"Like all great satire, the book is cerebral, irreverent and hilarious, while also edifying" — Publisher's Weekly
"This book is hilarious... [Lanham] didn't skimp on his research. The book provides a telling overview of the religious right's leadership, the beliefs they espouse, and just how incredibly absurd and hypocritical they are." — The Campaign to Defend the Constitution
Editor's Pick: "From the author of The Hipster Handbook comes this irreverent navigation of all things Evangelical. Learn enough slang to fit in at a church picnic or why SpongeBob SquarePants is an agent of the Devil" — Chicago Sun-Times
"This guy has written quite a funny book." — Alan Colmes, Fox News
"A funny book with some funny cartoons on everyone from Rick Warren as the evangelical Jimmy Buffett to a guide for Christian haircuts that is hilarious... I was chuckling until I saw that I am the postscript" — Mark Driscoll, pastor of the largest megachurch in Washington State
"Every good little liberal will have this book on order as a stocking stuffer come Jesus' birthday." — Time Out
"A handbook for coping with bible thumpers.... When considering the power and influence evangelical Christians wield in this country, you have to laugh to keep from crying. Robert Lanham... understands this well and offers much needed, totally biased comic relief." — Village Voice
"Not only is this an important book, it's a funny book." — Marc Maron, Air America Radio
"Author Robert Lanham is an observer... but with his latest, The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right, Lanham's keen eye has hit perhaps his most entertaining target." — Metro Paper
"It’s hard to remember a more pointed and scathing attack… Lanham launches a focused, sustained barrage on the Pat Robertsons and James Dobsons of the world… He’s done his homework. The book is thoroughly researched and packed with quotes and analysis of the famous and not-so-famous leaders of the evangelical right… the research is truly impressive. " — The Reader
"An utterly biased, humorous one-stop guide to the major evangelical players." — Details
"Check out Robert Lanham's (author of the fabled Hipster Handbook and former Bible Belt resident) Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right. It's funny because it's true." — Elizabeth Spiers, founding Editor of Gawker
"Like the Daily Show or The Colbert Report, it's humor reveals the basic truth. Which is to say that the "sinners" of the world may be closer to Jesus and the divine than those who use God's name for personal enrichment, power building, and political gain." — Buzzflash
"The book does for religion what Jon Stewart does for politics." — CanWest News Service
"Informative, laugh-out-loud funny and horrifying at times, check out this snide, leftie-geared guide to the major evangelical players... Robert Lanham has a writing style that resembles... McSweeney's, and the irony-stacked humor of TV programs such as "The Daily Show" — Style Weekly, Richmond VA
"Hilarious... go out and buy this book now." — Sam Seder, The Majority Report
"This book should lay at the lifeless feet of your corpse as a silent, yet
powerful and all encompassing explanation as to why you took your own life."
— David Cross, Arrested Development
Where is the "moral majority" when we need it? [...] On the defining moral issues of our day, the war in Iraq and the Bush administration's use of torture against those it has designated as "enemy combatants," these "voices of morality" are strangely silent. [...] Christian theologians through the centuries have developed criteria for determining whether or not armed conflict is justified. For instance, is it a defensive war? Have all alternatives been exhausted? Is the use of military force roughly proportional to the provocation? Does military intervention stand a reasonable chance of success? Have measures been taken to protect civilians? I've yet to be convinced that the invasion of Iraq meets any of these criteria.
Similarly, the religious right has been silent on the matter of torture, conducted either by American personnel in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay or by proxy in places like Egypt and Syria under a cynical policy known as "extraordinary rendition."
Several months ago, I canvassed eight prominent religious right organizations, including the Moral Majority Coalition, Falwell's group, for their views on torture. My query was straightforward: Please send me, I asked, a copy of your organization's position on the use of torture. These are groups that have detailed position papers on everything, including stem-cell research and same-sex unions, yet only two answered my query. Both of them defended the Bush administration's policies on torture. No organization associated with the religious right has yet, to my knowledge, summoned the will to issue a statement of unequivocal opposition to the use of torture.
These are people who claim to be "pro-life" and who profess to hear a "fetal scream." Yet they turn a deaf ear to the very real screams of fully formed human beings who are tortured in our name.
The religious right's indifference toward the ethical issues surrounding war and torture is hardly befitting those who designate themselves the moral arbiters of our society. If my fellow evangelicals aspire to be the conscience of America, they had better liberate themselves from their captivity to the Republican Party and to the morally bankrupt policies of the Bush administration.
A new group called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good said yesterday that it will distribute at least 1 million voter guides before the Nov. 7 elections, emphasizing church teachings on war, poverty and social justice as well as on abortion, contraception and homosexuality.
The 12-page booklet, called "Voting for the Common Good: A Practical Guide for Conscientious Catholics," is part of a broader effort by liberal and moderate religious groups to challenge the Christian right on moral values, said Alexia Kelley, the group's executive director and a former employee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Secular groups such as the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and the Sierra Club have long published election-year guides to issues and candidates' positions. Since the conservative Christian Coalition began distributing voter guides in 1992, however, it has faced little or no competition from liberal or moderate religious organizations.
In Roman Catholic parishes, the group Catholic Answers, based in California, had the field largely to itself in 2004, when it distributed 10 million copies of its "Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics." This year, as in the past, the Catholic Answers guide urges Catholics to base their votes on five "non-negotiable" issues: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning and same-sex marriage.
"No one endorsing the wrong side of these issues can be said to act in accord with the Church's moral norms," it says.
The Common Good guide takes a different approach, saying: "In recent years some have suggested that we can answer this question [of how to vote] by applying a simple 'litmus test' of a few selected issues. But common sense tells us that deciding who to vote for is much more complicated."
Both guides are available on the Web sites of their respective producers, http://www.catholic.com and http://thecatholicalliance.org.
Quoting documents issued by the U.S. bishops conference, the Common Good guide outlines seven "key themes of Catholic social teaching" -- including "prioritizing the needs of the poor and vulnerable" -- and lists 18 "issues important to Catholics," including immigration, the environment, nuclear disarmament and workers' rights.
"Seldom does a single candidate or party offer a consistently Catholic set of positions," it says, adding that "we often must vote for candidates who may hold the 'wrong' Catholic positions on some issues in order to maximize the good our vote achieves in other areas."
Leading Catholic conservatives reacted to the new guide with disdain. Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute in Washington, called it "a blatant attempt to convince Catholics that they can vote for candidates who are wrong on the primary human rights issue of our time, which is abortion."
The Rev. Joseph Fessio, provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Fla., said it is "a flight into abstraction" that treats all issues as though they have the same weight. "Some issues are disqualifying issues. You don't vote for someone who kills babies. You don't vote for someone who destroys the family by supporting homosexual marriage," he said.
