chris- tians, in particular, who have taken such fright at Europe and why they should have chosen Europe rather than Japan on which to vent their fears hear some look- ing at.

The answer to the second question is easy. Japan may he America's greatest economic enemy, but it poses no religious threat. After all, where does Japan appear in the Bible? The Old World is more dan- gerous. Not only does an empowered EEC — a United States of Europe — pose an economic threat to America, it is also reli- giously and historically dangerous. 'There is little doubt,' says Peter Lalonde, whose recent hook, One World Under Anti-Christ, lays out this thesis, 'that the European

Common Market [sic] is the nucleus of what will become the Revived Roman Empire.' Its boundaries are more or less the same as Charlemagne's realm, and, of course, the foundation of the EEC is called the Treaty of Rome.

More important, Europe is the home (geographically, at least) of the Catholic Church. The fundamentalist born-again Christians in the United States are Protes- tants. Catholicism was the religion of the Holy Roman Empire, and is clearly still the enemy today. In a dream, St John the apos- tle saw the same figure Daniel had seen. But riding atop her was a woman arrayed in scarlet and purple robes. On her head was written a name. It was 'Mystery Baby- lon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth'. For Lalonde, the 'Roman Catholic Church is at the core of the Mystery Babylon'.

The born-again American fundamental- ists bundle up a lot into their conspiracy theory. The danger of Europe, they believe, is not nationalism or fascism, but Catholi- cism, global power and the domination of Satan. Unlike Reagan, George Bush is not seen as the fundamentalists' friend, and his call for a 'new world order' just reinforces their suspicions. My mother won't be voting on Sunday. She is back with the End-Time Handmaid- ens in Arkansas. But she believes that if her countrymen say no to Delors, they're saying yes to the true Messiah, who told them how to vote.