Apparently, no clothing is more exciting or controversial than an ankle-length skirt and puffed sleeves. The FLDS has launched an online store where members of the general public can purchase the dresses, long underwear, and other ranch-wear "as seen on TV." [more inside]
posted by cereselle on Jul 1, 2008 - 73 comments

Matt Taibbi goes undercover in one of pastor John Hagee's "Encounter" weekends. Yes, the Hagee who recently endorsed John McCain. Published in Rolling Stone, and a part of Taibbi's forthcoming book The Great Derangement.
posted by JHarris on Apr 27, 2008 - 133 comments

D. James Kennedy , father of Christian Dominionism, has died.
posted by EarBucket on Sep 6, 2007 - 88 comments

Christs, Communists, & Rock 'n' Roll is an excellent introduction to a tradition of anti-rock writings and recordings by the Religious Right. In the 1960s, there was David Noebel who wrote Communism, Hypnotism, & the Beatles and The Marxist Minstrels. In the early 1970s, Reverend Riblett constructs a seven-foot cross out of rock music records and sets it aflame with gasoline. Michael Mills finds hidden Satanic messages in Bow Wow Wow and the Grateful Dead, while Bob Larson valiantly debates Mandy, a 13-year-old fan of the Cure. The motherlode is probably the cassettes of John Todd, who traveled the fundamentalist circuit in the 1970s claiming to be a former witch and a member of the Illuminati, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. (more inside)
posted by jonp72 on Aug 20, 2007 - 31 comments

Science and the Islamic world—The quest for rapprochement. "Internal causes led to the decline of Islam's scientific greatness long before the era of mercantile imperialism. To contribute once again, Muslims must be introspective and ask what went wrong."
posted by homunculus on Aug 7, 2007 - 19 comments

Iranian man stoned to death for adultery after serving 11-year prison sentence. Unsuccessful, unofficial investigation here. Amnesty International pleads for life of his partner.
posted by shivohum on Jul 20, 2007 - 44 comments

Sir Salman Rushdie versus the Republic of Pakistan. Rushdie is not one to shy from confrontation (previously) - he's a grand master of the fine art* of the literary feud, sparring with notables including Germaine Greer, John Updike, John Le Carre and (briefly) Martin Amis.
posted by WPW on Jun 19, 2007 - 62 comments

My half year in hell... Foreign exchange students are often deceived and economically abused by their hosts, with incidents on the rise across the US. The CSFES reports often on these horror stories. Sadly, students are also treated horribly by the US government, even though academic experts say they are more essential than ever.
posted by yonation on Nov 15, 2006 - 56 comments

Is it time to get excited? Looking at the Rapture News, I'd say yes! However, the Rapture Index (previously) remains unchanged. For some, the timing is in doubt.
posted by pandaharma on Jul 14, 2006 - 64 comments

The Interpretative Dance Theocrats. Inspired by Salon's excerpt from Michelle Goldberg's new book, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, this handy guide will resolve your confusion over Christian theological jargon. [via]
posted by monju_bosatsu on May 22, 2006 - 15 comments

Steering Them Wrong: How Schools Push Kids to Accept Pro-Gay Dogma.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket on May 3, 2006 - 129 comments

Who will send this -er- Apology letter to us- um left belowers if all the predispensationalist and milleniest fundies are raptured? via the awesome growabrain
posted by svenvog on Sep 28, 2005 - 35 comments

Iran executes two teenagers. Their crime? Making love. Homosexuality is a crime under Sharia law. Meanwhile, newly "liberated" Iraq moves closer to embedding traditional Islamic laws in its new constitution, reducing rights for women. Will Iraqi gays be the next to suffer the wrath of "Allah's law" after years of secular oppression under Saddam Hussein?
posted by digaman on Jul 21, 2005 - 109 comments

The legislature is trying to impose its conception of "family values" on the state by banning spanking. Another case of religious fundamentalists imposing their values on everyone and meddling with individual liberties? Meet the sponsor. (Also see recent non-binding resolution nearby.)
posted by thedevildancedlightly on Jun 11, 2005 - 110 comments

Creationism: God's gift to the ignorant - Richard Dawkins talks about how the Fundamentalists distort science.
posted by bshort on Jun 3, 2005 - 58 comments