But the Rev. David Hollenbach, a professor of Catholic theology at Boston College, defended the guide. "If one were to decide the only thing that matters in the election is avoidance of war and not to look at abortion and poverty, that . . . would not wash, and vice versa," he said. "This cuts against people on both the left and the right."
In Protestant churches, the Christian Coalition's guides will face competition this year from "Voting God's Politics," a brochure produced by the liberal evangelical magazine Sojourners and the anti-poverty group Call to Renewal. Like the Common Good guide, it discusses issues, not individual candidates.
"Even the term 'voter guide' has been so tainted by the religious right that people are afraid that ours is going to be just a left-wing version of theirs, a thinly camouflaged signal to vote for particular candidates," said Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners. "Our guide levels the playing field; it makes clear that God is not a Republican or a Democrat."
In numbers, however, the battle of the voter guides is still not an even match. Sojourners has distributed 50,000 of its brochures and plans to print 150,000 more. Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition, said her group will distribute "millions" of its guides, which she said it is now compiling, to candidates in key races.
The head of public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention says an overwhelming majority of Baptists still support President Bush and his handling of the Iraq war. In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Richard Land said that exit polls showed about 84 percent of Southern Baptists voted for Bush in 2004. The Iraq war hasn't significantly eroded that support, he said, despite recent polls that show Republicans losing ground with moderate evangelicals...
"It would be foolish to say anybody's pleased," Land said. "I don't think the president's pleased with the progress of the war. Clearly, he would have wished things would have gone better. So do I."
But, Land added: "I still think Iraq is one of the more noble things we've done. We went there to try to restore freedom and to bring freedom to the Middle East." ...
"I don't think there's any question that the vast majority of Southern Baptists still strongly support this president and his policies," Land said.
Pastor Marty Baker preaches that the Bible is the eternal and inviolate word of God. On other church matters, he's willing to change with the times.
Jeans are welcome at Stevens Creek Community Church, the 1,100-member evangelical congregation Baker founded 19 years ago. Sermons are available as podcasts, and the electric house band has been known to cover Aerosmith's "Dream On." A recent men's fellowship breakfast was devoted to discussing the spiritual wages of lunching at Hooters.
It is a bid for relevance in a nation charmed by pop culture and consumerism, and it is not an uncommon one. But Baker has waded further into the 21st century than most fishers of American souls, as evidenced one Wednesday night when churchgoer Josh Marshall stepped up to a curious machine in the church lobby.
It was one of Stevens Creek's three "Giving Kiosks": a sleek black pedestal topped with a computer screen, numeric keypad and magnetic-strip reader. Prompted by the on-screen instructions, Marshall performed a ritual more common in quickie marts than a house of God: He pulled out a bank card, swiped it and punched in some numbers.
The machine spat out a receipt. Marshall's $400 donation was routed to church coffers before he had found his seat for evening worship.
"I paid for gas today with a card, and got lunch with one," said Marshall, 30. "This is really no different."
Baker came up with the kiosk idea a couple of years ago. He had just kicked off a $3-million building drive, but noticed that few people seemed to keep cash in their wallet anymore for the collection bag.
So he began studying the electronic payment business. He designed his machine with the help of a computer programmer who attends Stevens Creek, and found ATM companies willing to assemble it for him. In early 2005, he introduced the first machine at his church.
Since then, kiosk giving has gradually gained acceptance among his upper-middle-class flock. The three kiosks are expected to take in between $200,000 and $240,000 this year -- about 15% of the church's total donations.
"It's truly like an ATM for Jesus," Baker said.This summer, Baker and his wife, Patty, began selling the devices to other churches through their for-profit company, SecureGive. They are its only employees, but a handful of contractors help them custom-tailor the machines for churches.
The kiosks can let donors identify their gift as a regular tithe or offering, or direct it to building or missionary funds. The machines send information about the donation to a central church computer system, which shoots the donors an e-mail confirmation.
The Bakers charge between $2,000 and $5,000 for the kiosks, which come in a variety of configurations. They also collect a monthly subscription fee of up to $49.95 for licensing and support. And a card-processing company gets 1.9% of each transaction; a small cut of that fee goes to SecureGive. READ IT ALL
Rick Wade, founder and CEO of Second Coming Clothing Co. to leaders of the high-fashion apparel market: "Don't be too quick to bring your concepts for the spring fashions to the world!"...
Wade warns that God is about to change the world's perspective of what is fashionable and moral. "Events will occur soon in this country and around the world that will severely curb our culture's appetite for fashion driven clothes that the world experts determine are 'in' and 'cool,'" he says. "Clothing that more adequately reflects a Godly nature will become sought after as God changes the hearts of His people through the cataclysmic nature of events that are about to unfold."
Adds Wade, "We are seeing astounding events unfold before our eyes throughout the world, fulfilling scripture about the 'end times' described in the Bible as taking place just prior to the return of Our Lord Jesus Christ in His Second Coming. God established His moral code. He is going to send strong messages through natural disasters and other catastrophic events to this country. They will draw our attention back to Him and remind us of His code of conduct, described in the Bible. Nothing that Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, Tommy Hilfiger, Howard Stern, or the hundreds of other self-appointed spokesmen for society can say or do anything that can change God's purpose."...
"Things like fashion, sports, celebrity gossip and video games are not going to matter when people can't find food to put on their table. With the diversions and luxuries taken away, there will be little to choose from. We will then choose to either love God or hate Him."
A Media Matters for America review of cable and broadcast networks and major newspapers showed no coverage of recent criticism by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) of the "embarrassing spectacle of the Republican Party's "blatant pandering" to the Christian right and James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family. Armey asserted that "Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies." READ IT ALL
This weekend, some of the nation’s leading conservatives -- from Tony Snow and Attorney General Gonzales to Sen. George Allen (R-VA) and Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AK) to Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity -- appeared at the Family Research Council’s “Values Voter Summit.”
An hour and a half after Snow’s speech, Bishop Wellington Boone, founder of the Wellington Boone Ministries, took the stage and announced, “I want the gays mad at me.” Boone said that while “the gays” are “saying a few things” about him, “they’re not coming at me strong.” In an effort to change that, Boone declared:
Back in the days when I was a kid, and we see guys that don’t stand strong on principle, we call them “faggots.” … [People] that don’t stand up for what’s right, we say, “You’re sissified out!” “You’re a sissy!” That means you don’t stand up for principles.
As Right Wing Watch notes, another speaker at the conference later claimed “the gay rights movement was inspired ‘from the pit of hell itself,’ and has a ’satanic anointment.’ … He suggested that the anti-Christ is himself gay, citing a verse from the book of Daniel saying the anti-Christ will have no desire for a woman.” READ IT ALL
A leading opera house canceled a 3-year-old production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" that included a scene showing the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad, unleashing a furious debate over free speech. In a statement late Monday, the Deutsche Oper said it decided "with great regret" to cancel the production after Berlin security officials warned of an "incalculable risk" because of the scene.
