oklahoma city bombing

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.”

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.

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.

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.

Those who cling to a harrowing scrap of an otherwise marginal biblical text want the rest of us to believe that it amounts to persecution to ask them to unclench their fists so that all of us can live together in peace.

Rep. Sally Kern has discovered the secret Gay Agenda, she tells her compatriots at the John Birch Society.

A humble patriot understands that the first task toward self-preservation is critical self-examination, while unhealthy patriotism retreats into the “us against them“ stance…