religion

Pastor John Hagee endorses John McCain for PresidentWhile news media have focused on Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright, little attention has been paid to the endorsement of Republican presidential candidate John McCain by controversial Texas televangelist John Hagee. Hagee has voiced extreme anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish and anti-homosexual views. In a September 2006 interview on National Public Radio, Hagee reaffirmed his view that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment against New Orleans for hosting a homosexual parade. Hagee has also said that the Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves by "turning away from the true God." He referred to Catholicism as a "false cult," and said the religion contributed to Hitler's anti-semitic views. When Hagee endorsed him, McCain said he was "proud" to have the pastor's support. More recently, McCain has been working to distance himself from Hagee's inflammatory comments.

"For US Army soldiers entering basic training at Fort Jackson Army base in Columbia, South Carolina, accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior appears to be as much a part of the nine-week regimen as the vigorous physical and mental exercises the troops must endure," writes Jason Leopold. "At a time when the United States is encouraging greater religious freedom in Muslim nations, soldiers on the battlefield have told disturbing stories of being force-fed fundamentalist Christianity by highly controversial, apocalyptic 'End Times' evangelists, who have infiltrated US military installations throughout the world with the blessing of high-level officials at the Pentagon. Proselytizing among military personnel has been conducted openly, in violation of the basic tenets of the United States Constitution."

Huckabee's "floating cross" campaign adRepublican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee defended his controversial "Floating Cross" Christmas ad against charges that he is leveraging religion to boost his campaign, but journalists trying to understand how Huckabee's religion would affect his policy decisions have largely come up empty. Journalists from Mother Jones magazine seeking copies of Huckabee's past sermons were told by Huckabee's campaign workers that they were "not able to accommodate" requests to see copies of Huckabee's past sermons. A church where Huckabee once served as pastor told the reporters that most of the archived copies of his past sermons were "lost during a remodel," and the rest were "not available to the press." So how can citizens find out how Huckabee's faith might affect his policy decisions? History gives some clues: In 1997, then-Governor Huckabee refused to sign a flood relief bill because it called devastating natural phenomena like floods are tornadoes "Acts of God." Signing such a bill, Huckabee said, would violate his conscience, since he disagreed with saying that "a destructive and deadly force" was an "act of God." Also in 1997, on the eve of a triple execution in Arkansas, Huckabee was asked on a radio call call-in show about his position on the death penalty. Huckabee responded, "Interestingly enough, if there was ever an occasion for someone to have argued against the death penalty, I think Jesus could have done so on the cross and said, 'This is an unjust punishment and I deserve clemency.' " But since he didn't ask for clemency, Huckabee's argument follows, the death penalty is just fine.

Mike HuckabeeBaptist preacher and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee denies knowing about a financial boost he received from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company back in 1994, when RJR donated $40,000 to a secretive organization called Action America. The front group, set up by paid RJR lobbyists J.J. Vigneault and Greg Graves, worked to foster grassroots opposition to a national health care plan then being advanced by the Clinton Administration. RJR funded Huckabee to fly around the country persuading other evangelicals to oppose the health care plan proposed by Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Clintons' plan was to be funded through an additional federal excise tax on cigarettes, which explains cigarette company opposition. Mr. Huckabee, now a Presidential hopeful who is running on morals and ethics, asserts that he was unaware of the donation, but Vigneault claims Huckabee was present at the meeting with the RJR representative where the idea for Action America was hatched. Vigneault even recalls that Huckabee made the rep step outside to smoke.

An anti-abortion group, Colorado for Equal Rights, is gathering signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the 2008 statewide ballot. The amendment, called the "Definition of a Person Act," would confer full legal rights upon fertilized human embryos. Other anti-abortion groups are simultaneously advancing similar measures in other states under different names. In Michigan it is called the "Personhood Amendment" and in Mississippi the "Ultimate Human Life Amendment." Abortion rights supporters warn that these amendments would lead to banning abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and a wide range of birth control methods that make a woman's womb environment hostile to egg fertilization, like intrauterine devices, oral contraceptives and the morning after pill. Despite their vast potential ramifications, these deceptively simple proposed amendments contain no mention of abortion, stem cell research, birth control or any other wording that indicates their ultimate intent.