After its premiere in 2003, the production by Hans Neuenfels drew widespread criticism over the scene in which King Idomeneo presents the severed heads not only of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, but also of Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha. The disputed scene is not part of Mozart's original staging of the 225-year-old opera, but was an addition of Neuenfels' production, which was last performed by the company in March 2004.
"We know the consequences of the conflict over the (Muhammad) caricatures," Deutsche Oper said its statement announcing the decision. "We believe that needs to be taken very seriously and hope for your support." READ IT ALL
Hagee Says WWIII Has Begun, Calls It A "Religious War"
Hagee's bestselling book, "Jerusalem Coming," endorses a preemptive military strike on Iran to hasten the Rapture
The rapture-ready head of Christians United For Israel, John Hagee, is sounding the alarm again. This time at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA. From Lynchburg News Advance
“The Third World War has begun.... Ladies and gentlemen, America is at war with radical Islam,” Hagee said [...]
“Our crisis is that half of America doesn’t know the war has started,” Hagee said. “This is a religious war.” [...]
“They hate us because we are free,” Hagee said. “They hate us because it is their religious duty to hate us. They are trained from the breast of their mother to hate us. Radical Islam is a doctrine of death. It is their desire, it is their hope, it is their ambition, it is their highest honor to die in a war against infidels. And you are ‘infidels’ and there is nothing you can do to accommodate them. That’s what makes them so dangerous.”
"Jesus Camp," a documentary feature film that follows evangelical Christian children at a religious summer camp, won prizes and critical praise on the summer festival circuit, but it wasn't until its quiet opening in the Midwest two weeks ago that a news clip about the film hit YouTube.com, inciting a whirlwind of controversy.
The film's cherub-faced children cheer when asked if they'd be willing to give up their lives for Jesus, pray over a cardboard cutout of President Bush and sob as they plead for an end to abortion. One is home-schooled by a mother who teaches that "science doesn't prove anything."
At one point in the film, Fischer shouts to the children, "This is war! Are you part of it or not?" She proudly compares her work to the indoctrination of young boys by extremist Muslims in Pakistan....
More controversy over the film erupted last week when the Rev. Ted Haggard — whose constituency at the National Assn. of Evangelicals is 30 million strong — took a public stance against it, claiming that the film makes evangelicals look "scary." [...] Haggard -- who appears in the film noting that when evangelicals vote, they determine an election-- acknowledged he "hated" the film and called it "propaganda" for the far left. He said the filmmakers take the charismatic, evangelical jargon too literally and portray the children's and Fischer's "war talk" as violent and extremist, when it's just allegorical.
Richard Cizik: Environmental Warrior Or Big Pussy?
In January, Richard Cizik, the vice president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, refused to sign the Evangelical Climate Initiative since he was unwilling to confirm the possibility of climate change. Instead, the NAE sent out a press release saying that there is a "lack of consensus among the evangelical community on this issue." Cizik also refuses to partner with environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation, since they are secular. Furthermore, Cizik obstinately calls his environmental activism "creation care" to differentiate himself from those other godless pagans working to fix the environment. Nevertheless, here's yet another glowing article about his environmental activism.
United Methodist Church leaders helped launch a week of protest and civil disobedience against the war in Iraq by signing a declaration of peace in the capital, urging President Bush to pull US troops out of the country.
The Declaration of Peace, signed on 21 September 2006, is described as a call for nonviolent action to end the war in Iraq. The Washington DC event was one of 350 staged nationwide to promote the peace initiative.
More than 500 groups, almost half of them faith organizations, are involved in the declaration of peace effort, which recently retired Bishop Susan Morrison said includes "acts of moral witness to seek a new course for our country."
By signing the peace document in front of the White House, the United Methodists and other protesters also hope to influence congressional races in November 2006 by forcing candidates to outline where they stand on the war.
Speakers at the Washington DC rally accusing the President of lying about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction and launching what they called an illegal offensive.
"Our demand as a movement is to end the war now," said Bishop Morrison. The declaration calls the situation in Iraq "an endless fire consuming lives, resources and the fragile possibilities of peace."
Thirty-four protesters, attempting to deliver the peace statement to Bush in an act of civil disobedience, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. None of the United Methodist protesters participated in that portion of the day's activity.
The Declaration of Peace initiative provides a way for the faithful to vent their anger about Iraq, Morrison said. "There are a lot of frustrated United Methodists out there who don't know where to channel it," she added.
United Methodist clergy attending the recent 2006 International Clergywomen's Consultation in Chicago signed the declaration to "call to end this war" and made a commitment to take action to translate the call into a concrete plan for peace.
Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said that protesting the war is similar to the church's work to promote other social movements. The church took prophetic positions on civil rights, women's rights and nuclear disarmament before Congress acted, he noted.
"It has taken time for Congress to catch up," Winkler said. "We may be seeing another example of that."
Staff members of the denomination's social advocacy agency have been meeting with congressional staff members on a weekly basis regarding policy toward Iraq. Political leaders on Capitol Hill have been divided on the Bush administration's policy, with some calling for a timetable for withdrawal and others urging a staying of the course.
"You see more and more Republicans who are uncomfortable with the position of 'stay the course,'" said Mark Harrison, director of the board's Peace with Justice programme.
But the White House asserts that Iraq would collapse if US troops leave prematurely, potentially leading to a full-blown civil war.
United Methodist leaders argue that the long insurgency in Iraq, which has resulted in the deaths of thousands Americans and Iraqis, is proof that U.S. involvement is misguided.
"Iraq is in a civil war right now because we're there," Winkler said.
Morrison agreed. "We just exacerbate what's going on." She disputed critics who claim that war protesters undermine US troops and sap their morale.
"We care deeply about the troops," she said. "We're proud of their commitment. We want them safe. We want them home."
Within individual United Methodist congregations, however, some members do not agree with the way the anti-war movement is articulating its opposition.
Differences of opinion must be respected, said the Rev Dean Snyder, senior minister of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington. Such divisions have come up throughout Christian history.
"It's part of our discernment process of truth," he said. "But that does not change the fact that church leaders are put in positions of prophetic responsibility."
Despite the idiocy of his statement (and its implications that Hilary is evil), we kind of agree with him for once. LA Times
Nothing will motivate conservative evangelical Christians to vote Republican in the 2008 presidential election more than a Democratic nominee named Hillary Rodham Clinton -- not even a run by the devil himself.
