Today on Kresta - August23, 2010

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Aug. 23


4:00 – Jim Wallis vs. the Truth
It's almost an axiom of politics that the cover-up raises more questions than the crime. Ask Chuck Colson about that. In the case of Jim Wallis, oddly enough, we have no crime, but we definitely have had a cover-up. Quick background: Half-way through a July 17 WORLD column Marvin Olasky mentioned that in 2004 Sojourners, Jim's organization, received $200,000 from billionaire George Soros, a financier of left-wing groups that push for abortion, atheism, bigger government, and other causes. He had a printout of a page from the website of the Open Society Institute-Soros is OSI's founder, funder, and chairman-showing the grant. It didn't seem to me like any big deal: Of course Soros would see the religious left as important in drawing evangelical votes away from a conservative embrace. Of course Jim would take the money in pursuit of his aims. So I was surprised by Jim's reaction when Wallis exploded "It's not hyperbole or overstatement to say that Glenn Beck lies for a living. I'm sad to see Marvin Olasky doing the same thing. No, we don't receive money from Soros." Marvin is here to explain.

4:20 – Fugitive Christians in Afghanistan
On a dusty residential street in western Kabul, goats rummage through heaps of trash and a boy waits for a kite of colorful tissue paper caught in a tree to fall. In a safe house nearby, a man in his 30s named Najib is waiting also. He and his children-ages 9-14-have holed up here for over a week, unsure where to go next. Najib has been a fugitive for over a month, caught in a crackdown against the country's tiny Christian minority. After an Afghan television station in May broadcast videotape of a baptism and prayer service, Christians like Najib (not his real name) have been the target of government wrath-apparently caught in a political tug of war. Mindy Belz of WORLD Magazine has been in Afghanistan reporting on the war on Christians. She joins us.

4:40 – The Stoneholding / The Darkling Fields of Arvon
In The Stoneholding, Anderson and Sebanc introduced us to the compelling world of Ahn Norvys. Now, in Darkling Fields of Arvon, the addictive story continues in an action-filled quest with the fate of this complex world hanging in the balance. Narrated with authority and replete with engaging characters, this terrific second installment is well worth the read. We talk to Canadian Catholic novelist Mark Sebanc.

5:00 – President Obama’s Unconventional Faith Profile
The recent poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life is generating much discussion over its provocative finding that an increasing number of Americans (nearly one in five) believe that President Obama is a Muslim. The survey was completed before Obama's recent comments endorsing the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero. While this no doubt is a fascinating development, consuming most media coverage of the poll, and unprecedented in presidential history, the figure of greater interest to me -and not surprising- is the percentage of Americans unsure about whether Obama is a Christian, or, more generally, about his faith at all. Paul Kengor is here to discuss.

5:20 – Kresta Comments


5:40 – Jim Wallis vs. the Truth
It's almost an axiom of politics that the cover-up raises more questions than the crime. Ask Chuck Colson about that. In the case of Jim Wallis, oddly enough, we have no crime, but we definitely have had a cover-up. Quick background: Half-way through a July 17 WORLD column Marvin Olasky mentioned that in 2004 Sojourners, Jim's organization, received $200,000 from billionaire George Soros, a financier of left-wing groups that push for abortion, atheism, bigger government, and other causes. He had a printout of a page from the website of the Open Society Institute-Soros is OSI's founder, funder, and chairman-showing the grant. It didn't seem to me like any big deal: Of course Soros would see the religious left as important in drawing evangelical votes away from a conservative embrace. Of course Jim would take the money in pursuit of his aims. So I was surprised by Jim's reaction when Wallis exploded "It's not hyperbole or overstatement to say that Glenn Beck lies for a living. I'm sad to see Marvin Olasky doing the same thing. No, we don't receive money from Soros." Marvin is here to explain.