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   The Religious-People-Are-Crazy Landmine Jason Carter: “Strategizing a Christian Coup d’Etat” by The L.A. Times’ Jenny Jarvie sheds light on an ambitious movement undertaken by a group called Christian Exodus to gain enough seats in the South Carolina legislature to regain conservative ground on... [ Continue reading: ] The Great Santorum Senator Rick Santorum, says Joe Feurherd of the National Catholic Reporter, has "got his story and he’s sticking to it, whether he’s telling it, as he has during this book promotion tour, to Katie Couric on the 'Today Show,' Jon Stewart of 'The Daily Show,' irreverent radio host Don Imus, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, NPR’s 'Morning Edition,' the National Catholic Reporter, or the dozens upon dozens of other media outlets that want a piece of the provocateur from Pennsylvania." What's interesting about most of these accounts is how they tack toward Santorum's religiously-infused bellicosity without addressing the substance of his religion; or, for that matter, the ideas Santorum says he derives from his Catholic faith. Feurherd's story is an exception. The National Catholic Reporter is no friend to the kind of culture-war politics practiced by Santorum, but Feurherd does something not even friendlier media outlets managed: He takes Santorum's ideas seriously enough to argue with them as only an honest reporter can -- by pointing out their factual contradictions. [ Continue reading: ]  Jesus in Hollywood We're long-time fans of Barbara Nicolosi's smart Christian movies-and-culture blog, Church of the Masses, so we're delighted to see Barbara and her movie-exec training program, Act One, getting press in unexpected places (Details) and from reliable cheerleaders (the conservative Christian World magazine). But we're happiest to see Act One profiled by The Revealer's new West Coast managing editor, Sarah Price Brown, in The Washington Post. [ Continue reading: ]  Oh, My Godcast! The NYT offers up as evidence that consumer hi-tech is the most awesome force in, like, history the new trend of church sermons by podcast -- excuse me, "Godcast"! There are, of course, interesting questions to ask about how podcasting... [ Continue reading: ]  49,999 Girls Gone Wild "Swazi females drop chastity tassels," reported CNN on August 22, describing a warm-up event to a ritual dance of 50,000 virgins who perform bare-breasted for Swaziland's King Mswati, who will pick one lucky girl to be his bride. CNN loves it -- and so do, one suspects, the Christian conservative activists who preach abstinence as the only solution to Africa's AIDS crisis... [ Continue reading: ] Sermonasaurs! Everybody likes giant, roadside dinosaurs -- even folks who believe that dinosaurs disprove evolution. Whatever -- a T-Rex by the gas pump? Neat-o. Which is why, no doubt, this story on attempts by creationists to use such icons as kitsch... [ Continue reading: ] Religion Reporting Without Religion The NYT's Gardiner Harris manages to report an entire religion story without one reference to religion. And we're not so sure that's a bad thing. The story is the latest maneuver in the ongoing FDA struggle over the "morning-after pill,"... [ Continue reading: ]  Faster, Paula Zahn, Kill, Kill! CNN's Paula Zahn jumps on the assassination bandwagon: "Has controversial broadcaster Pat Robertson gone too far, or is he onto something?" More from Jon Stewart's Daily Show, offering the best media criticism of L'Affaire Robertson. Seriously. Funny, too. [ Continue reading: ]  Obsessive-Compulsive Buddhism Emma Snyder on staying clean in a Buddhist monastery: "Over the years, it's gone through stages, this hand-washing: extreme obsession, mild obsession, personal quirk, obsession again, then just talent, sometimes funny story, sometimes obsession still. It's been a problem in... [ Continue reading: ] High Impact Black Conservatism Says Bishop Harry Jackson, the most visible African American religious leader aligned with the conservative movement: "High impact African-American churches are creating high impact leaders who are developing high impact congregations that are changing their [highly impacted, presumably] communities." Sounds... [ Continue reading: ]  Assassination Fascination Christianity Today's Ted Olsen reports on the Robertson "scandal" the right way: by following the money (scroll down to "Robertson's Real Power.") Olsen adds to the drumbeat of evangelical leaders denouncing Robertson's assassination fascination, with links to denunciations (read: distancing) from evangelical bigs such as Os Guiness, Al Mohler, and Marvin Olasky, coiner of "compassionate conservatism," who, in so many words, suggests that Robertson is a doddering old fool. An off-key note sounded in this chorus of rebukes comes from Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals. Robertson, says Pastor Ted, was simply "working with some ideas." Indeed -- ideas he's been working with for some time, having endorsed assassination as U.S. policy in 2004 and 1999 (I'd link it for you, but Google is overwhelmed by The Chavez Affair). Yesterday I blogged