Sinners on the counterattack<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The panic may strike in the shelter of a Starbucks, when a customer realizes that a quote from evangelical superstar Rick "The Purpose Driven Life" Warren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/03\/sinners-on-the-counterattack\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sinners on the counterattack\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The panic may strike in the shelter of a Starbucks, when a customer realizes that a quote from evangelical superstar Rick "The Purpose Driven Life" Warren\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/03\/sinners-on-the-counterattack\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-03-07T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-30T21:44:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/03\/sinners-on-the-counterattack\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/03\/sinners-on-the-counterattack\/\",\"name\":\"Sinners on the counterattack\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-03-07T13:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-30T21:44:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"The panic may strike in the shelter of a Starbucks, when a customer realizes that a quote from evangelical superstar Rick \\\"The Purpose Driven Life\\\" Warren\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/03\/sinners-on-the-counterattack\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/03\/sinners-on-the-counterattack\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/03\/sinners-on-the-counterattack\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sinners on the counterattack\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":1428,"date":"2007-03-07T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-07T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2007\/03\/07\/sinners-on-the-counterattack\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T16:44:03","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T21:44:03","slug":"sinners-on-the-counterattack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2007\/03\/sinners-on-the-counterattack\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinners on the counterattack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This would cause any latte-sipping liberal to mutter \u201cOh my goddess\u201d and worry about legions of Focus on the Family donors invading Wiccan book clubs in Unitarian sanctuaries from sea to shining sea.<\/p>\n\n

Does thinking about this give you sweaty palms? If so, writer Robert Lanham of New York City believes you may be suffering from \u201cEvangophobia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a healthy fear. \u2026 The evangelical right isn\u2019t the new counterculture. It\u2019s the new mainstream culture,\u201d notes Lanham, in his book \u201cThe Sinner\u2019s Guide to the Evangelical Right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWorst of all, many evangelicals aren\u2019t content watching The 700 Club and attending laser-light projections of the crucifixion at the local megachurch. They want to transform the culture you consume to fit their standards. \u2026 And compounded by the fact that evangelicals often share similar goals with conservative Jews, Catholics and Bill O\u2019Reilly, we may soon witness a ratings\u2019 sweeps plotline where Will marries Grace after attending a gay deprogramming class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Lanham realizes that evangelical politicos haven\u2019t won many national victories on the hot-button issues that worry him the most \u2014 gay rights and abortion. Nevertheless, he is convinced that alliances between conservative believers and secular conservatives have resulted in \u201ctrickle down\u201d policies on taxes, health care, environmental laws and strategies in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cFundamentalists of every kind,\u201d he said, \u201ckeep clinging to beliefs that can be very destructive. They are advocating religious teachings that divide people, rather than bind them together. \u2026 They are always on the attack and if we don\u2019t buckle down, the next thing you know, they will be running the country \u2014 again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

It helps to understand that Lanham grew up in a non-dancing Southern Baptist home in Richmond, Va. Things got even worse, he said, when he was a teen-ager and his parents joined the kind of Pentecostal<\/a> flock that \u201cused live camels in the Easter pageant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Virginia Commonwealth University beckoned, where Lanham majored in English and religion and soon discovered that his activities on Fridays and Saturdays were trumping beliefs he had been taught on Sundays. Before long he was writing \u201cThe Hipster Handbook\u201d and his fiction trilogy \u201cPre-Coitus,\u201d \u201cCoitus\u201d and \u201cAftermath.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The new book on evangelicals contains more of what Publisher\u2019s Weekly called his unique brand of \u201ccaricature assassination.\u201d Thus, there are angry mini-profiles of alpha males like Dr. James Dobson (\u201cThe Evangelical Pope\u201d), Tim LaHaye (\u201cThe Evangelical Stephen King\u201d) and the young Joel Osteen (\u201cThe Evangelical P. Diddy\u201d). Along the way, he mocks the doctrine of the Trinity, rips into the Gospel of John and, with a note of sadness, confesses that liberal mainline churches have become fading enclaves for<\/p>\n

\u201cold people and pansies\u201d who use hymnals.<\/p>\n\n

Lanham stressed that he really doesn\u2019t hate evangelicals, conservative Catholics, Orthodox Jews and other traditionalists. He does, however, believe that most evangelicals are guilty of \u201cdumbing down the faith\u201d and consuming shoddy Christian consumer goods that deserve ridicule. Thus, his list of modern evangelical commandments includes statements such as:<\/p>\n\n

* \u201cThou shalt live in the suburbs, eat at the Olive Garden and wear clothes made from polyblend fabrics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

* \u201cThou shalt become aware of pop culture trends eight years after the fact and co-opt these trends for Christian culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

* \u201cThou shalt own a support the troops car magnet, a fish bumper sticker and\/or an embroidered flag sweater.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

* \u201cThou shalt not speak ill of they neighbor, unless thy neighbor is gay. Then it\u2019s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The key, said Lanham, is that he \u2014 along with many others on the religious left \u2014 cannot accept the ancient belief that the Christian Gospel is the unique pathway to salvation. This is the kind of doctrine<\/p>\n

that he believes creates fear and division.<\/p>\n\n

Also, in the wake of the Sexual Revolution, there is one issue that towers over all others today.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt does seem that the evangelical right has set out to repeal the values of the Woodstock generation,\u201d he said. \u201cThe key issue is gay rights. I decided that I couldn\u2019t stand back and let the James Dobsons of this world continue to attack gay people. That\u2019s the issue that has made people like me want to take the gloves off and fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"