That was the sentiment expressed by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the longtime evangelical icon and founder of the once-powerful Moral Majority, during private remarks Friday to church pastors and activists as part of the Values Voter Summit hosted this weekend by the country's leading Christian conservatives.
A recording of Falwell's comments was obtained by The Times, and his remarks were confirmed by eyewitnesses.
"I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate," Falwell said, according to the recording. "She has $300 million so far. But I hope she's the candidate. Because nothing will energize my [constituency] like Hillary Clinton."
Cheers and laughter filled the room as Falwell continued: "If Lucifer ran, he wouldn't."
At that moment in the recording, Falwell's voice is drowned out by hoots of approval. But two in attendance, including a Falwell staff member, confirmed that Falwell said that even Lucifer, the fallen angel synonymous with Satan in Christian theology, would not mobilize his followers as much as the New York senator and former first lady would.
"He was calling Hillary Clinton a demonic figure and openly arguing that God is a Republican," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of the advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "It's hard to know whether people thought he was joking or serious, but once you start using religious imagery and invoking a politician in this way, it's not funny. A lot of people who listen to him do think that she's a dark force of evil in America." READ IT ALL
When Muslims begin the holy month of Ramadan this weekend, Christians worldwide will be praying along with them. But Muslims may not welcome the support. In a campaign called the "30 Days Muslim Prayer Focus," Christians will be asking God to help Muslims accept Jesus.
The project is organized by a loose association of evangelical groups that include Youth With A Mission, which works in about 150 countries. In the U.S., the National Association of Evangelicals [headed by Ted Haggard] is asking the thousands of churches and ministries it represents to participate.
Lynn Green, international chairman of Youth With A Mission, said organizers chose Ramadan because it is a time when Muslims pray for God's acceptance and guidance and "we add our prayers to theirs," Green said. "We are praying they really know God." READ IT ALL
NBC has drawn protests this week from religious conservatives over the content of two television shows, but for different reasons—in one instance for excluding references to God and in the other for possibly including religious imagery.
The disputes, over the network’s proposed broadcast of a Madonna concert that includes a crucifixion scene and over its cutting religious references from the animated children’s show “VeggieTales,” have some critics charging that NBC maintains a double standard toward Christianity.
Rev. Edwin Bacon Jr,, center, rector of the All Saints Church, speaks during a news conference while surrounded by supporters in Pasadena, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006. The church's decision Thursday not to cooperate with an IRS investigation into an anti-war sermon delivered before the 2004 presidential election sets up a high-profile confrontation between the liberal congregation and the IRS, which usually keeps such inquiries private. The leaders of the 3,500-member All Saints Church voted unanimously to resist an order to turn over documents related to the sermon, which was given just two days before the election. The decision means the IRS must decide whether to ask the Justice Department to pursue the case in court.
National Association of Evangelicals Leader, Ted Haggard. (From The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right)
Bush insider and head of the National Association of Evangelicals, Ted Haggard, evidently doesn't appreciate Chavez calling Bush the devil. Haggard may not believe in evolution or equal rights for homosexuals, but he sure appreciates some good, old fashioned sarcasm. [From Earned Media]
"NAE theologians and scholars have conducted a thorough exegetical study of the biblical texts concerning the person, disposition, and earthy manifestations of Satan (Beelzebub, Lucifer, Prince of Darkness). They have incontrovertible concluded that, contrary to the assertion of Hugo Chavez, President Bush is not the Devil."
Of course, the truly "funny" thing about Haggard is that he actually believes in the little red guy with the pitchfork. A terrifying truth since he routinely talks to Bush about policy. And contrary to what Chavez says, Bush does not smell like sulfur. He's more of a potpourri of Old Spice cologne, Big Macs, and pee.
President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela denounced President Bush yesterday as "the devil himself" and "a world dictator" in an impassioned speech to the UN General Assembly, prompting sharp criticism from US officials.
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"The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house. And the devil came here yesterday," said Chávez, who made the sign of the cross as he spoke from the same podium that Bush used a day earlier. "Right here—and it smells of sulfur still today." [Read it all - Boston Globe]
The more progressive leaders of the evangelical movemement, Jim Wallis Brian McLaren, Amy Sullivan, Tony Campolo, Noel Castellanos, Robert Franklin, Diana Butler Bass, Sister Helen Prejean, Ron Sider, and others have joined together to create a blog, God's Politics, the blog. Read a little all-too-polite Christian smackdown between Jim Wallis and Ralph Reed, here and here.
The great new site MotionBox is featuring an hilarious tour of a Christian Creation Museum. The museum insists that the world is only a few thousand years old and that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. You can watch this funny, if not terrifying, video tour here.
The company that brought TV viewers racy and irreverent programs such as "Nip/Tuck," "Temptation Island" and "The Simpsons" has found religion.
In the biggest commitment of its sort by a Hollywood studio, News Corp.'s Fox Filmed Entertainment is expected to unveil plans today to capture the gargantuan Christian audience that made "The Passion of the Christ" a global phenomenon.
The home entertainment division of Rupert Murdoch's movie studio plans to produce as many as a dozen films a year under a banner called FoxFaith. At least six of those films will be released in theaters under an agreement with two of the nation's largest chains, AMC Theatres and Carmike Cinemas. READ IT ALL
Zionists, like John Hagee think supporting Israel will hasten the Second Coming
Fresh Air has a special series on Christian Zionism, including an interview with the always maddening head of Christians United for Israel, John Hagee. Listen to them all below [hat tip TheocracyWatch]:
The House is expected to vote as soon as this week on a bill that would prevent plaintiffs in certain separation of church-and-state cases from recouping attorneys' fees. Supporters say the fees are used to unfairly coerce plaintiffs. Critics say the bill would roll back a major civil rights protection. LISTEN HERE
Focus on the Family Says: 9-11 Exposed the Left's Incapacity To Deal With Evil
And somehow Focus on the Family, the terrifyingly influential "nonpartisan" mouthpiece for James Dobson that has become so large it literally has its own zip code, still remains tax-exempt. This piece is a doozy. From Focus on the Family's Citizen Magazine [via Defcon]
9-11 was terrible for America. But it’s been devastating for liberals... For all its tragedy, at least one good thing came out of 9-11. It exposed the Left’s incapacity to deal with evil.... Why won’t the Left label and confront evil?
The reasons are not only psychological (fear of confrontation, fear of fighting, fear of dying, loathing of authority figures whether parental or divine, etc.)...
All this leftist aversion to talk about evil has come to the fore since 9-11. In that sense, 9-11 was a catastrophe for the Left. It told most Americans exactly what the Left does not want Americans to believe: that there is major evil in the world which only America can truly fight; that America is not the Great Problem and, even worse, that the Great Problem regards America as its primary enemy; that sometimes only moral violence can end immoral violence; that people do terrible things for reasons having nothing to do with economics; that the U.N. is morally worthless; that America really is exceptional, and that there really is such as a thing as evil and those who fight itare better than those who fight the fighters.
