Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Mark asked what people can do. A large part of what people need to do
is be informed so they can act if, for example, someone from the
Discovery Institute or an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center is
invited to do a presentation in their public school, or if they hear
politicians and pundits citing David Barton about America's Christian
history. I have other suggestions for legislative initiatives in my
book, and I recently joined the advisory board of an organization
called the Campaign to Defend the Constitution, which runs media
campaigns highlighting religious right misdeeds and promoting
church/state separation. 

Maybe it would be more relevant, though, for me to tell you what some
people *are* doing. As I mentioned before, last week I was in
Cincinnati. Two amazing women, Janice and Marji, flew me out there.
Janice and Marji are both really cool but also fairly normal suburban
mothers who met during the Kerry campaign. They grew alarmed about the
growth of the religious right in their state, and they started checking
out right-wing churches and attending meetings of the Ohio Restoration
Project, a group formed to mobilize right-wing "patriot pastors" for
political action. Eventually, they contacted Chris Hedges -- the former
New York Times war correspondent who also has a book coming out about
the religious right -- and they went with him to the War on Christians
Conference in DC, where a leading Ohio pastor, Rod Parsley, was
speaking. (Parsley is a classic Christian nationalist demagogue -- his
slogan is "lock and load."). They began contacting local leaders,
religious and secular, and building coalitions against the religious
right. They've brought several other speakers to town, and organized
forums for community leaders to hear them.  Once they started learning
about this stuff, they realized that a crisis pregnancy center was
teaching abstinence classes in their district's junior high school, and
they successfully fought to replace it with a real health teacher. 

As a lot of you know, Ken Blackwell, the GOP candidate for governor in
Ohio, is very close to the Christian nationalists, especially Parsley.
He's way down in the polls, and I don't think he has much of a shot,
but he's actually been running something of a stealth campaign so far,
speaking at right-wing churches without giving his schedule either to
the press or the general public. This in itself is kind of remarkable
-- it's really quite difficult for ordinary citizens to figure out
where to hear the man who is trying to become their governor. Marji and
Janice have been tracking him, though, and trying to make sure there's
at least a record of some of what he's saying. They're an amazing
example of what people can do and are doing, and they give me reason
for hope. 
  

    
Yeah, that does sound wonderful. There was also a fine story about
Parsley and Blackwell in the New Yorker about a month ago which was
really eye-opening. 

The question I have, though, is whether there's a possibility for the
Marji and Janices of the world to initiate a mass movement -- or
whether it's necessary to do it on a mass scale when perhaps small
campaigns like theirs are a more effective way to combat these folks.
  

    

This conversation has been both enlightening and chilling, and I thank you
for joining us here for the past two weeks, Michelle and Mark. I know you 
have an incredibly hectic schedule, Michelle, but if you're able to stick 
around longer you're more than welcome to do so. This topic will remain 
open for further discussion indefinitely. 
  

    
I've really enjoyed this.  What a lot of powerful concepts.  Thanks
for all your work on this issue and this book, Michelle, and thanks 
for some excellent questions and comentary, Mark.
  

    
Yes, thank you!
  

    
Me too. I wasn't able to contribute, but the book is on my list to
buy.
  

    
Well worth the dinero.  Lots of work and thought went into it and it's
very well written.  
  

    <scribbled by satyr Fri 8 Sep 06 09:58>
  

    
While there are realtively straightforward measures for phenomena like
sociopathology, "good" and "evil" are a little more slippery.

One way of looking at it is that "evil" is the cerebral cortex's opinion
of the hindbrain, and "good" its opinion of itself.  A more subtle take is
that it's about the cognitive styles of the two cerebral hemispheres, with
"good" being the dominant hemisphere's opinion of itself and "evil" being
its opinion of its counterpart.  If this is accurate, well integrated
individuals could be expected to not relate as strongly to the good/evil
dichotomy as do those who are more dissociated.
  

    
This movie seems to tie in well here.  Check out the trailer:

<http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com/>
  

    
Yesterday's Fresh Air program on NPR featured interviews with John
Hagee, the pastor of a mega-church in San Antonio and the founder of an
organization called Christians United for Israel; Max Blumenthal, who
wrote "Birth Pangs of a New Christian Zionism" for The Nation magazine;
and Gershom Gorenberg, former associated editor of The Jerusalem
Report.

The Christian Zionists are scary, scary folks, man oh man.   
  

    
Yes, I heard that program, too, and had the same reaction.
I'd seen John Hagee before on TV, and he always struck me
as almost a caracature, a walking, talking cliche of the
typical Texas fire & brimstone preacher.  If he didn't 
have influence over so many people, he would simply be
amusing.  But given the influence that he weilds, he is
truly frightening.
  

    
This is the guy who was selling tapes touting the evils of the Harry Potter
series.    HeÃe's lucky that the afterlife he sells is bullshit, because if
it were real, he'd have a straight ticket to hell.
  

    
While I was listening to the interview, it struck me that this guy,
Hagee, isn't stupid. His followers aren't stupid either. It's a mistake
to call up the tired old poor-dirt-farmer-in-overalls cliche' when
describing the typical members of these mega-churches.

I was reminded, though, of something far more sinister than any
Bible-thumping rube caricature. The German people weren't stupid
either. Yet a mass number of them came to believe things that were as
absurd, manipulative and evil as what Hagee's selling, with horrific
consequences. 
  

    
Oh, he's smart alright.   And evil.
  

    
I heard Michelle on the local NPR station yesterday, KWMU in St.Louis.
 Nice to hear the voice to go along with the words here.

Now waiting for my copy of the book.
  

    
fyi, for central texas residents, the Texas Freedom Network is bringing
michelle goldbert to san antonio to speak.  here is the info i have:

Michelle Goldberg
author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism


San Antonio
November 14 | 7:00 pm (free admission)
SoL Center at University Presbyterian Church
(300 Bushnell)

Goldberg’s evening lecture will introduce you to the leaders behind the
rise of Christian extremism in America, and give you a how-to guide for
preserving religious and civil liberties against the religious right.

Goldberg will be available after the presentation to sign copies of her
book.