Search for "evangelical left"

No Henpecked Men Here:
The Black-Robed Regiment Before Beck

By Sarah Posner

…y going to be a matter of a short time and we will not have a constitution left, we will not have a Bill of Rights left. The principles of freedom upon which our country is founded are being obliterated. And we either stand now to defend those principles or we watch them wash away. While Beck relied on gauzy tributes to what he claims is the nation’s spiritual history, when Baldwin launched his “Black Regiment,” he set out very specific criteria:…

Pat Robertson’s Women Warriors Leading Spiritual Warfare In Zimbabwe

By Sarah Posner

…on his murderous regime. Zimbabwe as “Christian Nation” Together with the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, the African Centre for Law and Justice is working to garner the support of religious leaders and activists for constitutional provisions that would “affirm that Zimbabwe is a predominantly Christian nation founded on biblical principles,” and require application of “the Laws of God in order to prosper and avoid chaos and destruction,” acc…

Protesters in Washington DC, the day before the January 6 insurrection, wrapped in American flags blow shofars.

Netanyahu’s Genocidal Religious Rhetoric isn’t Just an Appeal to the Israeli Right — He Has Another Constituency in Mind

By Brock Bahler

…ael, that number jumps to 80% among White evangelicals. And further, among evangelicals who support Israel, up to 50% have suggested End Times prophecies are part of their motivation. There are surely some whose uncritical support of Israel is motivated by End Times prophecies, though there’s significant disagreement on that point. What I would argue instead is that Christian Zionists in the U.S. are largely motivated by an entirely different ideo…

Obama’s Divisive Choice of Rick Warren

By Michelle Goldberg

…After all, Warren’s participation is a symbolic concession to conservative evangelicals that costs nothing in policy terms; as a gesture of goodwill and bridge-building, it’s surely superior to, say, a court appointment. In the past, one of Obama’s great strengths has been the way he’s made those who disagree with him feel acknowledged and respected. Besides, Obama clearly wants to convey that, unlike George W. Bush, he doesn’t just want to be the…

May GOP Save Us From Chaos: Mircea Eliade on Election 2010

By Ira Chernus

…in depicting as a symbol of the socially permissive, self-indulgent hippie left.” They’ve made Obama, too, a symbol of the supposedly chaotic left. So the Republicans won big this year because the Democrats, led by Obama, appear unable to fend off chaos and restore order? That pretty well sums it up. Obama identified himself and his party with the word “change.” Since change is always unpredictable, it always portends the threat of chaos. This yea…

Reconsidering “Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin”: An Interview with Ethicist Eric Reitan

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…sexual orientation – and my physical person. To me it’s like saying I love left-handers but hate their left-handedness – which also, oddly enough, was once seen as a sin by many Bible believers, but has since been relegated to the theological dust heap. Go figure. But, Reitan asserts that he is convinced that the “‘love the sinner/hate the sin’ precept is one of the most fundamental guiding principles of the Christian life.” At this point, I was w…

The Right is Using the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago Search to Martyr Trump and Maintain the Violent Myth of the Big Lie

By Bradley Onishi

…this unprecedented search of a former president’s home. There is no faith left on the American Right—only conflict and a battle to the death for the United States of America. Here’s what Trump himself said at CPAC just a few days ago: America is on the edge of an abyss. And our movement is the only force on Earth that can save it. This movement right here. What we do in the next few months and the next few years will determine whether American ci…

The Book David Barton Doesn’t Want You To Read

By Michael Coulter

…to convey that Jefferson is viewed differently by people on the right and left, even though he is the same person. Is there a book out there you wish you had written? Which one? Why? Throckmorton: The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age by Randall Stephens and Karl Giberson or Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? by John Fea. Stephens and Giberson examine the parallel world that often is the evangelical community, and Fea writes we…

Did Richard Dawkins Hand Creationists Their Next School Strategy?

By Adam Shapiro

…just said Come on, the school board’s motives are obviously religious, and left it at that. But such a narrow ruling would have left the questions of constitutionality of teaching ID to another case. Since the 1925 Scopes trial, there’s been a consistent pattern of “evolution trials” moving well beyond specific local issues to debate broader questions about religion and science. Jones followed that pattern. Instead of just ruling on the specifics…

Explaining Christian Zionism to Israelis

By Sarah Posner

…g friends. Schlesinger noted that the Israeli right wing often accuses the left of accepting foreign money, but there is “secret funding that comes to right-wing parties from evangelicals that is completely hidden from the public.” [UPDATE: an English translation of the executive summary is now available.] Mining public documents, Schlesinger uncovered at least 69 trips Knesset members took around the world—including some to attractive destination…