9-11 was terrible for America. But it has thus far been devastating for the Left. That is one reason the Left so hates George W. Bush; and why, in their hearts, they have to hope he—and therefore we—lose in Iraq.
Liberal Church, That Has Been Under Investigation, Is Ordered To Give IRS Info Because Of Anti-War Sermon
Meanwhile, Richard Land (above) and his right wing friends remain free from sin, according to the IRS
In a country where right wing evangelists such as James Dobson and Ted Haggard routinely endorse Bush and Republican candidates (example here), this story disgusts us. From the AP
The Internal Revenue Service has ordered a prominent liberal church to turn over documents and e-mails it produced during the 2004 election year that contain references to political candidates.
The IRS is investigating whether All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena violated the federal tax code when its former rector, Rev. George F. Regas, delivered an anti-war sermon on the eve of the last presidential election.
Tax-exempt organizations are barred from intervening in political campaigns and elections, and the church could lose its tax-exempt status.
Rev. Ed Bacon received a summons Thursday ordering the church to present any politically charged sermons, newsletters and electronic communications by Sept 29.
Bacon was ordered to testify before IRS officials Oct. 11. He said he will inform his roughly 3,500 congregants about the investigation at Sunday's services, and will seek their advice on whether to comply.
Sinners, like us, should take note.... Richard Land who is the head of the public policy sector of the nation's largest denomination, the Southern Baptists, sent a letter to George Bush (it's called the Land Letter and was co-signed by James Dobson and many other rightwing douchebags) on the eve of the war in 2003 saying that he supported a preemptive invasion of Iraq. Given his position, It was an indirect endorsement by the Southern Baptist Convention.
You've probably already heard of the upcoming documentary, Jesus Camp. You can watch that tantalizing trailer here. Next up, Camp Out, a documentary about a gay Jesus camp. Click here to watch the trailer. [Via Religious Freaks and the always wonderful Right Reverend Rabbi Judah.]
University of Virginia’s Cavalier Daily doesn't think its student body can handle a few Jesus cartoons. Read all about it and see the "offensive" cartoons here.
Third-year student Grant Woolard drew the comics for the Cavalier Daily, one of which is called "Christ on a Cartesian Coordinate Plane," with a drawing of the X and Y axes over his figure on the cross. The other, "A Nativity Ob-scene," is of Joseph and the Virgin Mary talking about a bumpy rash she has, with her saying, "I swear, it was immaculately transmitted!" [...]
Form e-mails from members across the country have pelted the U-Va. president's office and the Cavalier Daily.
Carol Wood, a U-Va. spokeswoman, said they have gotten between 2,000 and 2,500 letters and about 50 phone calls, primarily from people outside the university. She said the school's response has been that while the writers' concerns are understood, the Cavalier Daily is an independent newspaper and the school must uphold freedoms of speech, expression and the press.... The editor in chief, Michael Slaven, referred to an editorial earlier this week that read, in part, ". . . we regret being thrust into the culture war in this way. . . . Just because a comic appears in our pages does not mean that the editors agree with the point or even find it in good taste. It only means that the comic fails to meet specific criteria that warrant censorship. "
Kevin Simowitz, chairman of Catholic Student Ministries at U-Va., said: "If they were putting out a comic that was challenging and intriguing and funny and cutting edge, that's one thing. When it's tasteless and not useful, and doesn't spark debate, and just offends . . . they deserve all the flak they get."
If he thought Thornton was sinful, wait till Pastor Keenan Roberts gets a load of New York City.
Roberts' "Hell House," an evangelical Halloween haunted house that depicts cheerleaders having abortions and fetuses made of hamburger meat, will be presented as a legitimate off- Broadway stage offering starting Oct. 1.
Roberts is the senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Thornton. His "Hell House" has been seen by more than 50,000 people in Colorado since 1995 and has spawned 3,000 copycats nationwide.
The play replaces Halloween ghouls with gay men dying of AIDS and shows children who read "Harry Potter" being damned to hell.
"Hell houses communicate the biblical truth that sin always has consequences," Roberts, who recently signed a "Hell House" film deal, said in a statement. "We believe that abortion, adultery, homosexuality, among other things, are sinful behaviors, and that if a person does not repent of their sin and come to Jesus Christ, then hell will be their destiny rather than heaven."
Denver Center Theatre Company artistic director Kent Thompson has not read the "Hell House" script, but he finds the idea of it as a stage play to be repugnant.
"I was raised by a Southern Baptist preacher, and intolerance was forbidden in my household," Thompson said. "The concept of condemning other people to hell for a lifestyle choice, or for something that happened to them, and portraying that on a stage, would have been very offensive to my father because it flew in the face of the love and mercy of Christ that he always taught."
Aaron Lemon-Strauss - executive director of the "punk post-modernist" New York theater company Les Freres Corbusier, which will present "Hell House" - called the work a sincere response to what evangelicals see as a daily assault on their basic values.
Director Alex Timbers said the company is approaching the play as a "grand theatrical experiment" and that the company is "not at all" aligned with Roberts' New Destiny Christian Center. Still, he said, the script will be respectfully presented. He said a 2004 Los Angeles production "lost the teeth of argument" because the company there "really didn't take the script seriously," noting audiences often laughed.
"We are going to do our best to create a production that faithfully re-creates the script and vision without judgment or rancor," Timbers said. "Our hope is that we will foster dialogue between evangelical and secular people."
But can any haunted house be considered legit theater?
"It has a real director and designers, it is being performed by real actors, and it's being done in a legitimate theater, so yeah, it's real theater," said Don Summa of Richard Kornberg & Associates, the big-time New York public-relations firm representing the play.
"Hell House" will be presented at Arts at St. Ann's, which has staged legitimate theater productions for 25 years, including Eugene O'Neill's "The Emperor Jones." "Hell House," based on medieval pageant plays popularized in the 1970s by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, will play out in a 12-room, 14,000-square-foot performance space with a cast exceeding 100.
President Bush said yesterday that he senses a "Third Awakening" of religious devotion in the United States that has coincided with the nation's struggle with international terrorists, a war that he depicted as "a confrontation between good and evil."
Bush told a group of conservative journalists that he notices more open expressions of faith among people he meets during his travels, and he suggested that might signal a broader revival similar to other religious movements in history. Bush noted that some of Abraham Lincoln's strongest supporters were religious people "who saw life in terms of good and evil" and who believed that slavery was evil. Many of his own supporters, he said, see the current conflict in similar terms.
