Everyone is emailing and writing about the New York Times Magazine cover story this weekend, End Times for Evangelicals?

David Kirkpatrick seems to think that because evangelicals are unhappy with Bush and the Republicans haven’t found a suitable replacement that somehow the whole movement is going to hell in a hand basket. Jeff Sharlet, on The Revealer, does a terrific job in deconstructing Kirkpatrick’s story so I won’t do the same here. I will, however, add to Jeff’s analysis.

First, politics is not simply electing a president. It is about issues. As Sharlet rightly presents, what we are seeing is a reframing of the issues — not just anti-gay, but anti-sex except under the most specific guidelines. (An aside here, one of the things I found fascinating in my research is the level of sex addiction recovery services available through evangelical churches. This is not to say that AA, NA, and others were not available. It is to say, however, that while the rest of the world has yet to acknowledge this ailment, evangelicals are fully aware of the existence and extent of this addiction).

Second, and this is integral to my work, is the repackaging of the kinder, gentler evangelical. It’s ok to talk about AIDS, because we can frame it in the context of African women and children for example. Also, fundamental (excuse the pun) to the growth church movement is marketing. That is, show them what you want them to see while you obscure those things that might turn away the masses. Had any of the Wichita preachers that Kirkpatrick written about simply toned down the rhetoric, they could have stayed at their churches. The congregants haven’t changed, just their frustration with the same-old, same-old. That seems to me more hubris than a decline in evangelicalism.

Third, it seems to me more an issue of focus than a situation where Christians have walked away from their values. If someone showed up tomorrow who firmly stated that they were evangelical, that they were against abortion, that they were for abstinence and family values AND they wanted to end the war in Iraq AND they had the money machine behind them, evangelicals would be at the voting booth in droves in November 2008 (which they will likely be anyway). They don’t have a person to get behind, but it doesn’t mean they are not political or even that they are no longer a force in politics. Just the fact that religion is so integral to the process of politics and is likely to remain so is a testament to their power and influence.

While Christopher Hitchens was getting all kinds of publicity for God is not Great, Chris Hedges unfortunately got far less press for American Fascists. While these two authors even debated each other at the time their books were released, it was Hitchens who got the attention because he is a more colorful character, while the more subdued Hedges got lost in the melee.

American Fascists, however, is the much more important book and is a must read for anyone interested in the systematic take over of America by the Christian right. The subtitle of the book — The Christian right and the war on America — tells the story. While Hitchens is complaining that religion itself is leading people to do terrible things in the name of God or to not think clearly because of belief in religion, Hedges puts meat on the bones of the argument. Hedges explains that it is the dominionists — Christians that believe they have dominion over all things — that are at the root of this problem. While Hitchens wants to throw the baby out with the bath water, Hedges shows that it is the extremists (I would add Christian or otherwise) that are the issue.

These extremists are increasing in importance because they are increasing in number. They are increasing in number, because they use marketing and sales tools that make congregants feel loved and cared for — something that they are not getting in other areas of their lives because of the breakdown in the social system. (A great example Hedges gives in the book is that while many people who have been attracted to the Christian right have been helped by the welfare system, they are now part of a group that is trying to dismantle the very services that came to their aid in their time of need.)

Hedges presents case after case of how the Christian right is able to make inroads. First there is the culture of despair — when people feel desperate (and more and more people in America do), they will turn to whatever they think will help. Second, there is systematic conversion by preacher/salesmen who train believers in evangelizing tools. Third, Christians talk of being persecuted. As a Jew, I find this utterly offensive. When more than 80% of the country is Christian, where’s the persecution? Excuse me? This supposed persecution plays into the war on truth — something Hedges presents with The Creation Museum — one of several institutions that present the Bible as truth in terms of creationism.

Hedges also writes of the cult of masculinity — the Christian right is nothing if not dominated by men. Why are women fall for this nonsense? He also writes of the rich — the preachers get richer and the poor get poorer.

This, of course, is nothing new. But, to see it all so well articulated and argued with case after case, it makes me wonder why we aren’t screaming in the streets. While we are all focused on the war on terror overseas, we should be focused on the terror right here at home.

Last night, Joel Osteen appeared in an interview with 60 Minutes, the whole of which is available through this link. While I believe that overall the interview was well balanced, the reporter, Byron Pitts, barely mentioned the marketing of Joel Osteen. That’s like talking about Disney and never mentioning Mickey Mouse.

Joel — and he is always known as Joel — is what I call in my book a faith brand. There is an icon or leader (Joel), a tagline (be a victor, not a victim) and a brand mythology. The reporter gave the mythology almost verbatim in the opening to the piece — Joel was a college dropout, he ran his father’s television ministry and then when his father died, Joel filled his dad’s shoes. (In fact, part of the mythology is that Joel literally wore his dad’s shoes for three years whenever he gave a sermon.)

The promotion of this message — the marketing of Joel — includes the television ministry, the books, the tours, the podcasts, the website, the email, the snail mail, and on and on. (Of all the groups I studied, this was the only one where I could not get access to the head of marketing — it always made me wonder what they had to hide. I’m not saying they are, just wondering why they are so inaccessible.)

Of course the keystone to the marketing is the television ministry. Pitts called watching Joel similar to watching Dr. Phil, an analogy I also use in my book. What Mr. Pitts didn’t get (though he did ask the question) was why Joel doesn’t ask for money on air. The answer is that he doesn’t have to. Watch the show and 15 to 20 chyrons will come on screen to sell one thing or another — Joel’s book or a tour or podcast (here and there a scripture quote will also be included). Throughout the show, the web site address appears at the top of the screen. You don’t have to ask for money on air, when you can direct people to your website where you ask for money or ask people to sign up for your emails which you also use to ask for money, etc. (Not asking for money on air was initially instituted by Joel’s father, John Osteen. However, Osteen senior seemed to be coming from a more genuine spirit since he did not have the technological advantages now available to the son.)

