Ethics

Posner on Parsley

By Ed Brayton

Sarah Posner has a detailed look at Rod Parsley, a fast-rising megapreacher who has endorsed John McCain, at the Huffington Post. Her essay delves into the whole Word of Faith movement and the way it overlaps with other elements of the religious right. The Word of Faith movement is an utter fraud, recognized so by serious Christian thinkers, but the leaders of that movement have managed to get themselves wedded to power in many different ways.

Some are directly active in partisan politics, like Keith Butler here in Michigan. Butler ran for the Senate in 2006 and is now Michigan's representative on the Republican National Committee. Others, like Parsley, function as kingmakers, founding organizations that raise money and influencing huge numbers of followers on how to vote the way God allegedly wants them to.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on May 23, 2008 (boomark / email).