Anti-Government

Having publicly assured Tiller’s executioner that he acted in “righteousness and mercy,” affable Lutheran pastor Michael Bray, “chaplain” of Christian extremists, spoke with the author a few years back on why America is like Nazi Germany, why it’s okay to kill active abortion providers, and what he means when he says he’s “pro-choice.”

If adding sexual orientation to the hate crimes law saves just one life, it brings redemption (and safety) to us all.

President Obama averages 30 death threats per day, preachers pray publicly for his death, and right-wing pundits speak openly of military coups. Dave Neiwert, author of The Eliminationists, gives some insight into the relationship between extreme rhetoric and acts of violence.

Dick Armey mobilized his protest troops at the Capitol this weekend, and prompted this meditation from our columnist on the dangerous nostalgia for white dominance—then and now—that this anti-Obama movement calls forth.

What looks like discussion about deductibles and co-pays, preventative treatment, and end-of-life care, is really about something else entirely. And then there’s all the yelling.

When the media labels a religious group a “cult,” it fans the flames of intolerance and can endanger the group’s most vulnerable members.

The fantasy realms of online gaming become even more surreal when religion enters the scene; imagine Batman going on pilgrimage to Mecca, or a virtual crucifixion, or massive Bibles, raining from the sky.

While much of the media had no trouble detailing the religious commitment of the Muslim killer of an army recruiter, most profiles painted Scott Roeder as a right-wing, anti-government, anti-abortionist, with a prior arrest history and mental problems. His connection with extremist Christian groups, apparently, is irrelevant.

Obama’s speech marks a radical departure from the prophetically-laden, right-wing rhetoric that cast America and Israel together waiting for Armageddon at the hands of Arab countries. In fact, what if the speech were intended to deconstruct the simplistic mistrust of American Christianity towards Islam?

Is a faux ‘religious left’ being manufactured as an official counterweight to the religious right in the media? Religion Dispatches talks with veteran religious right-watcher Frederick Clarkson about a new book of essays on revivifying a religious left.