The influence of the evangelical Christian right on the Bush
administration has had a mostly unnoticed impact on America's
environmental policy. While some take God’s granting of dominion
over the earth to man as a call to good stewardship of our planet,
many evangelicals distrust science and disdain environmental
protections. They live in anticipation of one event: the Rapture,
when Christ will return to cleanse the earth while the true
believers are transported to heaven. For those who believe that the
Rapture and the destruction of the world are imminent, there is no
need to be concerned about saving the planet from environmental
catastrophe.

Welcome to Doomsday is an investigation into the coupling of
ideology and theology, in particular the intrusion of religion into
political life, in America today. Global climate change is a rapid,
possibly irreversible occurrence, yet the stance taken by the White
House in both international and domestic arenas is one of both
ignorance and disbelief. Appeasing the influential agendas of
corporations, as well as the uncompromising dominant beliefs of
evangelical groups, the Bush administration has firmly established
a disastrous record of ignoring the urgency of potentially
devastating changing climate.

Welcome to Doomsday is a passionate call to save the planet from
the forces not only of greed and exploitation but from those who
associate its destruction with a spiritual apocalypse. Written by
the compelling and articulate Bill Moyers, this is essential
reading for anyone interested in the current dismal state of
environmental policy as well as in the growing power of the
evangelical movement in the United States.

"Doomsday refers to "a time of catastrophic destruction and
death," and clearly, ours qualifies. War rages, terrorists kill,
natural disasters escalate, and people suffer on all fronts.
Overarching these horrors are the dire threats of global warming, a
slow-motion catastrophe our leaders refuse to acknowledge or
attempt to combat. This brings us to the second definition of
doomsday, as a day of final reckoning, for Christians the End Times
leading up to the Second Coming. This is where journalist Moyers
enters the picture. Himself a graduate of a Texas Baptist seminary,
Moyers succinctly and decisively links the Bush administration's
obdurate disregard for science and environmental realities to the
corrosive influence of the Christian Right. Since Christian
Fundamentalists see the Iraq War and attacks on Israel as necessary
precursors to the Rapture, why should true believers worry about
the biosphere? God will take care of his own until Christ returns
and the saved are lifted up from this polluted, extinction-plagued,
and warming world. Moyers' concise yet meticulous critique of this
dangerous viewpoint is clear and necessary. -Donna Seaman

YA: Moyers notes that religious materials given to teens tend to
dismiss biological realities; this provides invaluable checks and
balances. DS." –Booklist

“The truth is, the [Alaska National Wildlife Refuge] vote is
merely a small part of a larger…neoconservative attitude that has
a…fundamentalist belief in the End Times, in the Apocalypse. Don't
believe it? Have yourself a nice read of famed journalist Bill
Moyer's delicate, excellent essay "Welcome to Doomsday" via the New
York Review of Books, which brings in all the numbers and data into
a beautifully articulate essay on the state of the American
religious landscape..–The San Francisco Chronicle

Praise for Moyers:

“Bill Moyers speaks for, and to, the conscience of our
nation.”—Walter Cronkite

“Bill Moyers believes with his very heart-bone in the interchange
of ideas, in individuals speaking out. . . . And he is, in a very
real sense, a man of faith: of faith in America.”—James Dickey, The
New York Times

"Not only a good reporter... a first-rate storyteller."–The
Boston Globe

"Bill Moyers is doing what Madison and Jefferson desperately
hoped the press would do –provide information ... so that the
people would be informed enough to enable constitutional democracy
to survive."–Nat Hentoff