religion

Klaus Pfeiffer

Klaus Pfeiffer — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:06:42 -0700

Born in Piene, Germany in 1952.
Emigrated to Saint Louis Park, Minnesota in 1956.
Joined US Army in 1970.
Served in 1st Calvary Division in Phuc Vein, Vietnam.
TDY with 1st Marine Air Wing in Marble Mountain near Da Nang, Vietnam.
Served in 1st Aviation Division, US Army, at Dong Ba Thin, near Cam Ron Bay, Vietnam.
Honorably discharged in 1972 to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Spent several years searching for happiness in every conceivable place. Wound up at the bottom of a self excavated trench with holes in my arms and a big one in my head.
Moved to California in 1978 to try and establish a relationship with my father who I had been at odds with most of my life.
Managed to find a job as a swordfish spotter on a commercial fishing vessel, the Volare. The beginning of what would become my "life of Riley."
After a rough start and an unwillingness to give up became good friends with dad and enjoyed a father son relationship the way it is supposed to be by the time he died in 1982.
Attended Mira Costa College in Oceanside on the GI bill. Received an AA degree in set design.
Began working construction as a laborer after college.
Learned how to snow ski at Big Bear Lake, which has proven to be a new lease on life ever since.
Attended welding school on the GI bill.
Attended Control Data School of Micro-Electronics courtesy of EDD of California. Graduated top of class.
Continued working in construction now as steel painter. Working at high elevations, in confined spaces, and frequent sand blasting.
Tried my hand at self employment after re-uniting with a college chum. Formed a set design and construction company called Get A Grip and prospered in the very limited market of San Diego. Involved in several hidden camera commercials for Tylonol. Involved in several shots for Times-Warner. Involved in several local Toyota commercials as well as many live event stages and studio sets. However my college chum had a cohort who became a major thorn in the flow of energy and thus business. After a confrontation I elected to resolve my interests in the venture and sadly said good bye.
Returned to construction as an apprentice operating engineer. Have been employed by most if not all the large construction engineering companies in San Diego. I have been employed operating trenchers, forklifts, loaders, rollers, bulldozers, scrapers, cranes, elevators, man lifts, and tractor trailer rigs. I have decked on several dredges as well as a tug boat.
Then the Great State of California changed the emission standards regarding off-road construction equipment in 2006 and the excavating and grading industry died overnight.
A picture of well planned political despotism has become ever increasingly clear. It has been years in the making, and its gradual and incremental deployment has all but hidden the insidious roots and purposes of the global elite and their extraordinary greed and avarice.

Sarah Palin and the Infamous Three Gs

Frazer Merritt — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:05:06 -0800

Despite Sarah Palin’s lack of knowledge and experience, the Religious Right loves her. Gays, Genocide, and God appear to be the reasons, but is there scriptural basis for it?

kriselda jarnsaxa

kriselda jarnsaxa — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:37:16 -0700

I'm a married Heathen who lives in Kansas. We have no children (by choice), but 2 dogs and a cat we spoil like crazy. I've been disabled for several years and am homebound, so I keep myself busy reading, writing and playing online role playing games. Music is also very important to me, and when my wrist isn't screwed up, I play guitar (intermediate level). Politically I'm something of a moderate liberal, and have an interest in studying political scandals. I read a lot about conspiracy theories - not because I buy into them, but because I like to understand the ideas and hypothesizes behind them so I can better discuss them with people who are still rational :)

Tony ODoherty

Tony O'Doherty — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:33:00 -0700

Born and grew up in Ireland. Qualified as accountant and moved to general business management, planning and system design and implementation. Moved to the US in 1989. MArried with four grown-up children. Retired, doing occasional on-line projects abd writing.

Jeremiah Wright: What (Else) Is Going On

Sara Robinson — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:38:13 -0700

Jeremiah Wright is everywhere this week -- and the media doesn't quite know what to make of it. Mostly, they're stuck so hard in the election horse-race narrative that they only question they can think to ask is: Does having Wright out there hurt Obama, or help him?

Lost in the tortured pondering over this narrow question -- apparently the only one that matters, to hear them tell it -- is a lot of deeper context, without which none of Wright's current situation and status make a whole lot of sense.

