Confronting the “Axis of Evil”: Christian Dispensationalism,Politics and American Society Post-9/11

This article addresses the question of the level of influence dispensational pre-millennialism as a theology has had over evangelical attitudes toward Islam since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in New York and Washington. The theological concepts that comprise dispensational pre-millennialism experienced a significant increase in interest in the aftermath of 9/11 as the realities of terrorism sank into the collective American consciousness. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, a new wave of evangelical literature appeared that sought to frame Islam in an increasingly marginalized setting justified by the claim that radical Islam is representative of the whole of Islam. Dispensational pre-millennialism offers the evangelical Christian an escape from a post-modern, inclusive society that is increasingly at odds with the evangelical exclusivist view of religious truth. As a result religious pluralism, a traditional, core tenet of the American democracy, has come under fire from dispensational pre-millennialists who view religious pluralism as a threat to America's identity as a “Christian nation”. The rapidly changing, post-modern, pluralistic world, in which the influence of other religious traditions must be considered, drives the pre-millennialists to seek theological positions that provide shelter and encourage religious isolation, such as that offered by dispensational pre-millennialism