"A lot of people in America see this as a confrontation between good and evil, including me," Bush said during a 1 1/2 -hour Oval Office conversation on cultural changes and a battle with terrorists that he sees lasting decades. "There was a stark change between the culture of the '50s and the '60s -- boom -- and I think there's change happening here," he added. "It seems to me that there's a Third Awakening."
The First Great Awakening refers to a wave of Christian fervor in the American colonies from about 1730 to 1760, while the Second Great Awakening is generally believed to have occurred from 1800 to 1830.
Some scholars and writers have debated for years whether a Third Awakening has been taking place, although some identify other awakenings in U.S. history. Bush aides, including Karl Rove, have read Robert William Fogel's "The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism."
Bush has been careful discussing the battle with terrorists in religious terms since he had to apologize for using the word "crusade" in 2001. He often stresses that the war is not against Islam but against those who corrupt it. In his comments yesterday, aides said Bush was not casting the war as a religious struggle but was describing American cultural changes in a time of war.
"He's drawing a parallel in terms of a resurgence, in dangerous times, of people going back to their religion," said one aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the session was not open to other journalists. "This is not 'God is on our side' or anything like that."
The White House did not release a transcript of Bush's remarks, but National Review posted highlights on its Web site. On another topic, Bush rejected sending more troops to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas to find Osama bin Laden. "One hundred thousand troops there in Pakistan is not the answer. It's someone saying 'Guess what' and then the kinetic action begins," he said, meaning an informer disclosing bin Laden's location.
Swanson Developments, has three [Christian] projects going up in Rutherford County, TN with names like Victory Station, Kingdom Ridge and Providence Pointe.
"We just wanted to do it," said [developer] Joe Swanson. "It's just a family thing. We feel we're blessed."
The entrance to Kingdom Ridge looks like the entrance to a church, with white pillars set in stone. These markers stand just off Highway 96, where Covenant Street begins. A few rocks and clumps of dirt cover the road from the continuing construction, but it leads to an image of small-town America with $130,000-$250,000 brick and vinyl homes grouped together.
"When we started Victory Station, we named some of the streets there with biblical names," he said. "It's just, 'why not? Why call it Cherry Street?'" READ IT ALL
More Americans are active in religious groups than previously thought and many others without ties to congregations still believe in God or a higher power, according to a broad survey of faith in America released Monday.
The study also found that most traditional Christians reject the label "evangelical," preferring to describe themselves as "Bible-believing" or "born again."
The survey was conducted by the Baylor University Sociology Department and the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion as the first in a series on the spiritual life of Americans.
Researchers found that only 10.8 percent of Americans have no ties to a congregation, denomination or faith group. Previous surveys had put that figure at 14 percent, overlooking about 10 million people involved in some form of organized religion, the Baylor report said.
Other surveys have also overlooked millions of evangelicals, because respondents who belonged to nondenominational groups or megachurches would often report that they had no denomination and were wrongly counted as unaffiliated, the study's authors say.
Baylor researchers found that one-third of Americans are evangelical Protestant, just under one-quarter are mainline Protestant, one-fifth are Roman Catholic and 5 percent are black Protestant. Jews compromise 2.5 percent of the population, while 5 percent of Americans belong to other faiths.
The rest, who are not involved in religious groups, are not fully secular, researchers said. More than 60 percent of the unaffiliated say they believe in God or a higher power, and nearly one-third say they pray at least occasionally. Eleven percent believe Jesus is the son of God.
Among the more religiously observant Christians, the term "evangelical" is unpopular, according to the study. Nearly 70 percent of evangelical and black Protestants say "Bible-believing" better describes their views. Nearly as many liked the term "born-again."
Only 15 percent of all respondents called themselves "evangelical" and within that group just 2 percent said it was the best description.
The study also looked at the market for religious goods, including books and movies.
One-fifth of respondents have read either "The Purpose Driven Life" by pastor Rick Warren or the "Left Behind" series of apocalyptic novels, the survey found.
Yet, even more — 28.5 percent — had read "The Da Vinci Code," the best-selling mystery novel that Christians condemned as an affront to their faith. Still, the study found that the book had little impact on churchgoers.
Asked whether God favored the United States, only one-fifth of respondents said they agreed. Evangelical Protestants were the most likely to agree, with 26 percent saying they think God favors the country.
Researchers also examined Americans' conception of God and found the greatest share -- about 31 percent -- think of God as "authoritarian," deeply involved in people's lives and world events, angry and capable of punishing those who are unfaithful.
Nearly one-quarter consider God a "distant" force that set the laws of nature in motion, but is not active in the world, the study found. About the same percentage view God as "benevolent," active in their daily lives, but less willing to condemn or punish.
And about 16 percent consider God "critical," an observer who views the state of the world unfavorably and will mete out punishment in another life.
The study also asked respondents about paranormal beliefs such as whether houses can be haunted or whether people can communicate with the dead. The report found that these beliefs are more prevalent in Eastern states.
The survey of 1,721 respondents has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points and was conducted by the Gallup Organization between Oct. 8 and Dec. 12, 2005.
Leaving services Sunday morning at Faith Bible Chapel, an evangelical megachurch, Jim McBride, a pilot who served in Vietnam, said he was not happy with President Bush’s handling of Iraq. And he displayed little inclination to rethink his position despite the White House’s new push to focus this year’s Congressional elections on which party will keep the nation safer.
“I do have a bit of mistrust,” said Mr. McBride, who said that he twice voted for Mr. Bush but that he is now disappointed -- a sentiment he said is shared by many in his Bible study group. “The whole thing about W.M.D. and that Iraq is somehow tied to 9/11, I just don’t believe it.”
Mr. Bush has plenty of supporters in this Denver suburb and the surrounding cities, an evenly divided swing district that is a bellwether in the battle for control of the House. But interviews over the last three days here found Republicans, Democrats and independents all expressing degrees of skepticism about Mr. Bush’s motives in delivering a set of high-profile speeches on terrorism and the war in Iraq two months before Election Day.
While it is too early to know whether the White House will succeed in winning over enough voters to make a difference in what is shaping up as a tight race, the interviews suggested that Mr. Bush’s newest efforts to cast his party as better suited than Democrats to defend the country had yet to overcome concern and anger among many voters about Iraq and a more generalized sense of discontent with the administration.
“I have been a Republican all my life, but we have just gotten to the point where we may need a change,” said Shannon Abote, an Arvada resident who was stopping at Starbucks for a coffee on Monday morning.
Many residents said they were aware only in general terms of Mr. Bush’s recent speeches and his decision to bring high-level terrorism suspects to trial before military tribunals. They acknowledged that the terrorist threat often seemed distant, far removed from their busy lives in the shelter of the Rocky Mountains. Fewer than 20 people turned out Monday morning outside the Elks Club in Arvada to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Living in the central part of the country has probably kept terrorism from the forefront of our minds,” said Peter Strecker as he and his wife, Robin, strolled through downtown Golden on Saturday with their 13-month-old daughter, Paige, after a sudden downpour.