Ethan Acres demonstrates the Rapture. The Reverend Acres is both a preacher, who wants to "put the fun back into fundamentalism" (turn the sound down) and an art school graduate. He will christen your children if they so desire (and if they are flowers). And he really, really likes Thomas Kinkade. I just wish I could show you his pigs, but you'll have to go to the library.
posted by TimothyMason on Apr 28, 2005 - 14 comments

April 14, 2005: The Day of Truth. On April 13th thousands of students will don black-and-red t-shirts and remain quiet for the ninth Day of Silence in order to "recognize and protest the discrimination and harassment--in effect, the silencing--experienced by LGBT students and their allies." But this year the Alliance Defense Fund, "a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth [yes, "Truth" is capitalized] through strategy, training, funding, and litigation," plans to add a twist to the occasion by following up with its so called Day of Truth in order to protest the homosexual agenda and promote their interpretation of Christianity. Though in their "Hostile Questions" section they claim they're not Day of Silence copycats, in addition to the silent treatment like their DoS foes students who register will receive t-shirts and explanation cards to distribute to inquiring minds, albeit with a slightly altered message. But will it draw participants? Well, Clint Armstrong can't wait--he staged a protest of his own last year.
posted by schroedinger on Apr 13, 2005 - 43 comments

Declaration of Independence Banned at Calif School? WTF? That's what I thought when I first read it. I read more and again I said: WTF? This can't be right! So, I looked around a bit and I realised some people had already a different perspective on this.
posted by acrobat on Nov 25, 2004 - 38 comments

Christ's Entry Into Washington 2008 is a painting by Joel Pelletier featuring a cast of 121 contemporary characters and a theme of fundamentalism on the march. The work is modeled after Christ's Entry Into Brussels 1899, a mural by James Ensor. (via cioran63)
posted by madamjujujive on Nov 12, 2004 - 21 comments

What Jesus Would Do? "...And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died." Jimmy Swaggart (no stranger to scandal and improper behavior in the past) is at it again, this time regarding marriage and gays. Maybe he should stay away from Paul Crouch, Trinity Broadcasting Network's head, currently embroiled in a gay sex scandal. Was Jesus this hypocritical and violent?
posted by amberglow on Sep 19, 2004 - 54 comments

SHOW TUNES 1, FUNDAMENTALISTS 0 [thanks karmakaze]
posted by Pretty_Generic on Sep 18, 2004 - 53 comments

Karate for Christ An inspired blend of Eastern Philosophy and Western Religion or just fundamentalism reaching too far? Also check out Kicks for Christ and the Christian Martial Arts Association . This begs the question: if the diciples were ninjas, would Jesus have died on the cross?
posted by graventy on Sep 6, 2004 - 29 comments

The mind of the fundamentalist (streaming RealAudio) is an hour-long radio show featuring excerpts from talks given at a psychoanalytic psychotherapy conference in Sydney. Three speakers discuss experiences with fundamentalists, and driving factors behind their beliefs. It includes an amazing first-hand account of fundamentalist terrorism by a journalist whos plane was hijacked, and who later tracked down the hijacker and attempted to understand what drove him. The RealAudio-squeamish can find a transcript here.
posted by Jimbob on Apr 29, 2004 - 20 comments

Paul Kurtz on the Enlightenment. Unfortunately, there has been a massive retreat from Enlightenment ideals in recent years, a return to pre-modern mythologies. There has been a resurgence of fundamentalist religions worldwide—Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Roman Catholicism, and Orthodox Judaism. Added to this are occult-paranormal claims, which allegedly transcend the existing scientific paradigm. In the United States—the preeminent scientific-technological-military superpower in the world—significant numbers of Americans have embraced primitive forms of biblical religion. These focus on salvation, the Rapture, and the Second Coming of Jesus. Evangelical Protestant Christians have made alliances with conservative Roman Catholics and neo-conservative Jews, and they have captured political power—power they have used to oppose secular humanism and naturalism. via the council for secular humanism
posted by skallas on Apr 5, 2004 - 75 comments

Tom DeLay off to derail Bush's road map to peace. Calls proposed Palestinian state a, "a sovereign state of terrorists." With even Arial Sharon supporting the Road Map will the bigger challenges come from the fundamentalist infested GOP itself? [more]
posted by skallas on Jul 24, 2003 - 34 comments

An Insider's Look
at the Southern Baptist wing of the Republican party. How religion and politics became so entwined and how fundamentalists took control of a major American denomination.