Some of that context has to do with who Wright is, and what role he plays on the larger stage of American religion. Some of it of it is rooted in popular narratives about religion that the GOP has worked overtime to sell; and that the media (along with many Christians) have never questioned. Some of may have to do with the way our broader assumptions about the role religion can and should play in 21st-century American culture and politics could be changing. These three factors are driving a whole backstory that nobody's talking about; but which provides the deeper subtext we need to have if we're going to understand what Jeremiah Wright represents, and the role he plays not just for Obama, but for the country.

Since the corporate media isn't remotely up to the job of explaining all this -- and probably wouldn't if they could -- let me fill you in on what else is going on here.

Liberation Theology versus the Prosperity Gospel
The basic elements of this backstory are deftly laid out in Sarah Posner's thoughtful new book, God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters. The book takes a hard look at the explosive growth of the "prosperity gospel" evangelical subculture, which is frequently found in suburban megachurches -- and is supplanting Martin Luther King's liberation theology in some black churches around the country as well. Posner describes the essence of this consumerist "Word of Faith" gospel:

Word of Faith...emphasizes the power of the born-again believer in Jesus Christ to call things into existence, including the believer's own physical and mental health and, more important, the believer's financial prosperity. Because of its emphasis on the believer's divine right to physical well-being and financial riches, Word of Faith is often called the "prosperity gospel" or the "health and wealth gospel."

...Yet while it presents itself as a benign message of hope and purpose, critics of Word of Faith charge that it is a heresy that robs its followers of spiritual fulfillment, an affinity fraud that robs them of their money, and a distortion of the Scriptures, run by authoritarian preachers who rob their followers of their autonomy.

According to the "Word of Faith" panjandrums, whatever followers give to their preacher, God will return several times over. Forget the bank: if you need a thousand dollars, give the church a hundred, and wait for your supernatural return on investment. Forget the doctor: if you're sick or injured, a little extra in the bucket will incentivize God to restore your health. In an unapologetic return to the glory days before the Reformation, the system even allows people to buy indulgences: you can atone for your sins by helping the pastor buy that new Palm Springs golf retreat his ministry so badly needs!

Taking these mites from desperate and hopeful widows nets top prosperity gospel ministers millions of dollars a year: successful Word of Faith ministers own numerous homes, private jets and expensive cars. And these preachers' followers support their imperial lifestyles wholeheartedly. Jesus said, "By their fruits you shall know them." According to this theology, you can tell the Elect, because they're the ones with the biggest bowl of fruit. It's a belief system tailor - made to justify the most rapacious consumer society in history.

(This divinely-ordained pyramid scheme has not gone unnoticed. Six months ago, Senator Charles Grassley -- R-IA and a staunch Baptist -- took an interest in the way these ministers are using their non-profit status to generate vast fortunes. He asked six of the richest ministers, including Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn, to open their books and submit to investigation of their operations. Four have complied in whole or part; two, including Copeland, are refusing outright, howling that this is a breach of the church-state wall -- you know, that same one they've been working overtime for years to tear down.)

The movement also a strong conservative political undercurrent, which Posner makes explicit:

Politically, Word of Faith is essentially a conservative movement that benefits from conservative policies....The prosperity gospel doesn't need regulation or legislation. A believer doesn't need the government to regulate corporations. If you don't make enough money, it's your own fault for not believing enough, for not speaking the word, for not claiming what is divinely yours. A believer doesn't need a government safety net if things go wrong. As [Rod] Parsley says, "The best thing government can do to help the poor is get out of the way. If government reduced taxes, removed industrial restraints, eliminated wage controls, and abolished subsidies, tariff[s], and other constraints on free enterprise, the poor would be helped in a way that AFDC, Social Security, and unemployment could never match." ...His gospel is the ultimate laissez-faire capitalism, regulated only by the invisible hand of God.

Starting in the Reagan years -- and with considerable practical and moral support from the GOP, which Posner documents -- the prosperity gospel swept through the country's Pentecostal churches, both black and white. To give you some idea of how incestuously this movement is bedded down in GOP politics, consider the fact that John McCain claims Rod Parsley and John Hagee -- two of the nation's biggest purveyors of the prosperity gospel -- as his "spiritual advisors." (A lot of us wondered why he chose these two, who are regarded as nutcases even by many Evangelicals; but reading Posner, the political ends being served become obvious.)

