I just finished reading my copy. Concise and well-written, the book explains, point-by-point how the the neoconservative-run IRD is taking over mainstream Protestant churches.

Here is another perfect example of why televangelists have such a bad image in this country.  

Bumped from the diaries. - fc

Here's my investigative piece in the current issue of The Nation on the cronyism, kickbacks and faith-based pork inside the Bush adminstration's abstinence-only programs.

The Abstinence Gluttons

by Michael Reynolds

Over the past six years George W. Bush's faith-based Administration and a conservative Republican Congress transformed the small-time abstinence-only business into a billion-dollar industry. These dangerously ineffective sexual health enterprises flourish not because they spread "family values" but because of generous helpings of the same pork-heavy gumbo Bush & Co. brought to war-blighted Iraq and Katrina-hammered New Orleans--a mix of back-scratching cronyism, hefty partisan campaign donations, high-dollar lobbyists, a revolving door for political appointees and a lack of concern for results.

Illustrating The Joys Of Theocracy

All of the talk lately about the religious preferences of the presidential candidates or their lack of them has me concerned for the direction of the current campaign and the fact that religion has any place in this discussion at all.

Yesterday, while drinking my second cup of coffee and mentally preparing for the second week of moving to a new residence, a letter to the editor of USA Today caught my attention.

One Harold Burnett of Palmdale, California seems to have gotten his evangelical shorts in a wad over an op-ed piece titled "What is a 'real' Christian?" written by Dan Gilgoff in USA Today on May 21. Mr Burnett writes:

I agree with Focus on the Family's founder James Dobson, who seems to believe that a Christian should be the GOP presidential nominee ("What is a 'real' Christian?" On Religion, The Forum, May 21).

If for no other reason, a Christian would balance the power of the left, the atheists and those waging open war against many conservatives.

But where is this real Christian who is willing to run for president? The fact that Mr. Dobson is not considering it illustrates the problem Christians in this country face. It seems there is a perception that real Christians don't get involved in politics. Though we are willing to support someone who meets our conservative criteria, we are not willing to be him.

Could it be that many professing Christians are not real Christians and are afraid of being exposed as hypocrites? It seems to me that a religious conservative is the best we can hope for this time around.

Perhaps, due to my past exposure to various "Christian" denominations, and various experiences with other religious groups, sects, cults, klaverns, whatever, I no longer claim a religious affiliation of any kind and hope to quietly live out my days as far from religious authority, zealotry, bigotry and lunacy as possible.

I think that it was Einstein who said, "If God did not exist, man would have to invent him" or something along those lines.

There's good news and bad news about the state of America's faith, says The Barna Group, a prominent Evangelical polling organization.

While "two-thirds of the nation's adult population firmly embraces the idea that their most important purpose is to love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength," Barna laments "that commitment to orthodox biblical perspectives is slipping in a number of areas."

The news "that five out of six theological perspectives have shifted in recent years away from traditional biblical views" is contained in Barna's newest survey of American religious values, conducted annually since 1984. The most worrying trends? Americans are embracing strange ideas about God, Jesus, and Satan.

"There is little doubt that Falwell split Hell wide open the instant he died."  Thus reads the flier from godhatesfags.com, the WBC & Fred Phelps website.

No contemporary critic of Christian fundamentalism has failed to point out the contradiction between posturing as a valiant defender of the sanctity of life while zealously embracing the death penalty. But Christian fundamentalists have a glib answer to this apparent problem: they advocate protecting INNOCENT life. God's justice requires that the guilty be punished. This retort is enough to silence most critics. Not me.

Why did I google "US+church+income+2005"? Because Falwell was reported to be "up in arms" about the $8billion porn industry.  Was he concerned we'd find out how full the collection plates had become?  After all, think of what Christ-like works could be accomplished with $93 billion a year!  Do we really need more and bigger churches?

According to a "church construction financing" futures' prospectus, "mega-churches" have doubled since 2000 and look to double again between by 2010!

The following is an essay I wrote for Comparative Religions class this semester.  I thought it would be a good first post.  

_____

Religion and historical accuracy, does it matter?

     All religions around the world contain myths that are used to explain the cosmos, provide a history of the world and the faith, and give moral and ethical guidance, but some religions are based on the lives and actions of people who really existed.  In those cases, many scholars disagree to the extent that what happened in history is actually reflected in the scriptures.  For example, was Laozi really stopped at the border of China and made to write the Tao Te Ching?  Did Moses really part the Red Sea?  Did Jesus really rise from the grave?  Did any of these figures really exist?  Did these events really take place as presented in the scriptures?  Or most importantly, does it really matter if they did or did not?  It is my opinion that they do not.  Whether a religious tale, myth, or scripture is based in part or whole on fact in no way adds to or takes away from the moral or ethical guidance or inspiration that one can gain from the story.  To illustrate this I am going to compare three religious figures that we know existed and whose existence can be corroborated (Jesus Christ, the Buddha, and Confucius) and two whose existence cannot (Moses and Arjuna).  

Continued...
     

When I heard that Jerry Falwell had died yesterday, my reaction was to say "Thank God!!"

From the Strategic Studies Institute Of the US Army War College, 2006: "The United States military's organizational climate has shifted steadily to the right since the Viet Nam War. Today's Armed Forces are increasingly identified with conservative Christian and Republican values. This change in group dynamics can inhibit the decision making process by preventing a thorough review of relevant courses of action, in accordance with the Rational Decision Model." [ link to study ]

OMG! A book about "hoodwinking" the public? Biblical "literalism" has been done before? Say it isn't so!

From a book review, on The Vanity Press website, of Flat Earth: the History of an Infamous Idea, by Christine Garwood. She states, "Every educated person in the Middle Ages knew that the Earth was a sphere..."