The Southern Baptist fundamentalists conquered their denomination; they have every reason to hope the Bush administration will make over the world in their image.
...
The separation of church and state, long central to Baptists, is of little interest to the fundamentalists: In 1998, Richard Land, at a strategy meeting with Republicans and members of the religious right, told the Republicans, "No more engagement. We want a wedding ring, we want a ceremony, we want a consummation of the marriage."
posted by nofundy on Apr 18, 2003 - 47 comments

in another thread someone asked "What maniac are we creating right now?", reading this article i this morning - i asked myself the same question. [nytimes]

"The founder of Maon Farm, Yehoshefat Tor, says he still thinks the bombing was a good idea. ''The Torah says we should kill all the Arabs,'' he told me. ''Not just Arabs who maybe help terrorists. Everybody.''"
posted by specialk420 on Feb 16, 2003 - 14 comments

Name That Fundamentalist!
Is everyone ready for some Friday fun? How about online quizzes today? Here's one where you try to guess which fundamentalist is responsible for a quote. Go ahead, give it a try and post your favorites too!
posted by nofundy on Nov 8, 2002 - 14 comments

The Guardian isn't so good at letting you link to their articles anymore. But if you use this link then click on "printable version" you might get to the site I want you to link to. My title being: If you're Jewish and American its hard to know whose side your on these days.
posted by donfactor on Oct 28, 2002 - 20 comments

Nawal El Saadawi seems to think that for any type of fundamentalist religion women are like canaries in the coal mine for the dangers to follow. Female genital mutilation would certainly seem to be a pretty good pointer to get out of the mine, if you ask me. She points out the hypocrisy of the "post-modern veil" and politicians who criticize the Moslem notion of propiety without acknowledging the West's notions of female attire is similarly veiled. I'll grant her that. But, I'd rather wear some smart eyeliner than a head full of burka. I wonder if the propensity of Western couples to have the man drive is anything like the Saudi propensity to disallow women from driving, only with a Western middle class less restrictive enforcement policy? Do the spinsters in Saudi Arabia have sex? And how? And with whom? Why are sexual minorities in 26 Middle Eastern Countries outlawed? What are the reproductive & sensual habits of the Islamist Fundamentalist?
posted by filchyboy on Sep 24, 2002 - 51 comments

Religious Fundamentalism: 1, Science: 0. In a stunning knock-out blow to rational thought, the United States tells Darwin, "Not so fast, bud. We better check with God before naming you the head honcho of evolution." Read the article carefully-on first read the new law sounds benign enough. Legislators claim the law will only require that the "debate" between creationism-evolution be discussed. Sounds simple, right? Think again. Once again, the Ohio mentality begs me to flee this state...
posted by tgrundke on Sep 16, 2002 - 100 comments

It's amazing how good religion is at mobilizing people to do awful, murderous things. There is this dark side to it, and anyone who loves religious experience, including me, better begin to own there - a profound admission - in very well produced piece about 9/11 -
posted by specialk420 on Sep 5, 2002 - 3 comments

Putting the 'fun' back in fundamentalism, and the 'beastly avatars of Satan' back in... cat? (via memepool).
posted by oflinkey on Sep 5, 2002 - 23 comments

Managing Fundie Eruptions. A short course on how Karl Rove manages the fundamentalists who so often disrupt the regime's plans. He gives them what they want, but secretly, kinda like fundie sex.
posted by nofundy on Jul 3, 2002 - 10 comments

The "duh" in Fundamentalism: Jaime Wright's "The Philosophy Of The Bomb". Please scroll down to Essays, Rants, Etc...
posted by protocool on May 30, 2002 - 6 comments

The Death of Evangelism. Matt Sturges (of Clockwork Storybook fame) writes in his blog about how traditional Christian evanglism turns people off more than it draws them in. Are Fundamentalists actually converting people, or just shooting themselves in the foot? Entertaining and informative reading, whether or not you're Christian.
posted by RylandDotNet on May 14, 2002 - 22 comments

The good news is that there is no religious war, the bad news is that a time bomb blast killed 7 in a Russian market; 14 Christians were killed in Indonesia; a 5 year old killed and three other under 15 injured in Israel. All in one day.
posted by semmi on Apr 28, 2002 - 10 comments

An Algerian defendant tells a court of his transformation from an irreligious drug dealer on the streets of Germany to an Afghanistan-trained militant, and the psychic journey of some young Muslim slackers in England to become fighters for Al-Qaeda (NYT).
posted by semmi on Apr 24, 2002 - 14 comments

