War, God and America’s date with divine destiny, as seen from the Kāpiti Coast
Monday, 30 March 2026
K (Guru) Gurunathan is a former Mayor of Kāpiti. He is a regular opinion contributor.
OPINION: March 2003: the US invasion of Iraq had begun with the “shock and awe” bombing. The US had claimed before the United Nations that it had intelligence that Iraq was in possession of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction.
Around then, at a Sunday service in my Kāpiti Coast church, two visiting American pastors delivered their sermons. They spoke, with biblical reference, in support of the military invasion, pointing to the global threat of Islamic fundamentalism and existential threat to the state of Israel.
Their political sermons sat uncomfortably with me. As a journalist I had covered local anti-war protest meetings against New Zealand joining the US-led invasion. Weeks before the invasion, a UN inspection team led by Hans Blix had found no evidence of such weapons of mass destruction. Knowing it would serve no purpose for me to make a scene, I just stopped attending church for a period.
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Fast forward to 2016, when I was elected mayor, my church pastor and an elder would come once a month to my office for a 40-minute catch-up ending with a prayer. The stress and dynamics of politics include dealing with inflated and sensitive egos, and the reality of a gamesmanship where there were wheels spinning within wheels. So, you need time and space for personal reflection. I believe your oath to public service is a sacred responsibility. Post-local body elections, Local Government NZ runs workshops including one for mayors that touched on the need for stress relief strategies. The monthly session was part of mine.
Now consider this. On March 5, 2026 at the Oval Office some 20 evangelical pastors “laid hands” on President Trump. These leaders of America’s prominent megachurches were led by televangelist and long-time Trump adviser Paula White. They prayed for guidance, protection and success for the US during the escalating conflict with Iran.
While the Western narrative against the global rise of Islamic governance is very negative, American soft power has largely made us accept its “God Bless America” branding. Americans praying for their presidents, Republican or Democrat, is normal. The New Testament urges Christians to pray for those in authority.
There is a deeper political ideology behind this. What scholars describe as Christian nationalism. A world view that believes the United States was founded as a Christian nation, God has a special covenant with America, and political leaders can be instruments of God’s plan.
Within this framework Donald Trump is portrayed as a Cyrus figure – a reference to the Old Testament where the Persian king Cyrus the Great helped the Jews return to Jerusalem despite not being a Jew himself. Meaning, God sometimes chooses imperfect leaders to defend the faith.
So Trump does not have to be morally exemplary, he just needs to protect Christianity, Israel and conservative values. That believe America’s covenant with God creates an expectation of a supportive foreign policy.
Within this American brand of Christian nationalism there is a particular reading of the Bible, known as Christian Zionism, where the state of Israel has a prophetic timeline that culminates in a final global confrontation associated with Armageddon. This belief system has moved from the margins to mainstream American conservatism with organised voting blocs through megachurches.
So this fusion of theology and politics is not just the preserve of fundamentalist Muslims. Iran is seen not just in geopolitical terms but as an adversary in an apocalyptic spiritual war.
Critics of this influence, including writer Naomi Klein, argue that such thinking can produce what she calls “end-times politics“. A mindset where crisis is seen as inevitable. Meaning, if history is thought to be moving towards a divinely ordained climax, then instability in the Middle East can be seen less as a failure of diplomacy and more as confirmation of events unfolding as expected.
This hybrid of Christian nationalism and Christian Zionism is not one nurtured by groups reading the Book of Revelations in secret but through the glitzy public platforms of megachurches and their television channels with national and global reach.
It’s not a rigid command system but a loosely linked network of independent churches, conferences and visiting speakers that together amplify a soft power of personal salvation and shared direction. One that’s found a home in Aotearoa New Zealand.
This ideology is not the sole driver of the current Middle East conflict but a relevant contributing thread to consider in the geopolitical mix.
Back to 2003, learning of my prolonged absence from his church and the reason, my pastor invited me for a chat over coffee. The mental arm wrestling ended with me posing this question. If our Lord was in an American bomber high above Baghdad, would he press the button to release the cluster bombs? His minute of deep thought seemed infinite. Then my pastor said: “No, I think not.”