Still, even strong Bush supporters said they doubted the presidential drumbeat on terrorism would alter the political landscape here. “I think people already have their minds made up,” said Michael Mason, an engineer and Golden native. “The whole thing could end tomorrow, and they would still hate his guts. The damage has been done.””
The random interviews with dozens of residents across the Seventh Congressional District were not scientific. But they do suggest that Mr. Bush’s public standing could be problematic for the Republican candidate in the race for the open House seat, Rick O’Donnell, and that the Republican push on terrorism will not necessarily pack the same political punch it did in 2002 and 2004.
“I think it is the only card they have got,” said Floyd Ciruli, a longtime Denver pollster, referring to the national Republican focus on terrorism. “Will it make a difference in Colorado? Absolutely not.
If so, that would be bad news for Congressional Republican leaders. They are counting on Mr. Bush’s concerted efforts to both raise his own public approval and to simultaneously help give Republican House and Senate candidates an edge on the security issues that have dominated the last two national elections. But polls indicate that the climate is different this year, with fewer Americans confident that the fight against terrorism is going well, and Democrats, including Mr. O’Donnell’s opponent, Ed Perlmutter, are vigorously trying to counter Mr. Bush.
“My job is to make sure that people remember that all this was brought out in ’04 and ’02,” said Mr. Perlmutter. Republicans are resurrecting the “same old plays from the same old playbook,” he said. “The war on terror is clearly an important subject, but they have made a mess of it.”
Mr. O’Donnell said terrorism and the war in Iraq continued to be secondary issues in a race he described as being driven more by immigration and economic issues. “Having the president talk about the threat to the country reminds people that we live in a dangerous world, but it is not the No. 1 issue on their minds,” he said.
Mr. O’Donnell, who was the beneficiary of a fund-raising visit by the president this year, has good reason to put a little distance now between himself and the president: Senator John Kerry carried the district in the 2004 presidential race.
But Mr. Bush retains his strong backers.
At the Sept. 11 ceremony on Monday in Arvada, Nancy Goodman, whose 21-year-old son is finishing a tour as a marine in Iraq, expressed full confidence in Mr. Bush’s antiterrorism strategy.
“I agree with what he is doing,” said Ms. Goodman, a Republican, who said the public could not always know the reasoning behind the administration’s actions. “We have to trust our leadership, and we have to trust our military, and we have to trust that they want to protect us.”
Blaine Engdahl, an off-duty police officer who was waving the flag Saturday as he watched Arvada’s annual harvest festival parade from the back of a pickup, said: “I think he has made his mistakes, but he is trying. If we don’t fight them there, we are going to be fighting them over here.”
Dale Burkhart, another Bush supporter, urged the president to step up the effort to get his message across. “Everybody has forgotten why we got hit,” Mr. Burkhart said. “Americans need to be continually reminded because of the way we live. We are blessed, and we take it for granted.”
But independents and Democrats repeatedly characterized Mr. Bush’s recent spree of speeches and actions on terrorism as a cynical effort to thrust the issue into the Congressional campaign season.
“I think it is a calculated attempt on the part of the president and Karl Rove to push terrorism before the election,” said Patrick Bassett, a Democrat and software developer from Golden who was visiting a mall in Aurora. “All these issues could have been brought up at an earlier time.”
Robin Dodich, a retired teacher and self-described independent who was part of a small group of antiwar protesters along the Aurora parade route, called Mr. Bush’s recent actions disgusting.
“Republicans believe their party is in trouble and they want to help their campaigns,” Ms. Dodich said. “It is almost like Bush is frantic.”
The website claims that plushie Jesus is "a wholesome alternative to teddy bears and stuffed animals". Also available, Huggable Esther and Huggable Moses! [Hat tip, Misty, and our favorite Reverend]
A Japanese legend claims that Jesus escaped Jerusalem and made his way to Aomori in Japan where he became a rice farmer. Christians say the story is nonsense. However, a monument there known as the Grave of Christ attracts curious visitors from all over the world.
To reach the Grave of Christ or Kristo no Hakka as it is known locally, you need to head deep into the northern countryside of Japan, a place of paddy fields and apple orchards. Halfway up a remote mountain surrounded by a thicket of bamboo lies a mound of bare earth marked with a large wooden cross.
Most visitors peer at the grave curiously and pose in front of the cross for a photograph before heading off for apple ice cream at the nearby cafe. But some pilgrims leave coins in front of the grave in thanks for answered prayers.
The cross is a confusing symbol because according to the local legend, Jesus did not die at Calvary. His place was taken by one of his brothers, who for some reason is now buried by his side in Japan.
The story goes that after escaping Jerusalem, Jesus made his way across Russia and Siberia to Aomori in the far north of Japan where he became a rice farmer, married, had a family and died peacefully at the age of 114.
A villager hinted that I might be able to meet one of Jesus' descendents - a Mr Sajiro Sawaguchi, who is now in his 80s. READ IT ALL
Orthodox and patriotic forces are meeting at Pushkin Square in downtown Moscow in a demonstration against Madonna’s forthcoming Moscow show.
Some 100 people holding banners and orthodox flags with large crucifixes placed in the center are participating in the meeting, Interfax reports.
“We declare a new Holy Inquisition that will fight against the sacrilege of crosses, icons, Russian Orthodox symbols, including during Madonna’s show. The singer is an advocate of Kabbalah,” chairman of the Union of Orthodox flag-bearers Leonid Simonovich-Nikshich said at the meeting.
The main goal of the inquisition will be “to fight against slander, rather than to kill people,” he said. READ IT ALL
'God Hates Fags' Leader Takes On Jon Stewart And His "Hooligan Sidekick" Stephen Colbert
This is priceless. Turns out, the "honorable" Rev. Fred Phelps (who also starred in Poltergeist 2) was offended by Colbert's "good evening Godless sodomites" remark at the Emmys. Funny, because we thought Fred would rather enjoy Colbert's remark. [Thanks Jeff via Comedy Central]
Vatican To Excommunicate Medical Team That Performed An Abortion On An 11-Year-Old Who Was Raped
Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo (above) who is friends with Skeletor from HeMan and the Masters of the Universe, called it "an abominable crime." The abortion, that is, not the rape. From The Guardian
A Vatican official has said the Catholic church will excommunicate a medical team who performed Colombia's first legal abortion on an 11-year-old girl, who was eight weeks pregnant after being raped by her stepfather.
Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, the president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, said in addition to the doctors and nurses, the measure could apply to "relatives, politicians and lawmakers" whom he called "protagonists in this abominable crime".
