Hey folks — I know, I know, I kinda dropped off the face of the internets. I even got an inquiring email or two asking after my welfare and I’m touched by that.

I don’t have much to say right at the moment, but I really wanted to post a segment that aired on The Current on CBC Radio this morning. It’s called “For God and Country,” and it’s a documentary about a soldier who was stationed at Abu Ghraib (after the scandal) as an interrogator. He was a non-denominational evangelical Christian, and after a period of time interrogating jihadis at Abu Ghraib he applied for and received conscientious objector status. He’s very articulate in telling his story as he talks about the moment he realized that all of his Christian role models - Paul, Bonhoeffer, etc. - were prisoners and that given that he would actually be more comfortable in the place of the orange-jumpsuit-wearing jihadi.

It’s not an “America sucks” kind of piece. It’s about the nature of warfare and how incompatible it is with Biblical Christianity.

Go here and click on “part three” at the bottom to listen.

As some of you know, I work at a magazine. Here is an excerpt of an article a friend of mine wrote, “reviewing” the Franklin Graham Festival that came through town a few weeks ago for the upcoming issue. I share it with you now.

An obviously horrified Jon Schledewitz arrives to take pictures for Uptown just as Newsboys lead singer John James (real name) begins to lead a cheer usually only heard at international hockey matches: “CAN-A-DA! CAN-A-DA!” thousands of voices cry out. Geoff and I both have the look of fear. Finally after a relentless evangelical seizure song by John James, the Newsboys are finished. The legion of screaming Jesus children fall quiet and walk like zombies to sit in perfectly ordered rows at the back of the floor. After a couple of hymns led by the Tommy Coomes Band with Tommy Walker, it’s time for the main event. Sporting a Harley Davidson motorcycle jacket and a resolute smile, Franklin Graham takes the stage and is immediately attacked by a yellow jacket. (Go wasps!) The preacher quickly kills the insect with a [copy of the Winnipeg] Free Press and then starts preaching some of his classic tunes. “Abortion is Murder” and “Homosexuality is a Sin” garner relatively little applause. Then he starts inviting those who have sinned to come up to and repent so Jesus can give them a sponge bath and wash their souls squeaky clean. Schledewitz follows a few of them only to be stopped by Graham security. We’re not so daring to get more tape. By now, our recorder is out of juice and there would be no point. I’ve had enough from the man who, on previous occasions, wanted to nuke Afghanistan and called Islam an evil and wicked religion. “He’s giving Jesus a bad name,” I tell Geoff as we quietly exit out into the streets. God bless reality.

Democracy Now! had a segment this morning featuring Michelle Goldberg who has just written a book called Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. It looks like her book is about all the typical dominionism stuff, but I thought she had some very interesting observations in the interview. She talked about the way the megachurch phenomenon interacts with the suburban/exurban phenomenon, and how brand new, non-urban areas have no built-in social infrastructure (central coffee shops, community organizations) like older urban environments do, and how megachurches nicely fill that void (with gyms, after-school programs, and often coffee shops as well!). When the megachurch becomes the foundation of the community, it provides the ideal environment to foster the kinds of nationalism and dominionism we’ve seen take hold of the United States.

What brings this all to the headlines is, of course, the Memphis church who has erected a copy of the Statue of Liberty who hoists a wooden cross instead of a torch.

You can listen to or watch today’s Democracy Now! at their website; there are various download/streaming options.

Very seldom to politicans capture my heart the way Barack Obama has. And it’s not just because he’s Really Really Good-looking. No, it’s because he’s charismatic and cool, two other relatively superficial aspects but perhaps slightly more important than physical attractiveness. Two years ago when I was enjoying the theatrical spectacle that was Indecision 2004 and its accompanying partisan conventions (I am continually awed and entertained by the coordinated signage in the crowds, and had to even give the Republicans credit for creating a visual read of their prime accusation against John Kerry by waving thong sandals above their heads and chanting “Flip-Flop!”) Obama’s address to said Democratic gathering was quite enthralling. Finally, a Democrat you can look at and say, “That man could be president.” Indeed, I’d put serious money on him becoming president someday. He’ll beat Hillary to it, at any rate.

Anyway, he’s in the news today saying that Democrats should work harder to “reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans.”

Though I relish any opportunity for a glimpse of Sen. Obama, this is not a particularly newsworthy statement. It is, in fact, common sense, but the Democrats have not been particularly familiar with those two words over the past seven years. Not that the Republicans have, either, but at least they know how to capitalize on people’s church-sponsored fear (of hell, of homosexuals, of anyone in and around the vicinity of the Arab world).

In America, there is no separating religion and politics. If the Democrats want to win, they have to enter the religious arena, which is what Obama is saying here. Here in Canada we don’t have the same dichotomy where anyone who is a “real” Christian automatically votes Republican. Of course, there have been and still are political movements that are girded by a framework of social conservatism and appeals to certain conservative religious communities, mostly here in western Canada, but nothing that approaches the divisiveness in the United States. Even charismatic, totally rad Obama can’t win over the evangelical, conservative Republicans — the Falwell and Robertson crowd, as it were.

But the question is, can the Democrats capture the imaginations of the so-called “religious left?” Does such a movement even exist? The Sojourners crowd is trying to convince people that it does. Or even more importantly, is there centre-of-the-spectrum religious contingent that could be won over, who, when shown that the Republicans appeal to a twisted imperial version of Christianity, would vote Democrat? There has to be, otherwise Christianity is in more trouble than anyone ever thought.

I’m very skeptical. After all, there’s only one Barack Obama and tons of other Democrats who keep on dropping the ball. It’s like Jon Stewart continually asks — “How will the Democrats mess this one up?” It’s not a matter of “if.” I fully expect the Democrats to lose in 2008, especially if they keep up this Hillary Clinton nonsense. I don’t have as much of a problem with Hillary as some, but America is nowhere near ready to elect a woman president, network television dramas notwithstanding. Black men have traditionally achieved rights before women in the US, and there’s no reason to believe the presidency will be any different (another reason why Barack will be president before Hillary). As Ariana Huffington said, if the Democrats nominate Hillary Clinton, it’ll basically be a giant party suicide.

By the same token, if more moderate American Christians don’t stand up to the illogical and unethical tactics of the religious leaders associated with Republican politics, it will only prove to the rest of the world (non-believers, infidels, Canadians) that Christianity is more effed up than we already thought. This kind of bullshit doesn’t serve the Kingdom of God, folks.

technorati tags: barack obama, america, religion, politics, christianity