The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right

[MelissaB]

The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right

By Rob Lanham, AlterNet. Posted September 1, 2006.


A hilarious new book provides instructions on how to argue the big issues with ultra-conservative fundamentalists.

Editor's Note: The following excerpt has been reprinted with permission from The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right by Rob Lanham, Penguin Putnam, 2006.

"The real theological problem in America today is no longer the religious Right, but the nationalistic religion of the Bush administration." -- Reverend Jim Wallis, God's Politics.

Until the sixties, evangelicals were just as likely to be Democrats as they were to be Republicans.

Many evangelicals were on the front lines in the fight for women's suffrage, were vocal antiwar opponents, and led the fight for civil rights. Meanwhile, tent revival pastors fueled McCarthyism and covertly organized KKK meetings among their church elders. But the advent of the ERA Movement, the Roe v. Wade decision, and a godless culture filled with bra burnings and rock music created a unifying shift to the right. By the time abortion was made legal, many evangelicals found themselves curled up in the fetal position inside the headquarters of the RNC waiting for the world to end.

Following the election of Jimmy Carter, an outspoken Christian who was candid about being born-again, Time deemed 1976 "The Year of the Evangelical." Ironically, most evangelicals felt little kinship with this moderate Democratic president, given his support of ERA and his refusal to deny women the right to choose.

Evangelical leaders like Jerry Falwell and Tim LaHaye believed the time had come to get evangelicals mobilized behind a candidate that represented their values. That candidate was Reagan, the first president to come to power with the help of what has come to be known as the Religious Right. Reagan was also the first high-level politician to work opposite a chimpanzee (as he did in Bedtime for Bonzo), a noble tradition carried on today by Vice President Dick Cheney. ...


More: http://www.alternet.org/story/41031/

[MelissaB]

1. snip...Abstinence Education:

Abstinence Education:

Fundamentalists say: Sex education sends a mixed message. Virgin does not mean loser.

Sinners say: Did you wait until marriage? Probably not. And to be clear, virgin does, in fact, mean loser. Look it up.

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. Great stuff!

When I was in San Francisco a couple weekends ago, I went to the main library book store and ran across one I hadn't seen before:

A Field Guide to Evangelicals, written like a birdwatching guide or somesuch. Damn! Shoulda bought that book.

[Initech]

3. Great article!

I particularly liked this part here:

"On Falwell's apparent love of McNuggets: "...put a knife to thy throat, if thou a man given to appetite." (Proverbs 23:2, 3, KJV)"

:spray:

[Reckon]

4. That's what I said.. The Bu$h Cult.... n/t