Needless to say: not everybody welcomed this new gospel with open arms. Millions of devout Evangelicals who've read their Bibles and noted Jesus' contempt for greed, as well as those who hew to older and more rigorous theologies like the Social Gospel and King-style liberation theology, find the whole thing beyond offensive and verging on blasphemy. From the beginning, some of the country's leading ministers, both black and white, have taken public exception to the idea of reducing God to the status of a personal ATM machine -- and have pushed back hard against a movement that they feel is a not only an IRS-sanctioned form of fraud, but also a heresy against 2,000 years of Christian teaching.

And here's where Jeremiah Wright comes into the story. According to Posner, Wright has been a visible and articulate critic of the GOP's new pet theology over the years -- one of a noisy clutch of ministers who've made no bones about the mischief inherent in this new theology. He's also a respected and insightful proponent of black liberation theology, holding King's torch high in the face of unscrupulous preachers who think they're helping poor people by cajoling them to vote away their safety net and toss their government checks in the offering plate.

Beyond that: unlike the vast majority of these ministers, most of whom attended small Bible colleges of dubious accreditation (if they attended seminary at all), Wright has degrees from Howard University and the University of Chicago Theological Seminary. It's gotta go down hard that he's a black man who is far better-educated than they are, and can argue circles around them about the Bible or anything else. Take it as a whole picture, and it's not hard to see that Wright is very sharp thorn in these people's sides. As long as he and his friends out there, their 30-year investment in the whole Word of Life movement is at risk. Obama's candidacy put him in the spotlight, and thus magnified the threat. So now he has very powerful enemies on the religious and political right.

Furthermore, turning Wright into a national demon was a two-fer. They could not only tank the Democrats' front-runner; they'd also take down a serious and persuasive theologian who's been calling them out hard on one of their longest-running and most successful efforts to sell the conservative worldview to the very people who stand to be most harmed by it.

That's a big part of what's driving the animus against Wright. It's the issue he was addressing head-on at the National Press Club on Saturday, when he talked about how the storm of criticism surrounding his remarks was, in effect, criticism of the traditions of the black church. It also answers the burning question of why the GOP and the corporate media will not let this go. What's happening here is bigger than just Barack and Hillary and John. It's a struggle between two competing Protestant theologies, both of which claim tens of millions of adherents -- and a galvanizing figure who hasn't gotten the hint, and still keeps standing up for his flock against those bent on shearing them.

A Voice for The Silent Majority
There's another part to this backstory as well. It has to do with the media's dominant narratives about religion in general over the past three decades.

Ever since Reagan came to power, media stories having to do with religion have almost always reflected a basic duality. On one hand, you had urban secularists (including the media people themselves) who had no connection at all to religion, which they regarded as backward and the sign of an inferior mind -- a contempt that was reflected in their generally incomplete and inaccurate coverage of the subject.

On the other hand, you had far-right preachers with loud voices and red faces hollering ignorant and irrational rants about gays, feminists, and liberals. To the secularists, these preachers' histrionics came to represent the evils of all religion; and furthermore, they verified every bias they had against every form of religion. And the hostility was returned in full: to these preachers and their followers, the condescending media coverage nourished their already overfed inferiority and persecution complexes, driving them further and further out of the mainstream.

This polarization was a boon to the conservative movement, because it's exactly the kind of us-versus-them story that conservatism feeds on. It was a key split that created the space to define the preposterously unreal stereotypes of the coastal latte liberal versus the "real American" -- the heartland values voter. And it made those two positions the only acceptable ones in the political or religious dialogue. It forced people to take sides in a war that nobody but the right wing even wanted to fight.

And in drawing that false and forced line, it also rendered vast stretches of America's religious, cultural, and political landscape absolutely invisible. The vast majority of Americans -- educated and moderate believers of many faiths whose understanding of God informs their passionate belief in justice, compassion, equality, and democracy -- got cut out of the conversation entirely, because they lived in a far more nuanced place that didn't look like either side. You never saw their intelligent, well-modulated religious leaders on TV talk shows; you never read interviews with their thinkers and writers in the paper. There was simply no place for them in that artificial narrative -- and since they didn't fit, the vast majority of America's religious people simply ceased to exist as a public or political entity at all.