Iowa Senator Charles Grassley (Republican-Iowa) is investigating reports of lavish spending by Christian televangelists, including Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, Eddie Long, Paula White, and Creflo Dollar. Many of the TV preachers are proponents of prosperity theology, which teaches that financial wealth is evidence of divine favor -- thus explaining why they dip into the donation box to buy themselves multi-million-dollar homes, luxury cars, private jets and other "blessings from God." Faith healer Benny Hinn, another televangelist targeted in Grassley's investigation, is using Ronn Torossian of 5W Public Relations as his spokesman. Torossian, who also represented Hinn earlier this year when he came under investigation by the IRS, stated that his client is obeying all relevant laws.

I received a request recently from a university professor who teaches a course about media literacy. She was wondering if I could help her find videos of the "Shared Values" television ads that the U.S. Department of State produced to improve the image of the United States in Muslim countries shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, so she could show them to her students.

I was a bit surprised to realize that the ads are fairly hard to locate online, but after some searching, we were able to find copies. To ensure that they will remain available, I uploaded the videos to two popular internet repositories: YouTube, where people can easily find them and drop them into their own web pages; and the Internet Archive, which should ensure that they survive for posterity.

Twenty or fifty years from now, scholars wishing to understanding the relationship between the United States and the rest of the world will certainly be interested in studying the "Shared Values" campaign. As my professor friend wrote back after finding the videos, "The ads are a great teaching tool about propaganda." Like most propaganda, they tell us a great deal about how the propagandists see themselves as well as how they want to be perceived by others.

The Gallup polling organization marked the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by publishing a thoughtful analysis challenging the assumption that "religious fanaticism fuels extremism and therefore replacing Muslims' worldview with Western liberalism is the path to victory against terrorism. ... As a starting point, Muslims do not hold a monopoly on extremist views. While 6% of Americans think attacks in which civilians are targets are 'completely justified,' in both Lebanon and Iran, this figure is 2%, and in Saudi Arabia, it's 4%. In Europe, Muslims in Paris and London were no more likely than were their counterparts in the general public to believe attacks on civilians are ever justified and at least as likely to reject violence, even for a 'noble cause.' After analyzing survey data representing more than 90% of the global Muslim population, Gallup found that despite widespread anti-American sentiment, only a small minority saw the 9/11 attacks as morally justified. Even more significant, there was no correlation between level of religiosity and extremism among respondents." Rather than religion, extremists are motivated by the belief that "occupation and U.S. domination" is threatening their societies. "The real difference between those who condone terrorist acts and all others is about politics, not piety," writes Dalia Mogahed.

In a July 2005 PR Watch post, Laura Miller asked whether the U.S. Defense Department's "America Supports You" campaign was an attempt "to boost public support for war and distract ... from criticisms." Turns out, it's even more problematic. As Max Blumenthal reports, the "evangelical entertainment troupe" Operation Straight Up (OSU), which "actively proselytizes among active-duty members of the US military," is an official arm of America Supports You. OSU "plans to mail copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq." The game is based on the Tim LaHaye/Jerry Jenkins books, and players must "kill or convert ... non-believers left behind after the rapture." They're also mailing English and Arabic versions of the evangelical book More Than A Carpenter, "ostensibly intended for proselytizing efforts among Iraqi civilians." OSU will head to the Mideast for a "Military Crusade in Iraq." As OSU leader Jonathan Spinks explains: "At no greater time is our military acceptant of the principles of God and prayer, than when under extreme danger and concerned about their loved ones at home."

Bill Berkowitz reports on the rise of Michael D. Evans: "In recent appearances on two U.S. cable news networks, he was slinging and zinging -- the well-rehearsed pitchman for the Biblical 'End Times' was dead certain that 'Iran is going to have to be attacked' before 2008. He also claimed that during a recent visit to Iraq, he was told by intelligence sources that Iran had given the green light to Hezbollah to unleash suicide bombers in the United States this summer. ... These days, the bestselling author and head of the 'Jerusalem Prayer Team' ... is at the top of his game. On June 3, his new book, 'The Final Move Beyond Iraq: The Final Solution While The World Sleeps', made it onto the New York Times bestsellers' list at number one in the paperback category. ... Evans had 'made himself a major religious movement and media figure long before his new book was published,' CMD's John Stauber ... told IPS. 'He's not just an author, he's a general in God's patriotic army, and he knows how to mobilize his troops.'"