Show 204: Jeff Sharlet – “BattleCry”

Audio here!

This Sunday, join co-host Sunsara Taylor for an exciting talk with Jeff Sharlet about BattleCry, the Christian fundamentalist movement that is training an army of youth to conquer the country and the world for their hateful, intolerant god.

In a recent issue of Rolling Stone, Jeff Sharlet, religious scholar and widely published author, took this exposure further in his piece, “Teenage Holy War: Behind-the-scenes with the most militant Christian youth crusade in America”

Excerpt: “Luce ends his rallies with an illustration from the Book of Judges: the story of a man who, after he gives over his concubine to be gang-raped, kills the disgraced woman and cuts her into twelve pieces, then sends one to each of the tribes of Israel as a reminder of what happens to the ungodly. For a finale, Luce or one of his junior pastors dissects a mannequin labeled with the sins of secularism and then – to the cheer ‘Cut up the concubine!’ — sends his assistants into the crowd to distribute the pieces.” (for the full piece, see here )

In March of 2006, Sunsara Taylor reported from inside BattleCry’s stadium, writing the first national exposure of this growing Christian fascist youth movement that has connections all the way up to George Bush himself. Her three part series appeared in TruthDig.com (here) and CounterPunch.org.

Show 195: Heidi Ewing

This interview was originally aired in part on February 2, 2007

Audio here!

From Wilipedia: “Jesus Camp is a documentary about the “Kids On Fire” summer camp, located just outside Devils Lake, North Dakota and run by Becky Fischer and her ministry, Kinds in Ministry International. The film focuses on three children who attended the camp in the summer of 2005 – Levi, Rachael, and Victoria (Tory). All three children, despite their youth, are very devout charismatic Christains.

At the camp, Fischer stresses the need for children to purify themselves in order to be used by God. She strongly believes that children need to be in the forefront of turning America toward conservative Christian values. In one scene shot at Christ Triumphant Church, Lou Engle, the chief “prophet” … preaches a message urging children to join the fight to end abortion. He prays for George W. Bush to have the strength to appoint “righteous judges” who will overturn Roe v. Wade.”

Show 187: Lauren Sandler

Audio here!

There’s a new youth movement afoot in this country.  It’s a counterculture fusion of politics and pop, and it’s taking over a high school near you.  Like the waves that came before it, it’s got passion, music, and anti-authority posturing, but more than anything else, this one has God.  So what does it mean when today’s youth counterculture has a mindset more akin to Jerry Falwell’s than Abbie Hoffman’s?

In Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement, Lauren Sandler, a dynamic young secular journalist, reports from this junction of Evangelicalism and youth culture, traveling across the country to investigate the alternative Christian explosion.

Continue reading “Show 187: Lauren Sandler”