Tne Science and the Sacred programme features links on fundamentalism and religious violence. The inner apocalypse and schizophrenia. Study of the neurobiology of religious experience is relatively recent.
posted by sheauga on Mar 28, 2002 - 2 comments

Alabama Chief Justice on homosexuality: "abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature". The Christian Coalition applauded. This is the same judge who tacked up the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. I'm just happy we learned some lessons from the Taliban.
posted by owillis on Feb 20, 2002 - 80 comments

Finally a reason to be proud you're a an atheist lefty. There perhaps, isn't a publication more vapid than Focus on the Family's hip christian, college age marketed offshoot "Boundless". In this treasure, the author trashes the intellectual individualism his conservative ideology doesn't afford him. Don't miss the wonderful blurb on the left sidebar which reads: ROTC recruiters never tire of citing the army's desperate need for the kinds of bright minds and "independent thinkers" needed in today's mobile, high-tech military; and yet many of the most promising candidates remain all but off limits to them. I'm glad I'm from another planet. Obviously.
posted by crasspastor on Nov 26, 2001 - 79 comments

XP demonstrates "Intelligent design." You mean they didn't evolve it with genetic algorithms? Boy, I could swear the past versions were composed of randomly generated code fragments. (Do read the original article.)
posted by badstone on Nov 14, 2001 - 7 comments

Naipul thinks the causes of Sept. 11 are religious, not American foreign policy. (NYT) "There is a passage in one of the Conrad short stories of the East Indies where the savage finds himself with his hands bare in the world, and he lets out a howl of anger. I think that, in its essence, what is happening.The world is getting more and more out of reach of simple people who have only religion. And the more they depend on religion, which of course solves nothing, the more the world gets out of reach."
posted by semmi on Oct 27, 2001 - 36 comments

"To me, every fundamentalist Muslim, no matter how peaceable in his own behavior, is part of a murderous movement and is thus, in some fashion, a foot soldier in the war that bin Laden has launched against civilization." a comment by Daniel Pipes If Muslim fundamentalists are this bad I wonder what his views are of the other religious fundamentalists
posted by Qambient on Oct 22, 2001 - 49 comments

Terror and Liberalism I have found this piece in The American Prospect to be one of the most balenced pieces I have yet come across. It considers all aspects of the terrorist groups--Israel, American policy, poverty, Iraq, fundamentalisim, history of the area, westernization, etc and finds the rights and wrongs in each, offering finally a way to cope with things in the future while at the same time dealing with present needs. In other words, it avoids the overly simplistic formulas offered by so many stalwarts of the far Right or far Left.
posted by Postroad on Oct 5, 2001 - 12 comments

Fundamentalism Reaches Fever Point on U.S. Soil. Extremism is spreading and is now affecting our very own. Or as Greta Garbo's famously didn't say "I vont to be alone!". The question is: do you?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Sep 21, 2001 - 31 comments

Understanding Fundamentalism An anthropology professor explores the common threads of fundamentalism ranging from Native American revivalism, Christian fundamentalism, the Islamic Movement, Jewish Orthodoxy and Shinto and how they give rise to vigilante groups such as Operation Rescue, American militias, Hamas and Gush Emunim.
posted by kliuless on Sep 15, 2001 - 5 comments

Blair just made an address the the British people where he pledged once again his full support for the US, and also emphasised how almost all muslim groups were shocked and outraged by this tragedy and offered their thoughts and prayers to the US people. I was astonished and saddened yesterday by the BBC, who chose to represent UK muslims by AM, an extremist fundamentalist faction whose representative made comments like this was a perfectly legitimate target under jihad, and all muslims who believe this a tragedy cannot call themselves muslim. Jihad does not allow murder of civilians on pain of death.. This is not the first time the BBC has asked this group to represent us, please call 08700 100 222 to complain to the BBC if you feel as saddened by this as I do..
posted by Mossy on Sep 12, 2001 - 15 comments

Everyone talks about how CAP should review the Bible, looks like someone did it for them. For those who don't know what CAP is just pick a movie and read the fundie commentary.
posted by skallas on Sep 3, 2001 - 8 comments

Jack Chick Parody Site is up. Not surpringly, Chick Publications isn't pleased.
posted by milnak on Jan 8, 2001 - 6 comments