Alien Transmissions

Never having been someone predisposed to believing that SETI is a very useful venture, I have generally been dismissive of such efforts to divine alien transmissions from space. This is not to say that they aren't out there but just that our scientific efforts here on Earth would be better directed to genuinely useful enterprises. At least, that's what I thought until I finally saw what could only be described as an actual extra-terrestrial transmission and, amazingly enough, it appeared on a common terrestrial device, a television. Though some would believe that such transmissions are actually a comedy act and certain frames of mind could easily construe this scenario, a recent viewing of the Jack Van Impe Ministries broadcast has truly shaken my conviction that alien transmissions have not yet been received by humanity. Indeed, it is most certain that they have.

How else to describe the weekly broadcasts of Rapture advocate and Revelations interpreter, Jack Van Impe? To listen to the incredible pronouncements of Van Impe would be to acknowledge that, indeed, some alien transmission of an other-world philosophy was being received, and received rather well, by many earthlings. Accompanied by his faithfully freakish side kick and putative "wife," Rexella, Van Impe implores his audience, human or otherwise, to prepare for the second coming, whereupon the ultimate battle between good and evil will commence, the armies of heaven and hell unleashed upon unbelievers, followers of the prophesy having already been saved by The Rapture.

But Van Impe has been televising and propounding upon this horrific scenario for some time, as have any number of biblical literalists. Though his previous prognostications of this fitful end have been met by nothing but failure, why is Van Impe's proselytizing of interest now? Well, being knee-deep in Mark Crispin Miller's latest book, Fooled Again, the book brought to the fore Miller's thesis that the Bush administration, and the GOP more generally, has a fundamental connection to the zealots of Christian reconstructionism, a group that advocates biblical law should and must be the law of the land and that democracy stands in opposition to God's will. Armageddon, as enthusiastically diagnosed by Van Impe, also figures prominantly in this movement. Of course, what makes Miller's thesis so seemingly untenable is that rational folks simply cannot comprehend such madness of belief, as alien as it appears to nominal reason. And, as Miller argues, therein lies the danger.

Nonetheless, it is still hard to grasp that a White House, any White House, would embrace the late-night yowlings of Van Impe. That is, it is hard to grasp until one learns that the White House has been courting the foreign policy opinions of such evangelicals for some time, with Jack Van Impe himself claiming to having been contacted by the White House:

On July 7th or 8th we received a call from Justin Bush of the Office of Public Liaison for the White House asking Dr. Van Impe to attend a meeting with Dr. Condoleezza Rice and a few other faith-based leaders to discuss President Bush's "Roadmap to Peace in the Middle East."

Van Impe has nothing but disdain for such a peace process, it being a sure sign of satanic meddling. And, yes, the Bush administration is consulting the Book of Revelations for advice on Middle East foreign policy with the expected view that they don't want to do anything lest it muck up God's centuries' long plans for The Rapture.

On the particular transmission I watched, Van Impe was humping his latest video production, called Global ID: 666, and, naturally enough, subtitled, The prophesied Mark of the Beast, could it be administered today? A heady subject to be sure. Van Impe went on to briefly outline the content of the video (tales of the impeding, inevitable doom can be yours today for a mere 24.95 of your earthly American dollars), wherein he imagines the rise of a single global government and, indicative of this, how a cabal of dozens of "sinister organisations" have satanically spawned from a hellmouth located in Brussels, Belgium. Van Impe's impetus for this production is ostensibly the need to get the word out and get your family saved by Jesus before horror of Armageddon is unleashed upon the world.

Now, if this wasn't an extra-terrestrial transmission describing a conspiracy of intergalactic proportions as told to us by a brother from another planet, what would be?

But what is the real frighter here is that the White House is populated by a group of people who think that Van Impe is someone worth listening to, that his biblical prophesizing is germane to US foreign policy. Of course, to anyone objectively looking at the situation in the Middle East, it would be difficult to argue that the Bush admininistration has not done everything in its power to catalyze the very prophesy so stronly believed by people like Van Impe.