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New Book Reveals How Faith is Like a Covert Operation for the Bush Family

By Frederick Clarkson

…e for an astonishing double life participating in covert operations of the Central Intelligence Agency throughout his career. The story of the reinvention of the religious identities of two presidents and their faith-based political strategy could be easily obscured amidst Family of Secrets’ revelations of the Bush family ties to such murky matters as Watergate and the Kennedy assassination (see sidebar). But Baker’s discussion of how a prominent…

Left, Behind on Obama’s Warren Strategy

By Nick Street

…ing: The world is a mess. Violence in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia threatens to further destabilize regions where chaos breeds religious extremism. The deep roots of the current economic crisis—a global economy powered by fossils fuels and unsustainable American and American-style consumerism—must be carefully but decisively eradicated. And a pernicious but largely unreported militarism at the leading edge of science needs to…

Doubt v. Predator: A Vatican II Parable

By Gabriel Mckee

…a girl you loved her and felt the faint nausea of eroding conviction? The central doubt in the story belongs to Sister Aloysius. She became a nun after her husband was killed in World War II, and it’s clear that she saw in the Church the stability, the certainty, that his death took from her. After years in her order she’s beginning to see the cracks in the foundation. She’s irritated by the lack of discipline reflected in Father Flynn (and with…

RD10Q: Spiritual Survival for LGBT Christians

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…fense” for LGBT Christians. I also came across the Bible verse that became central to the book, 1 Peter 3:15-16: “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.” Not returning hatred for hatred is the key to being bulletproof. I developed a workshop around these ideas and it morphed, some ten years later, into a full-fledged book. What’s the mo…

Feared Taliban Leader Killed, But Military Strategy is Not the Answer in Afghanistan

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…motivated to fight against the American presence because of their love of freedom. They see the US military, like the Soviet forces before them, as a foreign occupying power. The Taliban, as draconian as they may be, are seen as enemies of the enemy: us. It is the US military presence, paradoxically, that is uniting the Taliban and marshaling wide public support behind it. What all this means is that a military strategy simply will not win. A new…

Rick Warren’s Biblical Blowback

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…hinged on which part of the Bible Warren had in mind when he invoked “the [central] role of government” as “the punishment of evildoers” (again, I’ll come back to that pesky but powerful word). There has been a general consensus, one that Warren’s PR office seems to have confirmed, that the Reverend had Paul’s famous comment in Romans 13 in mind, the one where the Apostle to the Gentiles counsels Christians to “submit” to secular authorities in th…

Bad Karma: Life Lessons From Earl

By Anthony B. Pinn

…n sacred and profane, “right” and “wrong,” is blurred. But capital remains central. But what of the more complex arrangement that actually frames the notion of karma or “right action”? In the show, karma is plucked out of Buddhism: No mention of the “four noble truths” and the relationship between suffering and desire. Earl crosses things off his list, but what of the surrender of desire through the eight-fold path? Yes, there are ways in which th…

Joe the Plumber: Horatio Alger with Plumber’s Crack

By Jonathan L. Walton

…y Senator John McCain continued his “Joe the Plumber” bus tour. Throughout central Florida McCain rehashed his attacks against Senator Obama by enlisting other “regular Joes” to reinforce his message that Senator Obama’s tax plan will unduly punish successful small businesses. Of course we know that the character known to millions as Joe the Plumber is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, the Ohio resident who engaged Senator Obama on his tax plan earlier this…

The Kids are Religious Right: Punk Rock & Pro-Life

By Justin Philpot

…in American politics, managing to shape the focus and goals of a resurgent Republican Party. The Christian Coalition built up Republican support at the grassroots level, mobilizing churches and religious groups in national voter registration campaigns. And even though the Christian Coalition, like the larger religious right, was made up of a number of churches and faiths, evangelicals were the face the national media associated with the movement….

The Visceral Vote: Obama-as-Sojourner v. McCain-as-Mythic-Hero

By Ira Chernus

…ince the “dwellers” that their candidate is just as deeply commited as any Republican to a permanent structure of American values. But they are fighting an uphill battle. The spirituality of dwelling requires a threatening enemy to fight against. Democrats can hardly cast Republicans as agents of cultural change who would undermine the stability of “the American way.” Too few voters would buy that. Nor can the Dems cast the many “seekers” under th…