“I guess this 180, if you’re talking about politics, would take me from being a radical, right-wing, bomb-throwing evangelical on the far right to a position of what I would call ‘moderate sanity,’ in terms of social views and political views.”
That’s Frank Schaeffer, talking with me yesterday on KTRS/St. Louis about “Sex, Mom, and God,” his latest book about how he left behind a fundamentalist upbringing and years spent as one of the founders of the Religious Right to become an Obama-supporting critic of both the Republican party and the church, particularly in their dangerous overlap when it comes to political leadership.
In our conversation, Schaeffer went after the GOP candidates who prefer faith over facts regarding the economy, global warming, abortion, and more — essentially taking the evangelical agenda (that he helped develop even before Reagan became president) and continuing to push it into the public policy arena today. He correctly sees the emphasis on social issues like gay marriage and abortion as a distraction from the real problems facing America. That’s just what manipulative power brokers like the Koch Brothers and Goldman Sachs want, because they’re not interested at all in the social issues, but rather in reducing regulation of their businesses. So, the more they can foment distrust of government and incite Tea Party-like resentment of all things official — to the point where middle-class Americans vote against their own economic interests — the better it is for their bottom line.
You don’t hear many people explaining the synergy between politics, religion, and greed as well as Schaeffer does here. Listen, then click here to subscribe to these podcasts via iTunes!
By the way, the full title of Schaeffer’s book is “Sex, Mom, and God: How the Bible’s Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics — and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway.”