The conservative ascendancy depended on keeping these people completely cut out of the conversation; and the media, driven by their own biases, dutifully cooperated for years in accomplishing that goal. Without the balance these other voices could offer, the religious right was free to define "religion" (including civil religion) on their own terms, and claim full control of the country's discourse. The first thing they did, of course, was declare all the moderate and liberal people of faith to be apostates, which only silenced them further. They've been out there, quietly fuming and frustrated, ever since.

But Jeremiah Wright appears to be turning his current notoriety into a bully pulpit from which, at long last, that forced silence might finally be broken. Listening to his interview with Bill Moyers last Friday, I felt like I was hearing something strong and intelligent and real and wise -- the kind of nuanced spiritual voice most of us have never heard on TV in our lifetimes (though the fortunate among us have always heard them in our churches). It was the voice of that suppressed and silent majority, the people of faith whose concerns and insights have been so thoroughly stifled that they've been utterly absent from the discourse for three long decades. Wright gave us a sharp reminder of what liberal Christian voices can sound like at their best. I hope he also whetted an appetite for out-of-the-box moral thinking that will allow us to hear more -- not just from Christians, but from many traditions. The broader the perspectives and the more corners we hear from, the better our responses to the current challenges will be.

Wright's current media blitz is no doubt an effort to capitalize on his infamy -- and, perhaps, help Obama by leaning into the controversy rather than shying away from it. (Honestly: does he have any other choice?) He may be hoping that the more we see of him, the more people will understand who he is, and the harder it will be for the slanders to stick.

But whatever his motives, I wish him well. It's just so remarkable, after all these years of blackout and blacklisting, to hear a moral voice that's not bought and paid for by the religious right, and not out there selling more fraudulent scams in the Great Republican Con. In Wright, we've finally got strong voice out there who knows how to call them on their game.

Daniel Maguire

Daniel Maguire — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:42:45 -0700

DANIEL C. MAGUIRE
Professor of Ethics
Marquette University
Milwaukee, WI 53233

Home telephone: (414) 961-0139
FAX (414) 961-2150
Email: maguired@juno.com

BOOKS PUBLISHED:

--Moral Absolutes and the Magisterium, Corpus Books, 1970
--Death By Choice, Doubleday, 1974: republished 1975, Schocken Books; Second Edition, Doubleday, 1984, Translated into Spanish, La Muerte Libremente Eligida, Sal Terrae, 1975
--The Moral Choice, Doubleday, 1978. Republished Winston Press, 1979.
--A New American Justice: Ending the White Male Monopolies, 1980
Republished in a new edition as A Case for Affirmative Action, Shepherd, Inc. 1992
--The New Subversives: Anti-Americanism of the Religious Right, 1982
--The Moral Revolution, 1986
--On Moral Grounds: The Art/Science of Ethics, with A. Nicholas Fargnoli, 1991
Translated into Italian: L=Etica Come Arte e Come Scienza, Edizioni Dehoniane Bologna, 1998
--The Moral Core of Judaism and Christianity, 1993. Translated into Italian, Il Cuore Etico della Tradizione Ebraico-Cristiana, Cittadella Editrice, 1998
--Ethics for a Small Planet (with Larry Rasmussen), 1998
--Sacred Energies: When the World=s Religions Sit Down to Talk about the Future of Human Life and the Plight of This Planet, 2000
--Visions of a New Earth: Religious Perspectives on Population, Consumption, and Ecology, co-edited with Harold Coward, State University of New York Press, 2000.
--What Men Owe to Women: Men=s Voices from World Religions, co-edited with John Raines, State University of New York Press, 2000

--Sacred Choices: The Right to Contraception and Abortion in Ten World Religions, Augsburg Fortress, 2001.
--Sacred Rights: The Case for Contraception and Abortion in World Religions, Oxford University Press, 2003
---A Moral Creed for All Christians, Fortress Press, 2005
---The Horrors We Bless: Revisiting the AJust War@ Legacy and Building and Ethics of Peace, Fortress Press, 2007
Forthcoming from The New Press, 2008 Whose Church? A Concise Guide for Progressive Catholics
ARTICLES PUBLISHED:

Over 250 Articles Published in Various Scholarly Journals and in such publications as:
The New York Times, Atlantic, USA Today, The Crisis: Journal of the NAACP, Ms. Magazine

DANIEL C. MAGUIRE, p. 2

Topics of some of the articles

ADifferent But Equal: A Moral Assessment of Woman's Liberation"
"The Psychotherapist as Moralist"
"The Freedom to Die"
"Pigeon Ethics: The Moral Philosophy of B. F. Skinner"
"Liberal/Conservative Tensions, Doing Justice to Justice,"
AThe New Look of Death"
"Affirmative Action at Bay
Sex and Ethical Methodology.

