"The Bible Belt is the Loire Valley of American Extremism..."
Based on what Times Watch has read, "Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi," the documentary on Christian evangelicals airing on HBO tonight (Pelosi being the daughter of you-know-who) seems more respectful than the contemptuous anti-Christian commentary it's generated, including a paragraph Thursday from television critic Alessandra Stanley.
For starters, this is slightly misleading: "Until he was removed from his ministry last November for 'sexually immoral conduct' (he was accused of having sex with a male prostitute and buying illegal drugs), the Rev. Ted Haggard was the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and one of the most prominent spokesmen for the Christian right."
Stanley might be surprised to know that this "Christian right" spokesman was recently quite involved in the fight against "global warming."
It gets much worse. Stanley is soon claiming, in her own inimitable way: "The Bible Belt is the Loire Valley of American extremism - visitors glide across vast highways in the South and West to marvel at the revivalist megachurches and 'Honk for Jesus' road signs with the giddy awe of tourists exploring an alien civilization. And like Chenonceau or the vineyards of Sancerre, Christian evangelical churches rarely disappoint."
