Take On the Talking Heads
Miami's Religious Fanatics
by Garry Wills
April 27, 2000 -- Religious fanatics are the worst fanatics. This was recognized in antiquity, when the Roman poet Lucretius wrote his famous line, "How suasive is religion to our bane." It is easy for us to recognize this sad truth when fundamentalists bomb and kill and demonstrate in other countries. All those who were adults during the Carter administration remember the wild-eyed Iranian fanatics who danced on our television screen every night denouncing the American Satan.
Well, now the fanatics dancing and calling President Clinton the American Satan are in our own country. The Elianistas have all the mark of the religious fanatic, for whom no worldly considerations -- no arguments or prudent self-questionings -- can temper conviction. Only God's will matters. And the fanatics believe God has spoken. Elian is a miracle, a sign from heaven. Politics, law, compromise can no longer enter into the matter. As a demonstrator in Miami told a Washington Post reporter:
"The human beings have lost control of this. Castro has lost control of it. Clinton has lost control of it. Reno, even the family, has lost control of it. Whatever happens now is in the hands of God. Elian is a sign from God, saying to the exile community, 'I haven't forgotten you.'"
The Afro-Cuban religion Santeria has surfaced around the house in Miami, with the assertion that Elian is the embodiment of an angel conveniently called Ellegua. But more respectable kinds of religion are also recruited for fanatical uses. The pastor of a Catholic church, Jose Luis Menendez, says that "God has made a gift to us in this community of a miracle." What God has given, man cannot give back. Father Menendez proves this miracle by saying that Elian was not sunburned after being exposed at sea. God clearly gave him supernatural protection. This goes with the widely believed story that dolphins shepherded the miracle child to safety.
Other demonstrators compare Elian to the holy innocents slaughtered by Herod, or to Jesus himself, killed by Pilate. Father Menendez has the theological effrontery to say: "Herod is waiting in Cuba. Pontius Pilate is washing his hands in Washington, and that is President Clinton. And the suffering of this child is the suffering of the Cuban people."
The crowd is being whipped up to ecstatic frenzies, with cries that Reno is "bruja," the witch, and that the American government is scheming with Satan to bring communism to America. The ceremonies of Holy Week have melded with messianic fantasies invested in Elian. One placard in the crowd read, on Holy Thursday, "After the crucifixion Elian and Cuba will rise up, too."
Elian will not only not be returned. His retention will overthrow the whole Castro government. Wild dreams could hardly go further than this.
Reno is criticized for not enforcing the law against this kidnapping by fanatics. Perhaps she should have acted more swiftly at an earlier stage of this conflict. But what can she do now with fanatics of a crazed belief? They are not subject to the civilized restraints most citizens respond to. The Ayatollah's troops are now among us.
Copyright © 2000 Universal Press Syndicate
