First up from the God Machine this week is an interesting story about the intersection of evangelicals, politics, and blogging.
Political reporter David Brody is punching his keyboard with two fingers, checking the Web for mentions of his stories. Up pops a liberal blog quoting one of his recent interviews. He’s delighted — until he sees the snippet is attributed to “Pat Robertson’s CBN.”
“Pat Robertson’s CBN,” Brody says in frustration. “We take that as a dig.”
Brody does work for Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, and mostly he’s proud of that fact. But stereotypes are inevitable when you cover politics for a network run by a standard-bearer of the religious right. Brody, 42, has made it his mission to confound them.
By turning his blog into a sounding board for presidential candidates — testing their appeal to the much sought-after evangelical voter — Brody has turned CBN into an unlikely go-to source for political junkies, routinely cited by the mainstream media. In a breezy style with a dash of irreverence, he embraces some liberals and takes aim at some conservatives. That surprises people, and keeps them coming back; his blog, the Brody File, draws about 25,000 page views a month, triple last fall’s numbers.
To Brody, this is not just good journalism. It’s a way of serving God.
It’s not a bad a blog, and the LA Times article is right; I’ve seen Brody’s name popping up with increasing frequency lately.
But if Brody’s offended by Robertson references, he’s at the wrong place. If you work for Robertson’s network, contribute to Robertson’s show, and get paid by Robertson’s company, you’re with Robertson. And if one does not want to be associated with a crazed TV preacher, one should not work for a crazed TV preacher.
Next up is an unexpected piece from the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, who wrote an item mocking Al Gore in a religiously provocative way.
After a six-year absence, Al Gore was greeted more like a liberal folk hero on Capitol Hill than a former vice president. His newfound fame, provided in part by two Oscar awards, helped persuade Senate Environment and Public Works chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to relax the rules on his global warming testimony. Unlike others called to testify, Gore was not required to submit his planned testimony 48 hours in advance. Instead Boxer waived the rule, giving Gore preferential treatment and allowing committee members only a few hours to prepare for the hearing. During the session, Gore’s “Chicken Little” scenarios were met with skepticism, particularly from Senate Republicans like Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) who said he, like many scientists, believed the dire global warming projections were a “hoax.” On the House side, the former vice president was called a prophet by some Democratic members but his revelations were challenged by others. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) cited 600,000-year-old scientific evidence that Gore’s carbon dioxide claims are false. (emphasis added)
As Fred Clark noted, that’s an odd choice for Perkins to get excited about — he believes the earth is about 6,000 years old. As Clark put it, “[M]aybe Barton and Perkins just got so caught up with their unsubstantiated attacks on Al Gore that, in their excitement, they forgot that their political careers depend on the support of people they have duped into accepting the unbiblical hucksterism of young-earth, scientific-creationism.”
And finally this week, my friends at Americans United have a reminder about all-too-cozy relationship between Bush’s Justice Department and the religious right movement.
Like other components of the Bush administration, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has become a conduit for advancing the Religious Right’s agenda.
Under this White House, the DOJ has overhauled its Civil Rights Division to focus large amounts of attention on helping “faith-based” organizations receive grants and trolling the land looking for supposed discrimination against evangelical Christians.
The department’s fervid focus on advancing Religious Rights concerns makes its claim “to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans” a mere platitude.
The Civil Rights Division, whose most august moment undoubtedly was its fight to end segregation last century, now has within its fold something called the “Task Force on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.” The task force, headed by Steven McFarland, is intended to help religious groups obtain government funding.
Before joining the DOJ in 2005, McFarland toiled away at Religious Right outfits such as the Prison Fellowship International and the Christian Legal Society.
I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to January 2009.