The girl, whose identity has not been released, had "fallen in the hands of evildoers", the cardinal said in an interview with local television on Tuesday.
In May Colombia's constitutional court partially lifted the ban on abortion in this deeply Catholic country, allowing pregnancies to be terminated in cases of severe deformity of the foetus, when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or when the mother's life is in danger.
The first test of the ruling came when the girl sought to terminate her pregnancy, which followed her being raped by her stepfather. The man admitted to the abuse, which began when the child was seven. READ IT ALL
The final defendant has pleaded guilty in a fraud case linked to the collapse of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, one of the nation's largest nonprofit bankruptcy filings.
Lawrence Dwain Hoover, 71, who served two decades on the foundation's board, faces up to 12 1/2 years in prison when he's sentenced in late November and has agreed to pay $500,000 in restitution, according to the Arizona Attorney General's Office. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of fraud.
The foundation, which was created in 1948 as a nonprofit religious entity to raise money for Southern Baptist causes, collapsed in 1999 in what was then the largest nonprofit bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. About 11,000 mostly elderly investors lost almost $600 million as a result.
Prosecutors said Hoover participated in various BFA financial transactions that allowed the foundation to falsely portray its financial position to investors.
In July, a Maricopa County jury found former foundation president William Crotts and ex-BFA general counsel Thomas Grabinski guilty of three counts of fraud and one count of illegally conducting an enterprise.
Prosecutors said Crotts, 61, and Grabinski, 46, could face anywhere from six to 23 years for each count when they are sentenced later this month.
Pastor Ted Breaks The Law And Defies The IRS, Again
As head of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of the largest megachurch in Colorado Springs, you'd think Ted Haggard would know better than to blatantly campaign for candidates. But when you talk to George W. Bush every Monday morning, as Pastor Ted does, we guess you're above the law. From the Colorado Springs Independent:
There's a lot of praying going on over in House District 18. State Rep. Michael Merrifield's praying, his opponent Kyle Fisk is praying, and so, too, is Pastor Ted Haggard, the charismatic leader of the largest church in the state.
But by now, the Fisk campaign might be praying that a letter, written by Haggard on behalf of Fisk, doesn't backfire on the candidate.
Earlier this month, Haggard sent the message, on his personal letterhead, to thousands of people urging them to send money to, volunteer to help, and pray for Fisk, who is challenging Merrifield in the district that includes part of downtown Colorado Springs, its west side and Manitou Springs — "the one area in El Paso County that is not currently well represented," Haggard wrote.
How that one area is not being well represented is unclear, though it might simply be the fact that Merrifield, who is running for his third term, is the only Democrat in the county's 13-member legislative delegation.
In his letter Haggard did make it clear that his support for Fisk is as a "private citizen" and not as the pastor of New Life Church. (The Internal Revenue Service prohibits pastors from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit.) Fisk currently works for Haggard as an associate pastor at Boulder Street Church, an outreach of New Life Church, and previously was executive director of the Colorado Springs-based National Association of Evangelicals, of which Haggard is president.
"I am not writing you today as the pastor of New Life Church, but as a private citizen who is a friend and employer of Kyle Fisk," Haggard wrote. "I am very proud of Kyle Fisk ... He is a competent man who is well informed and conversant in the subtleties of American government and politics. I like this guy a lot."
On Sale Today: The Sinner's Guide to The Evangelical Right
Our new book goes on sale today, September 5. We want to thank all the prayer warriors who helped make it happen. You can buy copies here: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookSense. Join the boycott here. Or take the evangelical quiz here.
"Every good little liberal will have this book on order as a stocking stuffer come Jesus' birthday."
— Time Out
"Not only is this an important book, it's a funny book."
— Marc Maron, Air America Radio
"This book should lay at the lifeless feet of your corpse as a silent, yet powerful and all encompassing explanation as to why you took your own life."
— David Cross, Arrested Development
Pope Benedict XVI has abolished the Vatican's Christmas concert because of his distaste for popular music, it was claimed yesterday. The concert has been held in one of the Vatican's music halls for the past 12 years to raise money to build new churches in Rome. In the past, Tom Jones, Bryan Adams and Sarah Brightman have sung to crowds of up to 8,000.
However, the La Stampa newspaper reported that the current pope "prefers Mozart and Bach to pop music and so the tradition has been canned. Another piece of [his predecessor] John Paul II's colourful and modern legacy has disappeared."
A commentator for ANSA, the Italian news service, said: "Benedict XVI is a very sober pope and is not inclined toward variety shows."
Pope Benedict also has a distaste for the controversy that the concert has thrown up in recent years.
In 2003, Lauryn Hill, the American hip hop star, dismayed the Vatican when she stood up on stage and asked the Catholic Church to apologise publicly for the behaviour of its paedophile priests in the United States.
Last year, the Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury was hastily removed from the bill after she appeared on television and radio in Brazil in advertisements to encourage young people to use condoms. She was also photographed in the street wearing a pro-condom T-shirt.
Signs that the Pontiff is not a fan of the Christmas concert emerged last year, when he stopped John Paul II's tradition of granting the performers a private audience before they took to the stage.
Several artists, who all appear for no fee, voiced their disappointment that they were not even given a message of encouragement or thanks.
So far the money raised from the concert has helped build 39 new churches in Rome and fund missions in China.
However, the cost of mounting the increasingly spectacular event has reduced the amount of money that has been raised in recent years.
After a year of relative calm, Benedict is starting to stamp his authority on the church, and is keen to present a more serious front than his predecessor.
He has already called for guitars not to be used during Mass, and yesterday he admonished priests for hamming up their services.
"The liturgy is not a theatrical text, and the altar is not a stage," he said, as he met a group of Italian clergymen at his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo.
"There are many ways of celebrating God, and of knowing how to adorn the altar, but it is important not to lose sight of what the liturgy is and to merely become actors in a spectacle."
A spokesman for the Vatican was not available to comment on the demise of the Christmas concert.
Reports suggested that the event would take place in Monte Carlo this year, although no line-up has been confirmed.
A wacky website claims Chelsea Clinton is now openly worshipping a political figure mightier than Karl Rove and Hillary Clinton combined: The Devil. According to Red-Ice.net, the youngest Clinton is wearing an inverted cross out in public. To many Americans, an upside-down cross is a symbol of Satanic worship. But to some Catholics, it’s just a cool way to remember St. Peter, who legend says was crucified upside down like a bat. Chelsea’s not Catholic, as far as we know, so we have to assume she’s now working for Satan.
And they were kind enough to say this about it: "A hilarious new book provides instructions on how to argue the big issues with ultra-conservative fundamentalists." Read the excerpt here.
Bill McCartney