POSITIONS HELD:

 President of The Society of Christian Ethics, 1981 (This society is the largest professional society in the field, including 900 Protestant and Catholic ethicists in the United States and Canada.)
 President of The Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics, 1994-present

TELEVISION APPEARANCES:

Has appeared on: DONOHUE, NIGHTLINE, TODAY,
THE DAVID SUSSKIND SHOW, NOT FOR WOMEN ONLY,
PRE-ELECTION SPECIAL WITH DAN RATHER,
THE CBS MORNING NEWS, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, ABC EVENING NEWS

HONORS:

 Listed by Ms. Magazine as one of the 40 male heroes of the past decade, men who took chances and made a difference, 1982

 Best Scholarly Book of the Year, for The Moral Choice, The Council of Wisconsin Writers, Inc.1978

 Torch Bearer Award, Cream City Business Association, Milwaukee

 Voted one of the ten best teachers at The University of Notre Dame after 1983-84 year as Visiting Professor

Jon Dainty

Jon Dainty — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:39:56 -0700

Beginning of a New Age

Michael Dewey — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:23:53 -0700

Beginning of a New Age

Since the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth has been preached all over the World for a witness to the Nations as The Lamb said in Matthew 24:14 we are clearly living near the dawn of a New Age. The age of that child in Isaiah 9:6 who's Kingdom will have Peace from “that time on and forever.” The song Age of Aquarius describes it pretty good, along with Lennon's Imagine.
Isaiah 2 and Micah 4:3 says they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against Nation and never again will they train for War. We won't have the trouble President Eisenhower warned about in his farewell address of the Giant Military Industrial Complex. Won't that free up lots of this Land's problems by giving us more cash to play with?
Many wise Men have seen that a Standing Army has been the “bane of liberty since the sword. America must show the rest of the world how to combine technology with nature.
The Christian Church won't like this statement but I can see that most New Testament as writings that were meant for the people living at the time of those writings. The Gospels are basically just records of History, except for the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and Luke where Christians are told to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile. The most important verse of the whole New Testament is in Acts where the early Saints held all their possessions in common. To me, that sounds more like Communism than Capitalism.
If you look at the 4 horsemen of Revelations 6 and look at history you will see that the Kings of the earth and others, have had Authority to wage war. They have been riding for thousands of years. Even People have had Authority to take Peace from the Earth.
The Lamb said in Mathew 24 that these days would be shortened or else no one would have survived, even the elect, if that were possible. They were partly shortened by John Lennon's death in the Big Apple. And isn't the heart and soul of Lennon's Imagine having all things in common.
I can only ask you to read Daniel 2, & 7-12, which is all one vision broken up in parts. Then take some time to look around at the times we live in. For these times are just like 200 years ago here, and 2000 years ago in Israel.
Daniel 8:9-14 was kept secret in 8:26. It is a vision of a horn (The establishment of today.) which grew up to the hosts of heaven and dragged stars and hosts out of the sky and trampled them. That is pretty much explained by Jacob's Ladder, which was a dream of Angels coming up and down a ladder. Which Folk Singers have been singing about for some time with the words, “We are climbing Jacob's Ladder. Every rung going higher and higher making us stronger and stronger.” So I hope that explains that no super man is going to be coming flying out of the sky, like so many people have lots of other people waiting for.
Let me tell you this about the Peals of Thunder sealed up in Revelation 10 being Rock and Roll. I was writing one of my 4 Brothers about all the good things that were to happen in the last days, like the Lion laying down with the calf, Children playing by the Cobra Den, our beating our swords into Union led plowshares, old men dreaming dreams, when this thought popped into my head and I wrote it down just as it came to me, "We may very well have been hearing the 7 peals of thunder thunder for sometime now" and I wrote it down just as it came to me, without ever remembering hearing of the Peals of Thunder. I knew right away they were Rock and Roll. Take a good look around at the last 50 years and you will clearly see, that it is Rock and Roll which has been singing about true freedom and peace. You can find some of those words that were kept secret in the last advice given to John in Revelation 22:10-11 where he is told to basically Let it Be, Live and Let Die.-Which you know Paul McCartney wrote.
I ask you to read about the man named Branch in Zechariah 3 & 6, Isaiah 4 and Jeremiah 23 & 33, for he is the leader who will be one of them in Jeremiah 30:21-24. The Church is wrong in telling you Christ was the Branch. I tell you the branch is one of the Prophets of Revelations 11 who get killed by today's establishment.
I really love Jeremiah 31:31-34 where it says they will no longer teach know the lord, for all will l know him. And all our sins will be thrown into the bottom of the sea, never to be remembered ever again.
Jeremiah 23:33-40 is a stern warning for holding to the oracle too, or there will be an everlasting reproach which will never be forgotten if you do. For each Man's own words will become the oracle. Which is the Liberty this Land was founded on. And if you study Jeremiah 23 you will see that pollution has spread through out the Land from the Prophets of the Church.
My favorite verse about these days is Daniel 12:3, where those with insight shall shine brightly and lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever and ever.