the fact that CNN had invited me to comment on Robertson v. Chavez -- for which I made that point, my lone contribution to the tower of high-minded babel built upon Robertson's words by the mainstream media. Of course, no friends or family saw my CNN debut, because I neglected to tell them -- indeed, didn't know myself -- that I was commenting not for CNN, exactly, but for the CNN Headline News program, "Showbiz Tonight." Which, of course, is where this "news" belongs. That said, the program -- which airs at 7 pm and 11 pm eastern time, effectively displacing the traditional news hours with "showbiz," managed to de-politicize Robertson. Here's how CNN deployed my two bits: [ Continue reading: ] No Free Lunch A free lunch in Washington? The Center for Christian Statesmanship provides just such a sweet deal for hundreds of congressmen and congressional staffers. The best part is this lunch's name: "Politics and Principle." All it costs is your ears: the... [ Continue reading: ]  Tonight At 11 Jeff Sharlet: I was so completely wrong about the mainstream media ignoring Pat Robertson's Big Idea (assassinate Hugo Chavez) that CNN Headline News asked me to talk about said Idea on TV. Apparently, it was on at 7; but it'll... [ Continue reading: ] The Christian Right's Sex Slaves Holly Berman writes: "Oversexed," Debbie Nathan's report in The Nation on how a strange alliance of conservative evangelicals and antiporn feminists have joined forces to fight prostitution is so concise, sharp, and important that it's a shame her editors let two ill-informed remarks slip by. Most evangelicals, Nathan claims, are afraid of "foreigners, leftists, and sex." That's absurd -- evangelicals love foreigners. And although they do seem to have some, um, issues about sex, I've never had sex with one myself, so I really can't say. I suspect their attitudes very, which leads me to Nathan's second mistake -- suggesting that there exists a "monolithic" sensibility on the Christian Right. Not at all -- why, some even hate foreigners! But don't let Nathan's missteps mislead you -- overall she's a first rate reporter with a keen sense for sexual panics and the way they drive politics. In this case, fear of "sexual slavery" has so clouded the minds of evangelical activists and allies amongst the feminist left that they've actually made things worse for immigrants forced into slavery -- sexual or, as is much more often the case, otherwise. Nathan's excellent report follows a fine article in the liberal American Prospect on how the evangelical emphasis on prostitution has come to dominate human rights work around the world. Good work, liberal press. But this issue deserves to be mainstreamed. Inasmuch as it has in the past, Nathan points out, it's been in a hand-wringing-yet-lurid fashion. Now it's time to follow Nathan's lead and start doing the reporting that little magazines like The Nation and American Prospect can't afford. [ Continue reading: ] The Robertson Doctrine Even USA Today -- via AP -- can report on Pat Robertson's announcement that "the time has come" for the U.S. assassinate the democratically-elected Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez without worrying about being accused of picking on poor persecuted Pat. They... [ Continue reading: ]  FCC Gets Biblical Biblical values for the FCC? Media Week reporter Todd Shields talks to "On the Media" about the regulatory commission's new "decency docent," a former board member of the Concerned Women for America, a coalition created "to bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy." Listen or read. Also now available: a transcript of Jeff Sharlet's discussion with "On the Media" about Justice Sunday II, "Son of Justice Sunday." [ Continue reading: ] The Only Jew For Miles Gordon Haber, an American Reform Jew kneels with Poles in search of the Black Madonna and finds only the blank spaces of a nation that has erased its past. [ Continue reading: ] High Lonesome Gospel Sharlet: Oxford American's annual Southern music issue is on the newsstands, complete with a CD of the old and the new, the heroes and the scoundrels and the unjustly forgotten. There's Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Notes for the Uninitiated," on Erykah Badu; Kevin Canty on Nat King Cole; J.T. LeRoy on his momma pole-stripping to Loretta Lynn; Paul Reyes on Zora Neale Hurston, previously not known for hoodoo and crow dancing; Carol Ann Fitzgerald on seduction and a spiritual by blueswoman Bessie Smith; and David Dark declaring that it's all God, even when it's not. The Revealer usually hates theme issues, but Oxford American A) encourages its writers to mix genres, to blend criticism and essay and reportage, to take the "theme" as a point of departure rather than a destination; and B) invited me to do just that, about the Reverend Al Green... [ Continue reading: ]  Forest for the Trees NYT, Aug 17: "It was Mr. [Ed] Meese, said C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel to the first President Bush and a leading judicial strategist, who pressed Republicans to force the recent Senate fight over use of the filibuster. In... [ Continue reading: ]  Son of