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   Blacks, Jews, and Obama The Revealer failed to alert readers to what promised to be an excellent panel on "Blacks, Jews, and Post-Racial Candidate," so we're glad participant Ari Berman of The Nation gives us a glimpse of the conversation in this short but... [ Continue reading: ] The Rebellion Within "The Rebellion Within," Lawrence Wright's long New Yorker account of theological rifts between leading Islamist militants, defies easy summary. That's because Wright' story is a story, not a thesis or a set of talking points backed up by illustration. That won't stop some readers from responding to the weakest line in this otherwise brilliant piece of reporting: "...rumors that imprisoned leaders of Al Jihad were part of a trend in which former terrorists renounced violence." Trends, rumours, and renunciation. That's the cliff's notes version. Don't cheat yourself -- read the whole thing, an engrossing and important work of intellectual history, not a trend report. That's right -- "intellectual history," often (but not often enough) the most revealing kind of reporting. [ Continue reading: ] Blog v. Preacher The collapse of John McCain's relationship with Christian Right leader John Hagee made for minor news in the mainstream media. Was this because the press doesn't think the Christian Right matters anymore? Or because they recognized that in their frenzy... [ Continue reading: ]  Judas Lies "The Betrayal of Judas" is the rare piece of journalism that sheds light on the secrets and lies of ancient times and the modern media world. Thomas Bartlett, writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, untangles the complicated tale of... [ Continue reading: ] "Can I Borrow A Feelin'?" We're using the inclusion of numerous Christian music album covers in the Florida Sun-Sentinel's fabulous collection of the worst album covers ever to justify linking to this masterpiece of kitsch-beat reporting. There's "A Hard Day's Work," by the Electric Amish; "Thank You for the Dove," by Mike Adkins; the incredibly tight scoop-neck sweater vests of "Country Church"; the strangely peppy turquoise cover art of preacher Freddie Gage's "All My Friends are Dead"; and The Handless Organist's "True Miracle of God." There are also serious questions of theodicy raised by much of the secular work on display. How, for instance, could a just God have allowed Cody Matherson to pose thusly for the cover of "Can I Borrow a Feelin'?" [ Continue reading: ] Down Under, I'm Not Angry "Sharlet is not an angry liberal and the tone of the book is balanced, reasonable and often good humoured." So says the Australian Courier Mail... [ Continue reading: ] Fantastic Elastic Fundamentalism Sharlet: Veteran Christian Right-watcher Frederick Clarkson reviews The Family for The Public Eye, the publication of Political Research Associates, a public think tank. I consider Clarkson a friend via internet, so it's fair to say the review is biased in... [ Continue reading: ] McCain's Islam Cliff Schecter, an Ohio-based investigative reporter with a new book on "The Real McCain," collects the candidate's most egregious misstatements at his "Campaign Silo" website. Most relevant to Revealer readers may be McCain's total failure to distinguish between Shi'ite and... [ Continue reading: ]  Beyond Belief Founder porn: a fetishistic fascination with the behind-the-scenes, under-the-covers, shifting whimsy of a group of men who set down their best ideas--the ones they hoped would actually endure--in a few readily available public documents. Founder porn even sounds naughty.... [ Continue reading: ] Classic Muckraking Richard Byrne in Bookforum: "The Family is classic muckraking: passionate, principled, and powerful."... [ Continue reading: ] The Family Radio Hour Sharlet: I've been cruising the airwaves to promote my new book, The Family, talking with a lot of great radio hosts about what I call the avant-garde of American fundamentalism. Two of my favorite conversations occurred at the opposite ends of the political -- or, at least, economic -- spectrum... [ Continue reading: ] Whose Land? Under the heading of American mythology, our national religion: "No-Man's Land," a meditation in The Believer on gentrification and Little House on the Prairie, by Eula Biss. [ Continue reading: ] A Seductively Passionate Voice Contributing to the conservative drumbeat for war with Iran are the criers of "religious freedom," who point, correctly, to Iran's extreme restrictions on liberty of conscience. Will bombing help? We'll leave that to wiser heads to decide. Meanwhile, we're looking... [ Continue reading: ]  The Last Word One of the few advantages of maintaining a blog about media and religion is that when a media heavyweight gives you a bad review, you have a forum in which to respond. Politely, of course... [ Continue reading: ] Reality Check Sharlet: Amanda Marcotte -- the blogger behind Pandagon and author of It's a Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments -- and I talk about The Family on her podcast for RH Reality Check, an online... [ Continue reading: ]  The Family An excerpt from The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (Harper), by Jeff Sharlet: He wandered the city, sparking up conversations with people he took to be Muslims—"Islamics," he called them—knocking on the doors of mosques by day and sliding past velvet ropes into sweaty clubs by night. He prayed with an imam (to Jesus) and may or may not have gone home with several women. He got as close as possible to Ground Zero, visited it often, talked to street preachers. His throat tingled with dust and ashes. When he slept, his nose bled. He woke one morning on a red pillow... [ Continue reading: ]  40 Years After the Catonsville Nine "The good is to be done because it is good, not because it goes somewhere. I believe if it is done in that spirit it will go somewhere, but I don't know where. I don't think the Bible grants us... [ Continue reading: ]  Introducing Vanessa Hartmann The Revealer welcomes assistant editor Vanessa Hartmann. Keep an eye out for