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In the name of God
George Bush really is doing God's work - according to the Rev Evans' best-selling book, that is

One of the surest ways of testing a country's political temperature is to look at the national bestseller list. The current No 1 on Amazon's chart, Unfit for Command, in which "Swift Boat veterans speak out against John Kerry", will draw attention in this country. Formerly No 1, currently holding on at No 3 among the mega-sellers, The American Prophecies, will probably not. It should.

The author, Michael D Evans, is part preacher, would-be sooth-sayer, big-time blowhard. He's also rich, given his book's runaway sales. Not that money is a main motive, any more than it was for Moses. The book purports to reveal how "ancient prophecies reveal our nation's future". More precisely these prophecies, correctly decoded, confirm that George Bush's tearing up of the Middle East road map, last April, has found great favour with God.

The current conflict accords exactly, for those that have eyes to see, or teachers like the Rev Evans to instruct them, with the divinely ordained script for America and Israel. We are now, as Evans puts it, "in the eye of the prophetic storm". Bracing, perilous, but for the American faithful, deeply reassuring.

Much of The American Prophecies is devoted to close exegesis of the page of the Bible on which incoming presidents have laid their hand while taking the oath of office during the swearing-in ceremony. It is a presidential privilege to choose the passage. What did the 42nd president (known to the irreverent as Slick Willy) select for that fateful day? Galatians 6:8, "For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption."

Prophetic or what? More damning, however, than his fleshly reapings with Monica, was Clinton's betraying the sacred mission entrusted him by God. He cannot plead ignorance, when his time comes to stand before the divine bench. As governor of Arkansas, he was specifically instructed by his pastor, the Rev WO Vaught, "You might be president one day. You will make mistakes and God will forgive you. But God will never forgive you if you turn your back on Israel." Which, to the great peril of his country, Clinton did, at Camp David in July 2000. What followed, 14 months later in Manhattan, was a mark of God's stern displeasure at the errant president. ...