Robert McElvaine

Robert McElvaine — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:51:20 -0800

Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts and Letters and Chair of the Department of History at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, where he has taught for more than thirty years. He is the author of seven books and the editor of three: Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the "Forgotten Man" (North Carolina, 1983, 25th anniversary edition, 2008); The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941 (Times Books, 1984, 1993; 25th anniversary edition: Three Rivers, forthcoming, 2009)); The End of the Conservative Era: Liberalism After Reagan (Arbor House, 1987); Mario Cuomo: A Biography (Scribners, 1988); What's Left?: A New Democratic Vision for America (Adams, 1996); The Great Depression: A History in Documents, (Oxford University Press, 2000); Eve’s Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History (McGraw-Hill, 2001, paper, 2002), Franklin Delano Roosevelt (CQ Press, 2002), editor-in-chief of the two-volume Encyclopedia of the Great Depression (Macmillan Reference, 2004) and Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America (Crown, 2008). His essay, “One Depression, Two Remedies,” serves as the introduction to the chapter on the 1930s in Life: Our Century in Pictures (Little-Brown, 1999). His two early books on the Depression era have become standards in the field, acclaimed by historians and general readers alike. Two of his books have been named among the “Notable Books of the Year” by the New York Times Book Review, and three have been listed as Editor’s Choice “Bear in Mind” books in that publication.

McElvaine's articles and opinion pieces appear frequently in such publications as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times Book Review, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Boston Globe, and Newsweek. More than 100 of his articles have been published, some 60 of them in major national publications. He has been a guest on approximately 60 television and radio programs, including NBC's Today, ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, NBC Nightly News, National Public Radio's All Things Considered and Morning Edition, and BBC television and radio.

Professor McElvaine has served as historical consultant for several television programs, including the seven-episode PBS series The Great Depression. He has received many awards for his teaching, including a silver medal in the national Professor of the Year program of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and being named Millsaps College’s Distinguished Professor in 2001. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching named him the State Professor of the Year for Mississippi in 2002. He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in New Zealand in 2007.

McElvaine spent more than a decade developing a new expertise in several fields, including anthropology, human evolution, ancient history, and women's history, in order to put himself in a position to offer a reinterpretation of the significance of sex in the unfolding of human history. He has lectured to enthusiastic audiences around the United States and in Russia, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, South Africa, and Papua New Guinea on his ideas about the central influence on human history of various misconceptions and metaphors about sex that form the basis of Eve’s Seed. The book has received glowing comments from both general readers and academics, including a starred review in Publishers’ Weekly. Joyce Appleby’s review in the Los Angeles Times Book Review begins: "Eve's Seed is a bestseller waiting to be discovered: a package of sex, science and species' vanity nicely wrapped in sparkling prose.” His ideas were also featured in an article in the Arts & Ideas section of the New York Times. The Los Angeles Times Book Review named Eve’s Seed one of the “Best Books of 2001.” A Chinese edition of the book was published in 2004.

McElvaine’s latest book, Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America, a passionate rejoinder to the purveyors of what he calls “ChristianityLite,” is being published by Crown in March 2008. He is currently completing a book on America in the 1960s, Oh Freedom!, which is under contract with Norton, and a novel.

Jim MacMillan

Jim MacMillan — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:52:05 -0800