her byline. [ Continue reading: ]  Mainline Megas Mark Pinsky coins the kind of alliterative phrase that should produce a herd of stories following his trail: "mainline megas." AKA, the revival -- or, at least, attempt at such -- of mainline Protestantism.... [ Continue reading: ] The Kaus Problem "Besides the Jew," writes Joshua Cohen in the Jewish Forward, "there is no greater hater of the self than the journalist, whose work is labored over intensely, then printed on sheets that quickly disintegrate. The Jew has internalized the hatred of the centuries, and so continues to destroy himself by the example of others. The journalist must perish, too, but he must publish first; it is a wonder that he should care about his words, or his style, at all. The Kraus Problem is exactly that. Karl Kraus isn’t read today because Viennese newspapers aren’t read." Ah, but Kaus -- the anti-reporter and an artist of self-loathing -- should be. [ Continue reading: ] The Dark, Glassy Lake Does the following sentence strike you as a little creepy? "In their floor-length gowns, up-dos and tiaras, the 70 or so young women swept past two harpists and into a gilt-and-brocade dining room at the lavish Broadmoor Hotel, on the... [ Continue reading: ] Who Profits From "Biblical Capitalism"? By Jeff Sharlet
Oh me of little faith in the wisdom of Bloggingheads. Wilkinson turned out to be an ideal respondent -- indeed, he may have understood aspects of the book better than I did when I wrote it. Most importantly, he recognized that biblical capitalism uses the veneer of free markets as a cover for the cronyism of the anointed. It's dishonest libertarianism, "self-interest by proxy," in Wilkinson's brilliant phrase -- the exact opposite of the responsible, transparent libertarianism championed by Wilkinson. You can watch the whole diavlog here, but if you're interested, I recommend using the buttons beneath our talking heads to skip ahead to the section titled "biblical capitalism." I've long since learned how to be comfortable with media, but self-produced video -- me staring at the little camera in my computer -- freaks me out, and it takes awhile for this diavlog to move beyond my 2001-monkeyish fear of new technology.  Obama's Cross Mollie Hemingway at The Revealer's conservative counterpart on the God beat, Get Religion, does an excellent job of exploring mainstream media's empty reporting on Obama's increasingly blatant Christian campaign, featuring the same kind of visuals and rhetoric that set off... [ Continue reading: ] Hurry Up, Harper's Could Harper's' timing have been better? Just as the California Supreme Court issues its landmark ruling on same-sex marriage, the latest issue hits the stands with a major new essay by one of the best religion writers we know, Garret Keizer, on the Episcopal Church's angst of homosexuality. Unfortunately, Harper's' website isn't as well-tuned -- they've failed to post this most timely of articles online. So go down to the newsstand and fork over a few dollars, regardless of your views on the issue, for a larger perspective guaranteed to rise above the cable news rabble. Here are two other Keizer gems: "The Reverent and the Rude," published right here on The Revealer, and "Left, Right, and Wrong," in Mother Jones [ Continue reading: ] Revealer Live Upcoming Events -- Sunday, May 18, Revealer editor Jeff Sharlet discusses his new book, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, on WBAI-NYC's "Beyond the Pale," noon-1 pm. Listen live or get the podcast. "Beyond the... [ Continue reading: ]  John Hagee: Jews Have Dead Souls Bruce Wilson's discovery of McCain endorser John Hagee's anti-Semitic rantings is a brilliant example of what bloggers are capable of. While most the press has obsessed over Jeremiah Wright's relationship with Louis Farrakhan, only blogger Bruce Wilson has bothered to track down Hagee's anti-Semitic hate speech. Why did the press miss it? [ Continue reading: ]  Science and Spirit Jeff Sharlet: My longtime collaborator and frequent Revealer contributor Peter Manseau has been given charge of a magazine called Science and Spirit. I'll have lots more to say about it soon, but in the meantime, check out Peter's inaugural issue. Peter writes on Ben Stein's Expelled. Meera Subramanian, another Revealer veteran, writes on animal extinction and religious practice in India. And our Killing the Buddha comrade Ashley Makar writes on the United Church of Christ's plan to pitch God to the scientifically-minded. Also sounding off on science and religion in this issue: P.J. O'Rourke, Christopher Hitchens, Francis S. Collins, and much more/ [ Continue reading: ] Not My Family Diane Winston on The Family: "This book deserves to be read by every and any journalist. It's a primer for what reporting can and should be." [ Continue reading: ]  "One of those books that changes how one looks at the whole world." Media scholar Mark Crispin Miller, author of Fooled Again: The Real Case for Electoral Reform and editor of a new volume, Loser Takes All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000 - 2008, responds to The Family: "One of... [ Continue reading: ] Hillary's Third Way Adapted from "Interesting Blood" in The Family for The New Republic. [ Continue reading: ]  Please Destroy After Reading Sharlet: Jonathan Schwarz at A Tiny Revolution makes a connection between the secrecy of The Family the subject of my new book (disclosure: HarperCollins sent A Tiny Revolution a copy. Got a decent blog? Write me and I'll have them send you one, too.) and John McCain's national finance co-chair, Fred Malek. [ Continue reading: ] The Church of Politics Pastor Dan of Street Prophets, a progressive religious group blog, parses the Wall Street Journal's coverage of a Christian Right group's attempt to provoke a legal battle to redefine the churches' ability to politick.... [ Continue reading: ]  Clinton's Pastor Problem Redux Jeff Weiss of the Dallas Morning News wonders if Hillary Clinton's Doug Coe connection is as troubling to her campaign as Obama's "pastor problem." Weiss asks, I get to answer.... [ Continue reading: ] |
