Religion Dispatches
…terview with Klein, a self-styled terrorism expert and former Marine Corps Vietnam vet, mentions his ties to the Copt diaspora community. Klein’s author biography in a self-published work, “Is Islam compatible with democracy,” states: “With 9/11 2001, I immersed myself with Islam in America; went to every major Mosque in SoCal with Arabic speaking Christians as translators and uncovered useful information about many Mosques being the head quarters…
Read More…r heroes of the faith are no longer Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but Ronald, Newt, and Dubya. If McCain, as America’s new savior, rises to his holy place in the Oval Office, America will apparently then be saved from the godless liberals attempting to undermine the nation (especially that secret Muslim guy). The deification of America results in placing the actions of America and its leaders safe from questioning or attack. If America is not only th…
Read More…ademark pressure to secure a unanimous resolution in support of the War in Vietnam. Despite the president’s strong-arm lobbying, however, Mark Hatfield was the sole dissenter. As senator several years later, Hatfield teamed with Democratic senator George McGovern of South Dakota to draft the McGovern-Hatfield Amendment to End the War in Vietnam. Hatfield’s liberal positions earned him the enmity of many politically-conservative evangelicals. But h…
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…ces, The Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s second inaugural. And Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial is nothing short of the most significant piece of public sculpture of the late twentieth century; one that, notably, invites its own careful reading. Unfortunately, all of these works also reveal what makes the more recent World War II Memorial so dreadful. As Savage notes, its proud, vertical pillars of white marble (adorned by sculpted wreaths) s…
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…h Asia as a continuation of British colonial influence. The parallels with Vietnam are striking: in Vietnam the United States also appeared to be replacing a colonial power, the French. Many in Afghanistan see the US military as a curious repetition of yet another military intruder, in this case the Soviets. Though the US policy might intend to help fight terrorism in the region, the very presence of US forces helps to create the climate of hostil…
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…nation. In the name of God, King condemned America for killing the poor of Vietnam and neglecting the poor at home. Romans crucified Jews and Christians; Americans carpetbombed, mined, and napalmed the Buddhists of Vietnam. (By the way, unlike Jesus, King and Wright do not call their critics “vipers” and the “children of Satan.” Jesus was often nice, but in his demonizing mood he could be quite nasty.) So I say to you dear Geraldine Ferraro, if Wr…
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…f this will take decades to play out, well beyond the blink of an American news cycle. Iraq is broken into rival groups of warlords, sectarian militias, local gangs, foreign terrorists, political and ethnic factions, a struggling government, and a deeply corrupted and sectarian police force. The Sunnis are appalled that a Western invader paved the way to a Shiite government allied with Iran. They are deeply opposed to the new Constitution. They wa…
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…edia attention. Many in the media have anointed Warren as representing the new face of Christian evangelicals; creating a new movement that not only distances itself from the old timers of the Religious Right, but one that is setting a new agenda for evangelicals. How do you view Warren’s work and where does he fit within the broad constellation of religious leaders? Frederick Clarkson: Four years ago, Rick Warren wrote an inflammatory letter abou…
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…65% of its courthouses, city halls, and sewage-disposal plants; 35% of its new public-health facilities; 10% of all of new roads, bridges, tunnels and subways, in addition to large dams, airports and recreational facilities. The first effort to provide affordable housing for the working poor was undertaken by the PWA. The second approach was to establish public employment programs for needy workers in which the government itself acted as the emplo…
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…ccording to the conspiracy myth, by a secret cabal that wants to create a “New World Order”—again, code for Jews. Jews want to eradicate the white race by instigating a “race war” and replacing the white population with immigrants. This narrative was popularized by the eugenicist Madison Grant in his 1916 book The Passing of the Great Race. It gained even more traction in white supremacist and Nazi circles with the publication of the Turner Diarie…
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