Another marketing element, as mentioned, is email. Anyone who was on Joel’s email list, got two additional emails this week. One with a listing of every television program where we would be able to see Joel this week in the lead up to the launch of his book. The second was an email to pray for his appearance on 60 Minutes. Now, of course, everyone could use some prayers, but it made me think that Joel had suspicions about how well he was going to come off in the interview. In all honesty, it was not his best and the crying seemed disingenuous (particularly when you’ve seen him do it before.)

This is not to say that Joel is not entertaining. He is. Or, that he shouldn’t get the money that is due him and his ministry. He should. However, people need to put his theology into perspective with his marketing. As mentioned in the piece, Joel’s is a cotton candy spirituality — it’s feels good when you are taking it in, but it doesn’t have much nourishment over the long term.

I’ve been avoiding watching Kid Nation like the plague. After all the publicity about abusing kids, all I could image was that the show would be a bunch of overindulged kids with showbiz moms. I gave in, however, when I saw that last night’s show was about establishing a religion in the community.

Kid Nation was about as bad as I thought it was going to be. The contrived aspect of reality television generally was magnified 100 fold in order to accommodate the kids. For example, the episode began with two girls walking to the water pump discussing their beliefs in God. It was so obvious that the producers told them to talk about this that it was painful.

Like Tyra Mail in America’s Next Top Model, the journal in Kid Nation sets the agenda for the evening’s broadcast. This night they had to establish a religious service. When the “council” brings the town together to discuss this, there is of course no agreement about religion.

The council wants to do an interfaith service. Most of the kids want to keep the services separate. (While I can’t confirm this, the girl that appeared most adamant about keeping the services separate seemed to be a Christian evangelical, and one girl later in the show admitted to being Pentecostal, which was her reason for not wanting to attend services with Jewish people.) This all while arguments were raging about religion being the cause for the wars in the world and that religion is what separates one person from another. The meeting ends with the council sticking with their decision for a combined service.

When the council rings the bell for everyone to attend the organized service, no one shows up. They continue with their various other activities. (Why should they be any different from most of America?) However, when an impromptu prayer service is held at night around a bonfire, several of the community join in. (Cue the prayers, swell the music.)

The stakes got higher when there was “the challenge” — yet another element of reality TV. No need to describe the challenge here, but know that when all four teams completed the challenge within the allotted time the town got a choice of reward — a library of holy books or a miniature golf course. The group overwhelmingly chose the religious texts.

Today, on The View the ladies went on and on about how wonderful it was that the kids chose the books.

Can we all step back for just one minute? Is there anyone that truly believes that those kids would have chosen the books if a camera wasn’t being aimed at them 24-hours a day? Better yet that the rest of the world — never mind mom and dad — were eventually going to see what their choice was?

While some people may think that this program says something about how kids feel about religion or how religion is being conferred from one generation to the next, I think they are deceiving themselves. This episode has a lot more to do with CBS trying to appear to make something positive out of a controversial experiment than it does anything about religion. That religion was not even mentioned in the last third of the show (and I’m willing to wager will never be mentioned again throughout the rest of the series) would seem to confirm this.

The new fall season started last week and I finally had time to sit back with my DVR and review some of broadcast television’s offerings.

Watching these shows back-to-back-to-back, you begin to see patterns or themes emerge. Prime time soaps are popular. There’s a new one for 20-somethings and younger on the CW (Gossip Girl) and one for the older set on ABC (Dirty, Sexy, Money). Doctor shows are still popular and new programming in this category includes a spin-off of a highly successful show (Private Practice). Finally, crime shows are highly in evidence.

One trend I also noticed is that most of the new shows weren’t targeting me — a female in the coveted 18-49 demographic. They seemed to skew either male or younger (ok, I’m in the upper part of the demo, but ABC shouldn’t look like the former WB.). Chuck — a new show on NBC — is about a guy who works for an electronics store which is obviously meant to be Best Buy (what, they couldn’t get the product placement?). His friend from college who has since become a CIA agent sends him a computer file that contains government secrets, and P*R*E*S*T*O now he’s a geek by day and a secret agent when needed. (I don’t know about the other women out there, but I haven’t fallen for the geek thing even though the press and the media seems to think they are the new Brad Pitt.) The combination of geeky guys, car chases, violent shoot ‘em ups and thus little dialogue didn’t do it for me.

I’ll talk about more of these shows at another time, but now I want to get to the title of this post — God or religion mixed with crime is all over the place. There’s an angry, adulterous minister on Dirty, Sexy, Money. The second episode of Cold Case was all about a virginity club in high school. The students in this group were so repressed they killed the school slut who joined their group seeking redemption. Zen Buddhism has even made it into prime time. Life is an NBC show about a cop who is wrongly accused of committing murder and subsequently spends more than a decade in prison. To cope, he learns Zen Buddhism. The show begins shortly after he has been exonerated. He has returned to the police force with $50 million and a new view of life. He continuously talks about being in the moment and not being attached to his new, very expensive car. Interesting in the first episode to establish the character, but I could see this getting to be very irritating over time.

Earlier this year, we had Saving Grace on TNT which will be coming back next summer. In that show, as you may remember, Grace is a detective that gets visited by an angel who is trying to redeem her. Another cable show where God and crime intertwine is Dog: the Bounty Hunter. This reality series is based on a real life sinner who was redeemed and now goes out and catches the bad guys — but he circles up for a prayer before hitting the streets.

I can’t help wondering if maybe Hollywood is buying into the idea of Revelations…hum.