Gog and Magog

This is loosely based on what we have been discussing in class, about the representations of Christ in televisions and movies.  I was curious about the representation of other Biblical figures in our culture.  I decided to look at Gog’s and Magog’s.  For those of you who don’t know Gog’s and Magog’s are they are generally believed to be the people who bring about Satan’s will on Earth, and will flourish around the end of days.  

 A Persian miniature depicting the erection of an Iron Wall to keep the barbarian Gog and Magog from civilised peoples.

In 1971, during a dinner address to state legislators President Reagan said "Ezekiel tells us that Gog, the nation that will lead all of the other powers of darkness against Israel, will come out of the north. Biblical scholars have been saying for generations that Gog must be Russia. What other powerful nation is to the north of Israel? None. But it didn’t seem to make sense before the Russian revolution, when Russia was a Christian country. Now it does, now that Russia has become Communistic and atheistic, now that Russia has set itself against God. Now it fits the description of Gog perfectly."

I know that there were other reasons to portray Russians negatively during this time period, but I was curious as to whether or not television of movies actively promoted the idea of Gog’s and Magogs as synonymous with Russians.  There is no lack of Russian villains, there’s the evil Russian ducks in  Duck Tales, the Russians in Red Dawn, and numerous James Bond villains.  Unfortunately, there is not a lot of description about Gog’s and Magog’s, just that they come from a land that’s north of Israel and that they generally cause trouble.

                                                  

                                                                                  Rocky IV is the best Rocky

The reason I thought of this at all is because I read an article where George Bush was said to have invaded Iraq because he believed that Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East. (http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/agog_over_bushs_comments_on_go.html)  This happened during a time where there is infinitely more negative imagery of the Middle East on television then about Russians.  Possibly the  influence of popular culture is occasionally reversed.  Instead of letting our interpretations of the Bible influence popular culture, perhaps popular culture is influencing our interpretation of the Bible.  Don’t forget these aren’t crackpots these were Presidents of the United States.