The Fundamentalist: This week in the religious right.

The IRS is asked to investigate a Christian legal group, the GOP alienates Latino evangelicals, and religious leaders ask Sarah Palin to start acting like a Christian.

Sarah Posner | September 10, 2008


1. Religious Leaders Petition Palin: Will You Please Start Acting Like A Christian?

The Matthew 25 Network, a Christian political action committee that is supporting Barack Obama, last week released a letter to Sarah Palin, which, in so many words, called on her to start acting like she follows Jesus's teachings instead of Karl Rove's. The signers, religious leaders of different Christian traditions, said they were "extremely disappointed in Sarah Palin's divisive, sarcastic, and often deceptive address at the Republican National Convention," and asked Palin as "not only as a political figure, but also as a prominent Christian, to recommit herself to campaigning in good faith, with a strong commitment to truth-telling." The letter cited Ephesians 4:25, which reads, "Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are all of the same body."

One of the chief signers, Brian McLaren, is a prominent figure in a movement known as “emerging church”, an eclectic and growing subset of Christians who eschew the theological literalism of the religious right as well as its politics. In an interview this summer, McLaren described what propelled him to support Obama. Referring to U.S. foreign policy after 9/11, McLaren told me that "some of our darker motivations are at work in our national psyche so that fear and even revenge and a desire to reestablish dominance -- I think those are dark motivations, as a Christian."

Compare those words to Palin's description of the Iraq War being part of God's plan, as captured on video at a Wasilla church. (Palin flew to Wasilla that day on the state of Alaska's dime.)

2. Dueling Bible Verses: Mike Huckabee's Hidden Meaning?

Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee decided to focus on another Bible verse -- the one that excoriates the media. Didn't know about that one? From Huckabee's blog: "It was a tremendous week and the launch of Sarah Palin was spectacular. The media never read Genesis 50 -- they would have then known that what they did was ‘throw Sarah in the well.' But they would also know that ‘what they intended for her harm has worked out for her good.'"

Huckabee's verse has a double meaning. He cited Genesis 50:20 ("You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives"), suggesting that the media intended to harm Palin but the good will that come out of it will be the mobilization of the base to elect her. But for anti-choice activists, his use of that verse had another meaning: that something good might come out of the evil of abortion. Jill Stanek, who has viciously disseminated the smear that Obama favors infanticide and will be speaking at the Values Voter Summit this week, wrote a in a 2005 column titled "The Genesis 50:20 Rule" that God is actually allowing abortion as part of a plan for the end-times showdown between Christians and Muslims. "Genesis 50:20 a great pro-life verse," Stanek wrote. "Not only does God plan good to come from evil, but His specific intent by allowing evil is to save many lives . ... God is allowing Satan to "devour" (I Peter 5:8) more babies than any other time in human history . ... Add to that the increasing intensity of hatred by Muslims and the world toward Jews and Christians, and pro-lifers may be participating in a larger war than they understand."

This from someone who says that Obama is scary.

Continued>>
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_fundamentalist_091008