KtBlog
Goodbye, Tim LaHaye
When I first encountered Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ Left Behind (1995), I was sitting on the a sage-colored corduroy coach at my mom’s house. Left Behind rested on a nearby table. It was 1998. I was in my first year of college and already determined to take courses on world religions. My determination proved…
Defying the Certainty of the Christian Right
Earl Taylor, with his white hair, lean figure, and suit, has a mildly aristocratic appearance. He carries himself and speaks in a mild manner–admittedly, there is also something of the Sunday school teacher about him–yet his ideas are among the most dangerous in America. This last comment sounds both clichéd and hyperbolic. Even so, Taylor…
Two Veterans of the Religious Right Agree: Christian Zionism is Not the Way of Jesus
A thousand new “housing” units are going up in East Jerusalem. And Christian Zionist support of the Jewish settlement movement in the Holy Land is under fire—from two former Religious-Right leaders. “It’s the Christian Zionists who have driven American foreign policy over a cliff,” former Right-to-Lifer (turned eminent Buddha-killer) Frank Schaeffer writes, in his recent…
Frank Schaeffer on the Mid-term Elections
Why did so many white Americans vote against their socio-economic interests in the mid-term elections? They were manipulated by “a Billionaire Lynch Mob” who “peddled a fear agenda,” Frank Schaeffer writes in his recent Alternet piece, “How Republicans and Their Big Business Allies Duped Tens of Millions of Evangelicals into Voting for a Corporate Agenda.”…
Pastor Jones: Some Other Combustibles
Dear Pastor Terry Jones, You’re all fired up about burning Qur’ans on 9/11. OK. We get that. But, at the last minute, perhaps you’ll reconsider your choice of fuel? Think about it: American kids getting slaughtered because of you does not make you look good. Besides, bonfires are a fun fall activity. Why not toss…
In Defense of Tears
In a letter responding to Alexander Zaitchik’s “Brother Beck Presents,” Jenean McBrearty offers a defense of Glenn Beck’s tear dots: While some, mostly elites, frown on public displays of emotion except in the service of “social justice” and charity—how many tears did we see displayed by those seeking money for Katrina, Haiti, Mid-east civilians killed…
Get Out of Jail with God
Mark Bergen, KtB circulation manager and writer, has a piece over on Religion Dispatches today. Responding to gutted state and federal budgets, the religious right is stepping into America’s prisons, Bible in hand. Does the First Amendment stop on the other side of the bars? For decades, Prison Fellowship Ministries (PFM) has placed its volunteers…
Chuck Colson Talks Turkey
Youngsters, Things like the environment and hunger can wait. Or not. So we all starve to death or are drowned in tsunamis. Who cares? God doesn’t. What does God care about? Glad you asked. No funny business with members of your same, uh, sex. No abortions. And keeping America safe for Christianity. OK? Got that?…
The Christian Right’s Heart for Africa
I’ll be joining African gay activists on Canada’s morning affairs show, “The Current,” tomorrow morning at 8:30 am eastern to discuss Uganda’s soon-to-be-law “Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009,” which will impose the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” — queer sex with disabled people or anyone under 18, or any sex a queer HIV-positive person engages in. Anyone…
Sarah Posner Now Sleuthing for RD
All you religious right no-goodies, watch your back. Investigative journalist Sarah Posner, author of God’s Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters and The American Prospect‘s much-missed FundamentaList column, started blogging yesterday for Religion Dispatches. And she’s already got five posts, true to form. Ain’t none of you gonna get away with…
Elie Wiesel to Speak at Anti-Semitic Event
Activist Rachel Tabachnik writes: Tomorrow night (Sunday, Oct. 25) Elie Wiesel will be the keynote speaker at John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church for Christians United For Israel’s Night to Honor Israel. This is a devastating development which is difficult to comprehend. Wiesel has spent his life combatting racism and fighting for human rights. Bruce Wilson and…
Going Rouge
If you’re like me, there’s a big star on November 16 on your calendar. That, of course, is publication day for Sarah Palin’s “book,” Going Rogue. You’ll probably stay up all night reading; and the very next day, with only Thanksgiving and C how to teach a child phonics hristmas and Hannukah to look forward…
Spaceship Jesus Will Come Back and Whisk Us Away
The disastrous politics of Rapture, in an excerpt from Patience with God.
God and Wal-Mart
This week I spoke with GRITtv’s Laura Flanders about the surprisingly diverse Christian Right opposition to the Obama administration. Is racism a major component of the tea party movement? No doubt. But is the broader right a lot more complicated? Absolutely. I witnessed that complexity a few weeks ago in the prayer rooms of the…
“They exploited in us what is great about us”
I’ve been getting a lot of reader mail since my book, The Family, hit the bestseller lists this summer. Most of it is simple, some of it is thoughtful, and a few missives have been menacing. But my favorite responses, by far, are those like this one, which just came in tonight via Killing the…
Evangelical = Conservative?
In response to John D. Boy’s piece Icons of the New Evangelicalism that we ran on Monday, Mike Brislen wrote in from Pennsylvania: I find the grouping of Brian McClaren, Shaine Claibourne (sp?) with Rick Warren, and then make a comparison with the ‘evangelical leaders of the 90s’ such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell,…