Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and about a dozen other pro-family leaders met privately with President Bush recently about Iraq, Iran and the war on terror. As reported first by Max Blumenthal at The Raw Story, Dobson described a series of meetings in Washington on Monday's Focus on the Family radio show, the first in a weeklong series of broadcasts devoted to "radical Islam's impact on America."

"I was invited to go to Washington, D.C., and meet with President Bush in the White House, along with 12 or 13 other leaders of the pro-family movement, and the topic of the discussion that day was Iraq, Iran and international terrorism," Dobson said. "We were together for 90 minutes, and it was very enlightening and in some ways very disturbing, too. In a roundabout way, that led to today."

Dobson described the president as "upbeat" and not beaten down by political battles, as well as "determined and convinced that his mission is to protect this great nation from those who have threatened us, and to let history be his judge for the way he has dealt with the crisis in the Middle East."

Dobson said he isn't at liberty to quote the president directly but could "report the general tenor and tone" of the White House meeting. "I saw again how we're living in very perilous times, and the future generations of Americans depends on how we rise to that challenge today," Dobson said. "I'm absolutely convinced of that."

"Iran has promised to blow Israel off the face of the earth, and they've made no bones about that, and then they plan to come after us," Dobson said. "They've said it repeatedly. They don't care if they die in the process.

As the launching of the Iraq War marked its fourth anniversary on March 19, it is worth remembering that during the lead up to the invasion a number of conservative evangelicals voiced their support for the war: Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission for the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, maintained that Bush's action met criteria for a just war; the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents several dozen denominations encompassing more than 30 million American evangelical Christians, openly supported the war; Mike Evans, who heads the aggressively pro-Israeli Jerusalem Prayer Team, pointed out that war with Iraq could be a "dress rehearsal for Armageddon," the fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy.

...."Hagee Leading the Charge

Pastor John Hagee
On Sunday March 11, Pastor John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, received a rousing reception during his address at the opening dinner plenary of the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference.

Hagee warned the crowd that "Iran poses a nuclear threat to the State of Israel that promises nothing less than a nuclear Holocaust." Hagee claimed that the situation is like 1938, only "Iran is Germany and Ahmedinejad is the new Hitler."

Hagee added: "We must stop Iran's nuclear threat and stop it now and stand boldly Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East."

For the first time since religious conservatives became a modern political movement, the president of the United States has become the movement's de facto leader -- a status even Ronald Reagan, though admired by religious conservatives, never earned. Christian publications, radio and television shower Bush with praise, while preachers from the pulpit treat his leadership as an act of providence. A procession of religious leaders who have met with him testify to his faith, while Web sites encourage people to fast and pray for the president.