Terror of Maximalist Religion
During a catastrophic, historic event, people often try to find meaning behind it and look towards their own faith for unanswered questions. Bruce Lincoln’s book “Holy Terrors” shows amidst a horrific catastrophe where that line of politics and religion can be drawn between parties, and how one’s interpretation of events can be skewed when maximalist religion begins to overpower politics. Jerry Falwell, a Catholic maximalist states about the September 11th attacks, “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say: ‘you helped this happen. This could be if we all fast and pray this could be god's call to revival. ’” Falwell’s Maximalist religious views caused him to find meaning behind these attacks, fueled by the religious beliefs he stood behind, and blamed those who “sinned” against God as the cause of the attacks of September 11th, 2001 at the Pentagon and the World Trade Centers. He claimed that God had lifted his “veil of protection” and that the planes crashing into the World Trade Center buildings were what the bible calls a time for ‘religious revival’ and God was allowing these atrocities to happen to prove a point. Lincoln, shows that Falwell was in fact not the only religious maximalist speaking out for answers and blame, but the political leaders President George W. Bush of the U.S and al-Qaeda’s Islamic leader Osama Bin Laden prove that there was more than politics and government law behind the “political” war following the aftermath of September 11th, and that even before the attack, Maximalist religion was used as an excuse for terror and destruction and although more subtle and less militant, Bush was equally Maximalist. Lincoln begins by explaining the differences between his views on maximalist