Justice Sunday The Revealer's Jeff Sharlet talks with Brooke Gladstone of "On the Media" about "Justice Sunday II." Last April, Justice Sunday helped focus the faithful of the Christian conservative movement on "judicial activism"; it also afforded Senator Bill Frist an opportunity to declare Democrats the opponents of "people of faith." Justice Sunday II will be broadcast on Christian radio and television networks reaching 61 million American homes. The story's a bit different this time. [ Continue reading: ]  Intelligent Design: Yes! No! Today, 9 am eastern time: C-Span's "Washington Journal" debates "Intelligent Design." For: some activist. Against: some other activist. Our point: Why do advocates of ID -- who insist that ID is good science -- put forth activists as spokespeople rather... [ Continue reading: ]  Polish Your Headship Reality TV producer Suzanne Pharr wants to make "Patriarchy Made Simple" even simpler. The Revealer recently obtained a copy of her pitch for a new TV series based on the popular Vision Forum cassette guide to male headship. As of this writing, Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network has yet to give it the green light. But our fingers are crossed! [ Continue reading: ] NYT on Evangelical Power: Don't Ask, Don't Tell NYT "conservative beat" reporter David Kirkpatrick sprinkles some skepticism into yesterday's story on a Midland, Texas-based evangelical group that uses its geographic connection to President Bush to leverage itself an international influence. Next to the "abstinence promotion" booth at a Christian rock festival sponsored by Midland Ministerial Alliance, he notes, is a genocide booth, featuring a real live former North Korean prisoner, Kang Chol Hwan. Kang's happy to help and to be helped, though he seems a bit perplexed by the group's replica gas chamber. "He had never seen such a thing," writes Kirkpatrick, who notes that an evangelical "helped Mr. Kang write a speech emphasizing 'the love of Jesus Christ' and quoting the biblical 'commission' to 'make disciples of all the nations.'" Kirkpatrick takes the story one more step toward transparencey by noting that its leader, who hosts the Sudanese ambassador in her home and frequently travels to Washington to lobby foreign leaders (a possible violation of the Logan Act, which forbids diplomacy by private citizens), is funded by her Texas oilman husband. Say, doesn't Sudan have oil? Maybe so, maybe not, but Kirkpatrick's too coy -- excuse us, too objective -- to ask about the coincidence. The NYT calls this new attitude "respect." A few months ago, the editors declared that they needed to reach out to the red states and to the religious, and that they would do this by doing more sensitive reporting about matters of faith. This, apparently, is what they meant, a compromise that should please no one. Kirkpatrick's story is snarky, which certainly isn't respectful. And it doesn't take its evangelical subjects seriously enough to ask hard questions about beliefs, goals, means -- which is even less respectful. Instead, the NYT continues to play too many evangelical stories as quirky, human interest puff pieces. Here's a powerful political movement with connections to the president and to the senate (Sen. Sam Brownback, Republican hopeful from Kansas, traveled to Midland for the festival), and the Times reports it as the equivalent of a "last man in town who can whittle worth a damn" story. [ Continue reading: ] Our Most Famous Christian The most boring argument about Christianity is that it is GOOD, or that it is BAD, terms that should be restricted to kindergarten use. Example: The 20th Century's Most Famous Christian loved studied the teachings of Jesus and especially loved the Golden Rule, "Love your neighbor as you would love yourself." He deplored “the devastation wrought by the misuse of religious conviction for political ends," and warned against. He could be a little strict -- the Ten Commandments, he insisted, must be followed at all times -- but he recognized that different people understood God in different ways. Who was this broadminded fellow? Click here for a surprise!< [ Continue reading: ]  Dumb Monkey Nation Bush has "roiled" the evolution debate with his comments that "both sides" of the question should be taught in public schools. The NYT dutifully follows suit by presenting "both sides" of opinion on the matter, quote machines Rev. Barry Lynn... [ Continue reading: ]  Tammany Hall, Sudan Sharlet: How some Christian conservative activists are turning Sudanese killers into cash cows -- and why the press never notices. [ Continue reading: ]  Slut for Faith A self-described "slut for faith" offers a tip for marital bliss: Don't fake it. That is, don't get married in a house of God unless you need his blessing to make it real. [ Continue reading: ] NYT's Not-Subtle Snark Doesn't Do the Job Conservative NYT-watchers will rightly charge that an article in today's paper on a public school Bible curriculum is slanted against the creators of the curriculum, a North Carolina-based outfit with deep Christian Right ties called the The National Council for... [ Continue reading: ] |