WhiteAlert
November 6th, 2004, 09:23 PM
Book Review: Don’t Call Me Brother:
By Austin Miles
Edmund D. Cohen, Editor
Prometheus Books (1989)
November 6, 2004
Attorney General John Ashcroft is perhaps the most prominent member of the charismatic Christian denomination known as the Assembly of God, a fast-growing sect which appeals primarily to the “red state” booboisie and undoubtedly played a major role in Bush Jr.’s recent reelection.. That such a crudely fundamentalist church could attract a fairly sophisticated show business personality like Austin Miles is a curiosity, but nonetheless a matter of record which the author here painfully presents in all its gory detail.
I was made aware of this autobiography by Alex Linder, who had come across this volume at a used book store in Salt Lake City during his recent trip there. In reading it, he had been stuck by the parallels and similarities between these Pentecostal Christians and certain segments of the White Nationalist movement. Backbiting, gossip and rumor mongering are pervasive in both these religious cults and the “new” cult-like National Alliance. Anyway, I was happy that Alex loaned me his copy of Don’t Call Me Brother, if only because it provided me something which promised to be a good read during my long plane trip home from Missouri.
Due to a two-hour delay at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport (my favorite), it turned out that I finished this book long before my plane finally touched down. I mention this only to illustrate that what we have here is a very readable and fast paced autobiography which is especially suitable for air travel. It is not a book which contains any surprises or shocks for any reasonably intelligent reader, as the excesses and outright fraud of the televangelist industry have been widely exposed and documented -- although perhaps they were not so widely known in 1989 when this book was first published.
Although Miles was associated with Jim and Tammy Bakker and their PTL ministries for many years, his indictment of the Pentecostal cult goes far beyond merely condemning the money-grubbing television preachers. Jim Bakker’s homosexual liaisons have now become public record, but Miles makes a statement I found incredible. He estimated that perhaps 80 percent of the evangelical ministers he had known were practicing homosexuals, which is a much higher number than even those usually claimed by critics of the Catholic Church. If this is so – and I have no reason to doubt his claim – we are dealing here with a much greater level of hypocrisy than I had ever imagined. These are the yahoos, of course, who are constantly pontificating about the “sanctity of marriage” even as they practice a barnyard sexual morality themselves.
more here ... http://www.whitealert.com/don't_call_me_brother.htm
rich brooks
www.whitealert.com
By Austin Miles
Edmund D. Cohen, Editor
Prometheus Books (1989)
November 6, 2004
Attorney General John Ashcroft is perhaps the most prominent member of the charismatic Christian denomination known as the Assembly of God, a fast-growing sect which appeals primarily to the “red state” booboisie and undoubtedly played a major role in Bush Jr.’s recent reelection.. That such a crudely fundamentalist church could attract a fairly sophisticated show business personality like Austin Miles is a curiosity, but nonetheless a matter of record which the author here painfully presents in all its gory detail.
I was made aware of this autobiography by Alex Linder, who had come across this volume at a used book store in Salt Lake City during his recent trip there. In reading it, he had been stuck by the parallels and similarities between these Pentecostal Christians and certain segments of the White Nationalist movement. Backbiting, gossip and rumor mongering are pervasive in both these religious cults and the “new” cult-like National Alliance. Anyway, I was happy that Alex loaned me his copy of Don’t Call Me Brother, if only because it provided me something which promised to be a good read during my long plane trip home from Missouri.
Due to a two-hour delay at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport (my favorite), it turned out that I finished this book long before my plane finally touched down. I mention this only to illustrate that what we have here is a very readable and fast paced autobiography which is especially suitable for air travel. It is not a book which contains any surprises or shocks for any reasonably intelligent reader, as the excesses and outright fraud of the televangelist industry have been widely exposed and documented -- although perhaps they were not so widely known in 1989 when this book was first published.
Although Miles was associated with Jim and Tammy Bakker and their PTL ministries for many years, his indictment of the Pentecostal cult goes far beyond merely condemning the money-grubbing television preachers. Jim Bakker’s homosexual liaisons have now become public record, but Miles makes a statement I found incredible. He estimated that perhaps 80 percent of the evangelical ministers he had known were practicing homosexuals, which is a much higher number than even those usually claimed by critics of the Catholic Church. If this is so – and I have no reason to doubt his claim – we are dealing here with a much greater level of hypocrisy than I had ever imagined. These are the yahoos, of course, who are constantly pontificating about the “sanctity of marriage” even as they practice a barnyard sexual morality themselves.
more here ... http://www.whitealert.com/don't_call_me_brother.htm
rich brooks
www.whitealert.com