Left Behind, pp. 34-35 Rayford Steele sat ashen faced in the cockpit. Half an hour from touchdown in Chicago, he had told the passengers everything he knew. The simultaneous disappearance of millions all over the globe had resulted in chaos far beyond imagination … So far beyond imagination that LaHaye and Jenkins scarcely even try to imagine it for us. … He thought, but didn’t say, how grateful he was to have been in the air when this event had... Read more
Kudos to Ayelish McGarvey for her article "Reaching the Choir" in the April American Prospect. In an insightful and very helpful discussion of American evangelical Christian voters, McGarvey gets right many things that nearly everyone in the mainstream media — and nearly every Democratic strategist — gets wrong. McGarvey rightly ridicules Morley Safer for gullibly embracing the self-promoting, arbitrarily self-appointed spokesmen of the fundamentalist right as representative and typical stand-ins for all evangelicals. McGarvey instead talks to people like Steven... Read more
"Had my administration had any information that terrorists were going to attack New York City on September the 11th, we would have acted." — Pres. George W. Bush, March 23, 2004 So Mrs. Jones has long suspected that her husband has been unfaithful. Most recently, she's become convinced that he is having an affair with his young secretary. She confronts Mr. Jones. "I did not have sex with my secretary," Mr. Jones says, "in New York City on the 13th... Read more
Our paper decided to go with The Washington Post's account of yesterday's testimony before the Sept. 11 commission, from reporters Dan Eggen and John Mintz. In addition to recounting the day's testimony by the current and most recent secretaries of Defense and State, much of the report offered what I guess is supposed to be a summary of the commission's "Staff Statement No. 6: The Military." There were some rather odd sections of Eggens and Mintz's report. Consider this, from... Read more
I noted yesterday that nearly one-third of all American farmers lack health insurance. (About the same rate as for other, nonfarm "self-employed" workers.) In this post I argued that Democrats could make some progress on guaranteeing access to health care for all Americans by talking more about these uninsured farmers. My theory is that this would help to counteract the "immorally moralistic and racial mythology that accompanies their usual attacks on 'welfare handouts for the undeserving and lazy poor.' Talking... Read more
Left Behind, pp. 32-34 As the GIRAT, Buck Williams’ first priority when confronted with a mysterious disaster is to file a report to his editors. This is part of what separates Buck from the pack. Other, lesser reporters might busy themselves with taking notes, interviewing witnesses and gathering as many facts as possible. But, like real-life superstar evangelical reporter Jack Kelley, Buck doesn’t need to do all that. After a cursory glance around the cabin, and without interviewing a single... Read more
A few recent items point to the woes of our friends in the religious right: 1. The Christian Coalition isn't paying its bills. Jon Frank of The Virginian-Pilot reports: A local law firm has asked a judge to garnishee the assets of the Christian Coalition of America to collect more than $75,000 in unpaid legal costs. … The garnishment order may be more of a glitch than an indication of severe financial distress, McKissick said. McKissick said membership and fund-raising... Read more
David Neal didn’t expect to get his nose broken when he tried to opt out of attending a production of "Godspell." That's the lead from this story by Adam Wills in The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Neal, the son of a rabbi, didn't want to attend the school musical — Godspell — at Centennial High in Bakersfield, Calif. But attendance at the performance was mandatory. The incident led to heated religious arguments between David and other students, which... Read more
The Family Steering Committee of the 9/11 Independent Commission would like to ask President Bush: What was the purpose of the several stops of Air Force One on September 11th? Was Air Force One at any time during the day of September 11th a target of the terrorists? Was Air Force One’s code ever breached on September 11th? Read more
The realm of “fan fiction” is one of the few places one can turn to reliably find prose as awful and implausible as the writing of Timothy LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. I have discovered, googling around, that there exists a sub-subculture of fanfic set in the apocalyptic world of L&J’s “Left Behind” series. This is not a world I choose to explore. I imagine that the writers of this fanfic are guilty of the same kinds of aesthetic, theological... Read more
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