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The EPA and Evangelical (Anti)Environmentalism

By Aaron Weaver

…st those who lie to us and hide behind their laws.” So began the prayer of Joel Watts of the West Virginia Coal Forum at a July 30 rally in Pittsburgh. There, coal industry leaders attended a public hearing of the Environmental Protection Agency while 5,000 coal miners gathered outside the hearing to join Watts in preaching against the EPA’s proposal to reduce carbon pollution from power plants. The EPA’s Clean Power Plan, a key component of Presi…

Brands of Faith: Marketing Religion

By Mara Einstein

…, logo, and mythology. In religion that used to be denominations, now it’s Joel Osteen and Willowcreek. Did you have a specific audience in mind when writing? I was trying to reach a broad audience with this topic. Believe me, when you start people talking about religion and marketing, everyone has an opinion. Are you hoping to just inform readers? Give them pleasure? Piss them off? Mostly the book was about informing readers about why marketing r…

Who’s A Real Christian?

By Daniel Schultz

In response to the attacks on Joel Hunter and President Obama, as reported by Sarah, I think it’s necessary to keep two things in mind: Lately, there’s been an awful lot of attacks on various people for being insufficiently Christian by conservative standards. In addition to the ones Sarah names, there’s the whole pissing match between Glenn Beck and Jim Wallis. That says to me at least that somebody’s awfully nervous about losing control of the…

Billy Graham Was More Like White America’s Surrogate Savior Than “America’s Pastor”

By Peter Laarman

…ars) for himself in the manner of an Oral Roberts or a Jimmy Swaggart or a Joel Osteen. Toward the end of his very long life—and insofar as he could still actually speak for himself and not be used as a sock puppet by the nefarious Franklin—Billy Graham apparently mellowed on two crucial fronts: whether nonbelievers are consigned to hell, and whether God could possibly love queer people. All to his credit, I say. But back to the “America’s Pastor”…

The Right Attacks Obama’s Religious Advisors

By Sarah Posner

…back against birtherism and Manchurian candidate smears. He picked Pastor Joel Hunter, the Florida megachurch pastor who once was slated to take over the Christian Coalition, sits on the board of the National Association of Evangelicals, and endorsed Mike Huckabee in the GOP primary, to deliver the benediction at the Democratic National Convention. He tapped Rick Warren for the invocation at his inauguration. He annoyed progressives with his pick…

New Mag Provides a Platform for Christians of Color

By Anita Little

…times, it ended up being about the same people or the same kind of people. Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, Rob Bell, Mark Driscoll, John Piper, on and on and on. I got to a point where I was able to step back and say, “Hold on a minute. This is not all that Christianity looks like.” I decided I needed to pursue diversity in my coverage. I began to think more seriously or a lot deeper about the choices I was making in terms of reporting and the people I…

To Pray or Not to Pray

By Sarah Posner

…then? Nah, just some prayer. As Right Wing Watch notes, the event boasts a number of people involved in the Restoration and Renewal Projects, including David Lane, former Congressman Bob McEwen, and the American Family Association’s Don Wildmon. Perry’s effort also includes staffers from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, a 24-7 prayer project of Lou Engle and others. The inspiration for the event is a “solemn assembly” of “prayer a…

Obama’s Christianity, Cont’d.

By Sarah Posner

…ned by, among others, T.D. Jakes, Ron Sider, Samuel Rodriguez, Jim Wallis, Joel Hunter, and David Gushee, evangelicals who considered spiritual advisors to the president or at “centrists” whose advice has been sought by the White House or the Democratic Party. Wallis and Hunter, as I detailed yesterday, are the targets of right-wing attacks implying or outright claiming they aren’t “real” Christians themselves. So obviously their defense of Obama’…

“The Call” Warns of Antichrist Legislation in California and Beyond

By Sarah Posner

…l events, which Engle says are based on the solemn assemblies and fasts of Joel 2, demand repentance, prayer, and fasting in preparation for Christ’s return. “I am an end-time warrior!” attendees were commanded to declare. End-times prophecy mingled with Christian rock music, and the day saw a parade of well-known activist speakers, including Huckabee and Perkins, Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney, and Teen Mania founder Ron Luce. Engle, per…

Kafkaesque Reality Show Known as the RNC Kicks Off

By Paul Harvey

…on to the “prosperity gospel,” and warm words about him by figures such as Joel Osteen, have been widely noted by a number of commentators. Burns himself, the owner of the NOW television network in South Carolina and pastor of the Harvest Praise and Worship Center in Easley, South Carolina, has followed the trajectory of numerous prosperity gospel-ers and megachurch entrepreneurs, white and black, from a modest Baptist background to a history of r…